We had a client come in with a snapped thumb drive. The USB connection had been completely severed, and the client had no way of seeing their data. Through an intense process we were able to access the data on the board, and get a perfect recovery!

What are crashed heads?

When the technician says “crashed heads,” you probably picture two people bashing their heads together in a bad romantic comedy. What we mean, however, is the heads (the means by which the data on the platters are read) have crashed onto the platters themselves, causing data to no longer be read and potential damage to the platters.

These heads usually hover above the platters on a small pillow of air as the hard drive spins. If the drive is dropped or jostled, especially while spinning, these heads can crash onto the platters and cause damage as seen in the photos above.

This type of damage can make your drive unrecoverable, due to the fact that your data is literally ground off the platters. In order to keep your data safe, do regular backups and be very careful not to drop or jostle your drive, especially while it is spinning.

If you do encounter a crashed hard drive head, check out our data recovery services.

Dropped Hard Drive Not Working

A lot of people wouldn’t expect a simple, two foot drop of your external hard drive to cost you your files. Hard Drives are very sensitive. We have seen drops as small as from the couch onto a soft carpet decimate the heads within a hard drive.

Hard Drive Protection Tips

• Be very careful with your external hard drives. Set them down gently on any surface. Also, of course, make sure they are never dropped, even a simple two feet.
• Keep hard drives in a protective case, preferably with ample padding, if you have to move them.
• Store devices out of reach of any children, or other individuals who do not understand how to handle sensitive equipment.

Dropped Hard Drive Repair?

If you have accidentally dropped or otherwise damaged a hard drive, laptop, or any other form of digital media, learn about our data recovery services here.

Successfully Unstuck Hard Drive Heads

Our success story for the week! A client brought in a drive in which the heads had been stuck to the platters. We were able to unstick the heads without causing any damage to the drive, getting a near perfect recovery!

If you have lost precious data due to stuck hard drive heads, be sure to visit our home page here and find out about our data recovery services and more.