Two drives dropped from the same height could potentially be in two different states depending upon their spin status. When turned off, the heads are parked and the drive’s mechanical system will absorb the physical shock. However, if a drive was running at the time of the drop, the heads are moving a small amount above the platter and as such an impact would cause them to close the distance to contact with the platter.
The most frequent method a dropped drive ends up going from recoverable to partially bad is through attempting to verify if it works by turning it on. If the heads are resting on the platter, the act of powering up causes the heads to drag themselves across the surface of the platter where your data exists, prior to the drive having a chance to park them safely.
Two drives dropped from the same height and falling onto the exact same floor can end up in completely opposite conditions.
A device that was powered off during its fall had its heads positioned off the platter, on a ramp located near the edge of the disk. This positioning is done for design purposes specifically because devices get dropped. In addition, modern hard drives are able to withstand significant shock when the heads are parked. A laptop that falls from a desk and is powered off will typically experience no damage whatsoever.
The drive had been spinning for some time, with each of the heads flying a very thin distance above a rotating disk at speeds of either 5,400 rpm or 7,200 rpm. In this instant, the space closes, and the heads hit the disk; wherever there is damage to the disk's magnetic coating, the data stored along those damaged bands will be lost forever—not hard to read—it’s gone. This is what separates a routine job from a partial recovery and it is determined immediately upon impact as opposed to what happens after.
It is rare when heavy impacts occur with only one type of issue. Therefore, they typically require more time than other mechanical failures to complete.
These four options, in this order provide a simple solution at no cost and maintain all of your options.
Turn off the system if it is still operating. Each rotation with damaged heads increases the amount of potential damage.
You may be inclined to tip your drive to see if something is loose. If something has become dislodged, you will merely spread the debris on all of the platters by doing so.
Do not open your drive under any circumstances, not even in a clean-looking room. The household dust that gets into the head gap creates precisely the same type of damage you are attempting to prevent.
Whether your drive was dropped can affect how we handle your drive immediately upon receipt. A drive that has been dropped is opened up for examination before being plugged in. The same cannot be said for drives that have not been dropped.
The price will remain constant. The amount recovered will vary.
A dropped or physically damaged hard drive costs from £300 +VAT for a single item, quoted after a free 48-hour diagnostic. The reason for the deposit (50%) is to allow us to commit to sourcing donor parts and the cost of our engineers' time to assess the platters prior to establishing if any part of your required data is recoverable.
The free diagnostic will inform you how much damage was done to your hard drive as well as identify the location(s) where the scoring limit may prevent further access to your files. We will let you know prior to charging you anything if the damage covers areas that you want back from the data so you are aware of the possibility of recovering some data before committing financially – i.e., knowing you are going to get something back rather than discovering at the end that you are only getting part of it.
Please send us your device along with a brief description of what happened. This diagnostic process has no cost and the price for the next phase of service will be fixed in writing prior to commencing work.
This is the only step that requires input from you and nothing else can happen until the device is on our bench. Package your item properly and include all the information we require about you and your item(s), then ship them to us. Then comes a no-cost diagnostic, followed by a written quote.
Posting it? Use a tracked and insured service. The value of what is on the drive far exceeds the cost of postage. Bringing it in? Weekdays from 9am to 5:30pm, and it still needs packing as described above for the journey.
Tell us about the item in question, tell us how it has been behaving lately, and let us know if there is anything you have done as far as troubleshooting goes so that our engineers may provide a realistic estimate of success and a probable cost range prior to sending your items off.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 0161 871 0788.
Most common questions we receive regarding damaged impacted drives.
Normally a substantial proportion of it, yes. It really does depend on whether your laptop had power applied when it fell. A fall that occurs when there is no electrical current passing through the circuitry means that the head assembly is in a park position and therefore normally unaffected by the event. Conversely, a drop which happens whilst it is spinning (i.e., electrical current is present) will mean that the heads could potentially collide with the platters causing serious irreversible damage to those components.
No – that’s exactly how you get from having a recoverable hard disk to having a partially recoverable hard disk. If the heads of a drive are resting on the platter, power will pull the heads of the disk across the top of the platter as soon as it starts up before the head parks. This could potentially destroy or damage your hard disk.
Yes — enough to make a backup of your data now. Even though a hard disk may appear to operate after being dropped, it can cause quiet damage over time while operating. In addition, if a computer is suddenly subjected to some type of physical shock or impact during operation, copy all of the important data from the affected drive right away.
When there is no longer any layer of magnetic material remaining where it has been removed, there is nothing to read, regardless of the method used. However, even if parts of the damaged platter do not image properly, images created using other parts of the same platter are generally complete and readable. Therefore, most times we are able to obtain at least a partial recovery of the files contained on a damaged drive and name the missing files individually.
Often, yes — often completely. Transferring the platter pack into a new donor chassis while maintaining rotational orientation of the platter pack is exacting labour, but most often the platters themselves were not damaged by the seizure.
Dropped drive recovery begins at £300 + VAT, after our complimentary 48-hour diagnostic process. There is a 50% deposit required prior to commencing donor work, along with the remainder due upon successful completion of the recovery.
All repairs are supported by our 10,000 piece donor stock store, include a complimentary written diagnosis, and on most jobs there is no charge if it fails. Get started now.