How to do Data Recovery on a Hard Drive?

Summary

One day, you turn on your computer & realize your hard drive is dead. All your precious photos, documents, & work files seem lost forever. Don’t worry; a damaged hard drive doesn’t mean your data is completely gone. Here, you can discuss how to recover files yourself & when to call in the Hard drive data recovery professionals.

What Damages your Hard Drive?

Unlike SSDs, which use memory cells, hard disk drives use rotating magnetic platters to store the data. A head into the platters to find where the data is stored so your system can read it. Suffice it to say there are a lot of moving parts.

There are many reasons why a hard drive can die or fail.

1. Physical Destruction: Because these drives are made of moving parts, physical damage can easily render them & make them unusable if a plate inside is bent or loose.
2. Data Destruction: Greed is a logically wasteful way. Corruption can occur in individual files as well as in the file system as a whole. If the file system is corrupted, your hard drive will not know how to access your data, making it unreadable. So, you should seek the help of hard drive recovery experts.
3. Malware Attacks: Like viruses, malware is common, & can harm others in a variety of meaningful ways. In some cases, it can destroy your files or entire drive.

Steps to Recover Your Hard Drive

Before looking at ways to data recovery on a hard drive, there are a couple of key steps you should take in order to set the stage for your successful recovery.

Step 1. Check for Damage

Before attempting any hard drive data recovery, you should determine whether the drive has been physically or logically damaged. Here are the most common symptoms of a physical injury:

1. An unusual noise, such as crunching, grinding, or roaring.
2. Absolutely no sound from the hard drive.
3. The smell of burning.

If you see any of these symptoms in your drive, & the damage appears to be beyond cosmetic issues that can still communicate with the drive’s operating system, then calling the professional HDD data recovery professionals may be your ideal option.

However, if the damage is superficial & the drive can still communicate with the computer, or if problems with the drive are particularly plausible (e.g., corrupted data, default drive, driver negative), you can proceed to the next step.

Step 2. Create a Full Backup

While a dead hard drive with minor physical damage or any reasonable damage doesn’t actually die in reality, you still need to proceed with caution because you don’t want to make the data loss situation worse.

That’s why you should always do a Full backup & then recover the data from it to replace the corrupted disk. A full backup is a complete, accurate copy of every bit of data on a disk. It includes from its file system structure to the metadata of individual files. Unlike standard backups, which can only target visible files, a Full backup takes everything on the disk, including hidden or system files & even areas that might be flagged as bad.

Step 3. Recover Files from Dead Hard Drives with a Recovery Specialist

After creating a Full backup of the damaged hard drive, the specialist can proceed with the recovery process without jeopardizing the original hard drive’s condition. Always go for data recovery near me because they provide effective services at the earliest. For instance, if you lose your photos, they will scan the image for recoverable files. The specialist can then select the desired files for recovery, preview them to ensure their integrity & choose a safe destination for the recovered data. It ensures the recovered files are not written back onto the damaged drive, preventing potential overwrites.

Conclusion

If your hard drive does not work, don’t lose hope. By understanding the type of damage & taking the right steps with Hard drive data recovery service, you might be surprised at what you can recover. Remember, the sooner you act, the better your chances of success.

If you’ve ever had a close call with data loss, or if you’re curious about creating a backup plan to prevent it, leave a comment below! We’re always happy to hear from you & learn what tech topics you’d like us to cover next.