It’s not uncommon to hear of dropped external portable hard drive. You would actually be surprised as to how common this happens. There are a few things that can increase (or perhaps diminish) your chances for a successful data recovery.
Regardless of the enclosure, internally hard drives are very delicate and have have very precise moving mechanical parts that need to function properly in order for your computer to access your data. A dropped external portable hard drive even from a short height can have serious consequences. If you do drop an external hard drive, and you hear any noises such as clicking, ticking, beeping or buzzing, there’s a good probability that some type of internal damage has occurred.
What Happens When a Hard Drive is Dropped?
In a perfect world a dropped external portable hard drive best case scenario would be damage to the external case and no internal damage. In the real world there usually is more internal damage. A common scenario could be the heads getting stuck to the platters due to the impact of the fall. This alone could prevent the hard drive from spinning, and could even do damage to the platters themselves.
When a hard drive is spinning, the read and write heads hover on a wisp of air approximately 1/10th of a human hair just above the surface. As you might imagine, a serious drop could cause the heads to make contact with the platters. If this happens while the drive is spinning, this could spell bad news. In some extreme cases, the damage can be so sever that it makes attempts at recovery difficult and even impossible in some instances.
What Not to Do After the Hard Drive Has Been Dropped?
With the numerous D.I.Y. videos and “How To” websites, it’s only natural that someone who has dropped their hard drive would attempt fixing the drive themselves. (Plus there are plenty of horror stories of data loss and how expensive a professional data recovery service can be). A hard drive that has been dropped and is no longer functioning properly, should only be trusted to a trained, professional data recovery service. Anything less, or an inexperienced person even with the best of intentions can make matters significantly worse.
If the dropped hard drive does not function properly, is noisy or not detected by your computer, the best course of action is to shut down the the hard drive immediately to prevent any further damage. Also, we can’t stress enough to never run data recovery software on a noisy or mechanically failed hard drive. If the hard drive has failed and the internal components are not functioning properly, the results can be catastrophic.
Unfortunately there are no ‘instant fixes’ or ‘easy way out’ when it comes to a crashed hard disk drive, regardless of how much a data recovery software program promises. The more attempts at recovering data including powering on and off only serve to lessen chances of a successful recovery. (Especially if the hard drive is making any unusual noises!)
What to do Next?
As opposed to ruining chances for data a recovery, if your data is important to you, contact a professional data recovery service. ECO Data Recovery has a proven track record of success and can provide you with an instant quote for data recovery right over the phone. It’s free, and we can explain what will more than likely need to be done to recover your valuable data. If you do find yourself in this predicament, call one of our trained consultants to see what we can do for you, including providing an affordable, firm flat rate price for a successful data recovery.
Call: 1-800-339-3412 or 561-691-0019 for a free quote
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ECO Data Recovery
500 N. Old Dixie Hwy, Suite 3
Jupiter, FL 33458
