Data Recovery from Hard Drive with Platter Damage
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Corrupted hard drives can result from a variety of factors, including logical, physical, or mechanical damage. These issues can impact multiple folders and files simultaneously, rendering the data inaccessible.

When dealing with a corrupted hard drive, it’s essential to identify the cause of the corruption to determine the appropriate recovery method. Logical issues, such as software problems, file system errors, or bad sectors, can often be resolved using specialized data recovery tools or software. On the other hand, physical or mechanical damage, including damaged read/write heads, platter damage, or circuit board failure, typically requires professional intervention from data recovery experts.

What is a Corrupted Hard Drive?

When a hard drive failure arises, it can not stay unnoticeable. Hard drives are usually showing their users that something is wrong immediately. 

You can detect that the hard drive is corrupted by sudden system shutdowns, program crashes, and a blue screen of death. These errors prevent the device from carrying out processes correctly, which causes file damage.

Folders can also disappear completely, and your computer’s operating system may refer to bad sectors when refusing to execute required commands.

How to Recover Files from Corrupted Hard Drive

Hard drive malfunction has a lot of severe consequences, including expanded downtime and data loss. To avoid complications caused by failure, many users try to solve the problem by themselves. However, saving money and resources when the device stores essential files is not a good option. 

When noticing any failure signs, our team recommends contacting a professional data recovery company. But before that, not to make the situation worse, there are several steps you should go through and several actions you should avoid doing. 

1

Backup Your Files

If there is any possibility of facing hard drive failure – back up all your essential files as quickly as possible. By copying your critical documents to a safety device, you can rest assured that whatever is the outcome of the failure, all your essential files are already saved.

Our specialists recommend regularly backing up your files, so that hard drive corruption would not cause severe damage. 

2

Power Down the Hard Drive

As mentioned above, hard drive failure is immediately showing up its signs. Usually, it is expressed with unusual noises, excessive vibration, and overall slow performance. When noticing any of these signs, turn off your storage device. If the breakdown occurred due to physical or mechanical reasons, continuing to run your hard drive can be critical. 

By using an internally damaged hard drive, you can make the recovery process impossible. Thus, just powering down the device and not restarting it is the best solution. 

3

Do not Open the Drive

When a hard drive crashes, many users try to find out what caused it. Still, we should understand that sometimes the problem is caused by logical damage, such as viruses. Consequently, these reasons won’t show up when opening the drive.

Another thing users try to do is to repair the hard drive at home. However, by replacing broken parts, you will not fix the hard drive. 

  1. Nowadays, many hard drives have their infrastructure, and donor parts will not fit your device and only worsen the situation. 
  2. The issue can be hidden much more profound, and replacing the coverage of the problem will stay unsolved. 

In addition, repairing the hard drive in unspecialized facilities can damage a fragile device. Not to cause subsequent corruption to failed drive, our professional engineers perform data recovery only in ISO Certified Class 10 Cleanroom.

This way, technicians do not put your essential files at risk and achieve maximum restoration results. In the cleanroom, we have a controlled environment with no dust, a low concentration of airborne particulates, and fixed humidity. 

4

Data Recovery Software Usage is not Recommended

There are many repair and file restoration tutorials on the Internet and no fewer data recovery tools. However, downloading and installing them on a failed hard drive can lead to several data loss scenarios. 

First, by downloading anything on your failed drive, you will overwrite lost data so that it will be deleted entirely from the surface of your platter.

Second, these utilities do not guarantee successful results. They may retrieve your unused files, while essential documents will be lost forever. 

Third, unverified data recovery applications can contain trojan horses and malicious files. So by using these apps, you may add one more problem to the failure. 

5

Collect All Information about the Failure

Paying attention to your hard drive’s behavior when it malfunctions will be beneficial. Every type of failure has its signs, so it will be easier to define what is wrong when collecting all symptoms. The failed hard drive can be diagnosed based on the error messages and unusual signs. It will also be helpful to provide data recovery experts with a description of the failed device: its brand, model, storage capacity, and year of issue.

Facing hard drive failure can be stressful and complicated, but fixing a corrupted hard drive yourself is not a safe choice. Not to put your important data at risk, entrust your device to professionals. 

Corrupted Hard Drive Recovery

Corrupted hard drive recovery is a specialized process that involves retrieving lost or inaccessible data from a hard drive that has experienced logical or physical corruption. This process requires advanced techniques, state-of-the-art tools, and extensive expertise to ensure the highest chances of success. Professional data recovery services can diagnose the root cause of the corruption, whether due to software issues, file system errors, or hardware damage and implement the most effective recovery strategy.

Entrusting your corrupted hard drive to experienced professionals can maximize the likelihood of recovering your valuable data while minimizing the risk of further damage or permanent data loss.

PITS Global Data Recovery Services has years of experience working with various types, brands, and file systems of internal and external hard drives. Our engineers treat each case individually and achieve impressive data recovery results with high skills, attention to detail, and accurate work. 

When noticing clicking noise, buzzing sounds, or files missing, fill out a request help form, or call us, and we will find the best solution for your corrupted hard drive. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Signs of a corrupted hard drive can include frequent system crashes, unusual errors when accessing files or folders, slow performance, and an inability to boot into the operating system. If you notice any of these symptoms, it’s important to take action promptly.

Attempting DIY repairs on a corrupted hard drive can be risky and may lead to further data loss. We recommend not using any software utilities unless you’re experienced in data recovery. It’s best to seek professional help.

If you suspect your hard drive is corrupted, the first step is to stop using it immediately to prevent further damage. Do not run disk repair utilities or attempt to format the drive. Contact a professional data recovery service like PITS Global for an assessment.

In many cases, data can be recovered from a corrupted hard drive. The success of the recovery depends on the extent of the corruption and the actions taken to address it. Professional data recovery services have specialized tools and expertise to maximize the chances of successful recovery.