Hard Drive Stopped Working? Don’t Panic – We Can Help!

Most modern offices are well prepared for hard drive failures. As such, they’ll usually have backup systems in place. These might include automated regular backups being sent to the cloud or to backup servers onsite. On the other hand, for smaller operations backing up data can be a little more ad hoc. For instance, backup may consist of manually copying data at the end of each day. However, whatever the setup, there are often crucial gaps in backup schedules that allow for data loss should the worst happen. So, how does hard drive recovery work, and how successful is it?

Hard Drive Recovery – What to do First?

After the initial horror of a hard drive failure has subsided and your heart rate has returned to near normal, take a breath. This is because you shouldn’t start messing with the drive. So, stop using it and power off the drive. Doing this will considerably improve the chances of successful data recovery. In short, it’s time to call the PC experts!

It’s the Platter that Matters

The most common hard drive issues are bad sectors or read errors, damaged PCB’s, file system corruption and firmware errors. The good news is that most of these problems can be fixed and a complete hard drive recovery achieved. However, the success rate is lower if the drive heads or platter are damaged. These are usually caused by shock to the drive. But, even if the heads are damaged, or the motor has failed, as long as the platter is in good condition, good results can still be achieved. Essentially, the greater the damage to the platter, the more difficult the recovery will be.

How Long Does Hard Drive Recovery Take?

Hard drive recovery time depends on the issue and how well the gear responds to a temporary repair. Generally, the objective is to hook up the broken drive to specialist diagnostic equipment. Then, once the fault has been identified, a temporary repair is performed to transfer the recovered data to an external drive. So, assuming the recovery doesn’t require the use of a specialist clean room, most repairs can happen within a couple of weeks.

Head over to our computer services & repairs directory. F1RST is ready to help your computer service & repairs business succeed with various promotional tools across the Coffs Coast.