It’s a fact that DriveSavers has the highest success rate recovering lost data, but there are a percentage of drives we receive that are not recoverable.
The causes are varied, but the most consistent symptom is media damage caused by a head crash-a situation where the drive’s read/write heads have collided with the disk platter and scraped off the magnetic coating and data. A head crash frequently leads to a disappointed customer with tough questions for you to answer. What is a head crash and what causes it to occur?
For most desktop hard drives, a head crash can develop over time simply through normal use. Whenever a drive is powered off or loses power, the drive actuator (the arm where the read/write heads are mounted) moves to a special landing zone located at the inner diameter of the platter where the heads come to rest.
A great deal of friction is created when the read/write heads touch the platter’s surface as the drive spins down. Over time, the constant friction causes damage to the heads and the media surface on the inner diameter can be destroyed. Other portions of the platter surface will be destroyed if the hard drive continues to operate.
When it comes to laptop hard drives, manufacturers have addressed the issue of friction by designing special off-platter parking systems that allow the read/write head armature to move off the platter during shut down, sleep, standby or hibernate mode. But, laptop hard drives certainly aren’t immune to head crashes and in many ways are more susceptible to damage if the computer is bumped or jarred during transport while running.
Symptoms of a head crash include repeated spinning up and spinning down of the drive and clicking or grinding sounds. Listen to samples of these sounds on our website at: www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/tips.
Remember, that if a customer’s hard drive exhibits any of these symptoms and they need data recovery, contact DriveSavers immediately. In our experience, the more attempts made to recover data from a media-damaged hard drive, the lower the chances will be for success, even for experienced DriveSavers engineers. I
f your customer has vital data they need recovered, always offer DriveSavers as the best solution. Your customer will thank you!
