How To Recover Data From A Dead Hard Drive

When a hard drive dies, all of your important files and data are suddenly inaccessible, and you may be worried that you’ve lost everything forever. Fortunately, in most cases, it is possible to recover data from a dead hard drive. 

However, how you’ll recover it and how much it will cost depends entirely on the damage and the amount of data on the drive.

Top Summary: It’s important to learn how a hard drive can be considered “dead” so you can avoid it and prolong the device’s lifespan. But, if it is already failing or if it’s dead, you can try to recover your files on your own.

How a hard drive becomes dead or damaged

There are many ways that a hard drive can become dead or damaged. The most common causes of hard drive failure are physical, electrical, logical, or firmware.

• Physical damage to the hard drive. If you drop the hard drive or get in touch with water, and fire damage. You can also diagnose physical damage by songs. When the head crash (clicking drive), heads are stuck on the platter (buzzing sound), and music is playing (stuck spindle).
• Electrical damage to the hard drive. When exposed to static electricity or in case of a power surge while plugged in can also damage your hard drive. Burnt, damaged, printed circuit board. Replacing and reprogramming the circuit board can solve this problem. 
• Logical damage to the hard drive. This can happen if the file system on the hard drive becomes corrupt, or if a virus-infected it.
• Firmware damage to the hard drive. This can happen if the firmware on the hard drive becomes corrupt or damaged. Corrupt MBR (sector 0), bad index records, drive asking to be initialized or formatted and deleted or missing data are a few examples of firmware damage. It needs professional tools, as opening a drive outside of the clean room is most likely going to cause permanent damage.

How to restore the data from a corrupted, damaged, or dead hard drive

If you have a dead hard drive, there are a few things that you can do to repair it and recover the data. The solution depends entirely on what causes the damage.

Physical damage

Physical damage can damage, corrupt, or destroy the data on the hard drive, meaning it is dead. This can happen if the hard drive is dropped or otherwise physically damaged. In most cases, physical damage will require you to send your hard drive to a data recovery specialist.

To avoid data loss in case you get a dead hard drive for any reason is to create regular backups.

Solution: You’ll need to send it to a professional data recovery service. These services specialize in recovering data from damaged hard drives, and they will recover your data if it is possible to do so.

The price depends on how many data is on the hard drive. SalvageData offers free in-lab evaluation.

Logical damage

Logical damage means that the data on the hard drive is still intact, but the drive itself is not working properly. This can happen if the file system on the hard drive becomes corrupt, or if a virus-infected the hard drive. In most cases, you can fix a dead hard drive because of a logical issue with data recovery software.

Solution: You can use data recovery software. These tools can often recover data from logically damaged hard drives. 

But you can also try the CheckDisk tool and System File Checker tool to fix damaged files. Scan the drive for viruses and malware as well. Use updated and trusted software.

Use the CheckDisk tool

Step 1: Right-click on the Start menu icon. Select Windows PowerShell (Admin) and click YES to open the tool.

Step 2: Type chkdsk/f/r D:. Replace D: with the letter of your drive. Press Enter.

Step 3: Check if your hard drive is still corrupted.

Fix Damaged Windows Files

Here you can use another built-in Windows tool, the System File Checker.

You can access it the same way you did with CheckDisk. Only that now you’ll type: DISM.exe/online/cleanup-image/restorehealth. Next, type sfc/scannow.  

Summary: Although you can restore the data from damaged and corrupted drives on your own, most of the time a dead hard drive requires professional help. In all cases, only try to perform the recovery process if you’re secure about it.

The chances of recovering data from a dead hard drive

The chances and success of data recovery from a dead hard drive are real, but they depend on the reason for the drive failure.

If the problem is due to a corrupted file system or bad sectors, then you should be able to use data recovery software to recover your data. If the problem is due to physical damage or failed components, then you’ll need to send your hard drive to a data recovery specialist.

No matter what the cause of the problem is, if you can’t access your data or are not sure of what to do, then you should contact a data recovery specialist. They will be able to give you a better idea of what’s recoverable and how much it will cost.

Summary: Most of the time you can recover the data from a dead hard drive. Depending on the damage, you can do it on your own. But you can’t recover the device once it’s dead. Therefore, keep updated backups to make the data recovery easier and learn how to prevent the hard drive from failing.

How to prevent hard drive failure

There are a few things that you can do to prevent hard drive failure.

• Always keep a backup of your important data. This way, if you get a dead hard drive, you’ll still have a copy of your data.
• Avoid physical damage to your hard drive. This includes dropping the hard drive or exposing it to overheating. 
• Avoid electrical damage to your hard drive. This includes power surges and using the hard drive in an environment with high humidity.
• Use anti-virus and anti-malware software. This can prevent logical issues and avoid corruption of the file system.

Summary: As always, prevention is the best solution. Recovering dead hard drive data is possible, but not always successful. It starts with a backup and goes all the way to keep the hard drive clean and with the right temperature.