The fault · a drop, or a knock while it was running
Leave it unplugged and don’t test it. The only factor deciding which route you’ll have to take is this: were the disks spinning (turning) when it hit? Hard drives are a lot tougher than people think without power applied, because the heads are parked off to the side and the body of the case absorbs much of the blow. When spinning, there’s zero wiggle room: thousands of revolutions per minute, a head just nanometres from the platter and no space to manoeuvre. This is exactly why plugging it in to check, which many folks will want to do, is the urge to hold back on. Many times a hit drive will have only one good pass left in it, and that last pass will be used up by testing. £300 + VAT covers one drive, the pre-assessment is free, and on most jobs you only pay if we recover your data.
Put it to an engineer — the first look costs nothing
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| How it shows itself | The usual reason for it | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| It started clicking when it landed | The blow knocked the head stack out of true, and off it goes to try again | Keep it switched off |
| One beep, and then nothing | Nothing will turn: the bearing has frozen up solid or a head is flat against the disk | Shaking it will not help |
| No machine can read it now | Head down on the platter, a spindle that won’t budge, or a damaged board or socket | Get a quote first, then post it rather than try again |
| Worked at first and is getting worse | Little damage but worsens every hour it runs | Do it while it still responds |
| A stick or SSD that stopped on impact | Both are non-mechanical devices, so the fault lies in the board, a joint or a connector | Electronics work, not mechanical |
As soon as your parcel arrives here, an engineer assigns a case number that same day, prior to determining what has really failed, which is the first thing done and costs you nothing. In addition to a note of what can and cannot be recovered from your drive, you will receive at the same time the fixed, written price for restoring what can be recovered. You can accept this quote, or decline it, which will result in no further obligation on your part and nothing owed to us.
The drive is worked on by hand before any cables even get near it. A head pulled out of true may come to rest on the surface before the platter makes a full rotation. If it must run, it gets one single rotation, watched.
The damaged head stack is replaced with a donor matched to your own drive. Locked spindles are freed up, a head sitting on a platter is lifted away, and damaged boards and sockets are fixed.
First, everything that reads cleanly is copied off to somewhere safe. Only after that safe copy does anyone begin the attempt to recover data in the sectors the impact ruined.
You will see what has been recovered as a list first, after which a bill exists. Accepting the list means that a bill will be issued. Rejecting the list means that a bill will not be issued, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. The recovered data travels from here back to you via new media purchased specifically for your project, with the cost of postage paid by us. Your case is not resolved (i.e., "closed") until you personally view the files on a computer of your own.
The datasheet figures: the usual rating of a 2.5" notebook mechanism is ~300G under load and ~650G once the heads are parked, while a 3.5" desktop unit can be quoted at ~30G under load. Turn a machine off before taking it anywhere and there is zero cost involved; nothing else here is better value.
It fell over during the packing-down process, and the clicking had started long before it ever reached the bench. It held three years' worth of paid work, including that morning's ceremony. Replacement heads came from a matched donor, it required two days for the copy to be prepared, and every single gallery returned home.
Generally, yes, provided no one else has already tried. The objective is not a working device; it must stay together long enough for one slow read, no more than that. A donor head stack matched by model and batch number is put in, imaging takes place gently, and most of the data on the platters is returned.
More than anything else on this page. Hit the same drive without anything connected and the problem becomes significantly smaller. A head flying nanometres over a moving platter has no give in it at all, and coming down it may score the coating. Leave the drive unplugged until it has been assessed.
You may find this to be less than you would have imagined. Nothing will move in one, so the shock will go into the circuit board itself instead. This can result in either a connector pulled loose or an open solder joint. Both of these are common repairs in bench electronics. Your files will remain within the flash chips, and those typically come through unaltered.
There is almost no doubt. If a knock pushes a bearing slightly off-centre, or just slightly skews a head, then every spin-up afterwards will move it slightly more. How it would end was decided when it fell; each time it has been turned on since, it has slid further down that path.
It doesn't cost you anything for us to look at it. All we do is give you a breakdown of what opened and what did not, plus a single fixed price to complete, written down before you agree to let us continue. On most jobs, you only pay if we recover your data. Please don't turn on the drive until you get that breakdown.