Hard Drive Repair

How to repair a hard drive? On this page you can find answers to how a number of typical damages are handled.

Please notice: To do a hard drive repair with the purpose to recover lost data, requires thorough knowledge of a hard drives composition, special tools and access to a certified cleanroom in order to prevent an aggravation of the damage. When recoverit makes the following information available, it is designed solely to clarify the work that we do in connection with the restoration of lost data. It should not be considered as a guide to conduct hard drive repair on your own. If you have lost your data, we recommend you to contact our technical consultants on telephone + 45 31 38 11 30.

It applies to all situations described below that the repairs described are only temporary. Since the hard disk condition is considered unstable and since there is a high risk that a similar defect will occur again, we always return recovered data on a new medium.

Hard Disk Repair in Case of Head Crash In the case of a head crash the read-/write heads have hit against the disc platters. The result is often that the read-/write heads are defective and that the platters which store the data have been damaged. Dependent on the extent of the damage, the procedure can be conducted as below:

• Identification of a correct donor drive.
• Replacement of the damaged read-/write heads.
• Cleaning of disc platters for metal dust and other foreign objects on the platters. By the contact between the read-/write head(s) and the disc platters, a lot of material will be torn loose. This material may settle on the disc platters and must be removed so that the surface of the disc platters is completely flat. This is important when the read-/write head(s) hovers over the disc platters with a distance of less than 1.0 × 10-3 mm.
• Dependent on the extent of damage, an additional surface treatment of the disc platters will be undertaken.
• Controlled tests of replaced parts.
• Virtual cloning of the disk.
• Restoration of data by logical data recovery software.

In those cases where the disc platters are badly damaged, it is often not possible to make a repair.

Repair of Hard Disk in Case of Firmware ProblemsBecause of a corruption in the hard drive’s firmware, it is attempted to load a working firmware by using special tools. Alternative options are to replace some of the hard drive electrical components, and thereby load a new firmware.

The procedure of such a repair might look as below:

• Identification of a correct donor drive in relation to model, production country and time.
• Overruling the normal loading of the hard disk firmware. Instead, we read in a working firmware.
• Replacement of electrical components.
• Virtual disk cloning.
• Restoration of data by logical data recovery.

Repair of a Hard Drive in case of Faulty in the Bearings or MotorIf there has been a defect in the hard drive's bearings or motor, it is necessary to remove the disc platters and mount them in a completely identical donor drive. This is a complicated process because the disc platters’ alignment in relation to the read-/write heads must be maintained. Even a minimal displacement of the disc platters can make a recovery impossible.

The procedure of such a repair might look as below:

• Identification of a correct donor drive in relation to model, production country and time.
• Removal of disc platters. • Installation of disc platters in the donor drive.
• Virtual disk cloning.
• Restoration of data by logical data recovery.