Disk Recovery
Disk recovery can be an expensive proposition, but for crucial data that is hard to replace, may be the only option. When a hard drive fails completely it can be very difficult to restore the drive from home. Often times a professional service must be sought in order to successfully restore a hard drive. Hard drives can fail for a variety of reasons, and some problems are more recoverable than others.
The most common cause of hard drive failure occurs when the circuit board controlling the drive becomes faulty. This results in a drive that is still mechanically intact, with the data unaffected. Simply replacing the logic board with an identical model will usually restore the function of the hard drive. In this case, it may even be possible to replace the logic board from home, potentially saving hundreds of dollars. The key is in finding a logic board that is identical. In order to be successful, find out the model number and firmware version of your hard disk. The replacement part must come from an identical drive, both in model and firmware number.
Disk recovery in this instance is fairly simple. You will need a Torx screw driver to take out the screws holding the cover in place. On an anti-static surface, carefully remove the circuit board and replace it with the new board. If the logic board was the root of the problem, then the original hard drive should start up without a problem once the computer is booted up.
More serious problems can be encountered in the case of actual mechanical failure. Mechanical failure occurs when the motor that runs the read or write head burns out, causing the write head to scratch the magnetic platter. In cases like this a professional disk recovery service may only be able to restore part of the hard drive contents. DriveSavers is one of the best known names in the disk recovery business, and if a hard drive is even remotely salvageable, they can do it. Expect to pay over a thousand dollars, however, for difficult restoration jobs.
In the case of simple accidental deletion, or even an accidental partitioning of the drive, data can usually be recovered. Accidentally deleted files are easily recovered via tools such as Undelete. Just be sure to make the disk recovery soon, before the drive is prompted to overwrite that information. Accidental partitions can cause the operating system to stop working, but if you plug the drive into another computer, you may be able to browse through the files that are still there. Simply hook up the drive to another computer, using the drive of the other computer as a boot device. The operating system should then be able to browse through the partitioned disk, allowing you to remove important files.
Filed under: Hard Drive Recovery