Hard drives are used to store all kinds of files. They have evolved a great deal since they were first created. They are more powerful, have greater capacity and also cost much less. Unfortunately, their lifespan is not infinite, and it can happen that a drive becomes faulty and the data becomes difficult to recover.
How to identify the different types of faults:
Since hard drives are made up of fragile mechanical parts, it can sometimes happen that they become faulty. How? A single accidental drop or a temperature variation is enough for the drive to stop working. Constantly transporting them and plugging and unplugging them increases the risk of damage to these devices.
Even so, there are 3 categories of faults:
- Mechanical faults: the hard drive stops working because the components are damaged by drops, temperatures, wear or even fire… In short, by causes external to the hard drive.
- Electronic faults: this occurs when the hard drive refuses to power on or no longer responds. The cause comes from electronic components that no longer work. How is this possible? Due to electronic damage or firmware corruption. This is therefore an internal fault of the drive.
- Logical faults: these faults occur when the drive works but the data is inaccessible. The reason comes from formatting, deletion or even a virus. It can therefore be a human error during accidental data deletion.
These different faults show up in several ways. The computer may start behaving strangely, the drive may be displayed as invalid media, an error message may appear, or the device’s storage memory is displayed as 0 bytes.
The good news is that there is generally a way to repair a faulty hard drive. In most cases, the method is simple, but it may sometimes be necessary to call in a professional.
How to recover a faulty hard drive?
First of all, when a problem occurs, it is important to have the right reflexes. This will reduce the chances of not being able to recover lost or inaccessible data. It is important to know how to proceed.
For example, in the event of a fault, it is best to turn off the drive so that there is no further damage and so that the data has a chance of being recovered.
If it is a mechanical fault, it is not recommended to use recovery software, as this could damage the drive even further. The files being sought could then, in the worst case, become impossible to recover. Finally, in the event of a logical fault, you should not continue to use the hard drive, because during repair the new data would damage the data that needs to be recovered. Moreover, if the problem is due to a drop or shock, using the drive for long minutes for diagnosis could risk damaging the platters, even though they may not have been affected before. And so the files would become damaged as well.
Nevertheless, sometimes there is nothing to be done because the drive is out of service. For example, if it is impossible to save files, the drive is likely no longer writable, meaning the files are inaccessible. But inaccessible does not mean unrecoverable.
This is why it is not advisable to repair the drive yourself, but rather to call in a professional who will know the right technique to recover the data. To assess the damage, the professional will need to open the drive in a place free of any particles (dust, hair, etc.) that could further damage the hard drive. They will know how to carry out a diagnosis to determine the problem before undertaking repairs on the media and being able to recover the files.
When a problem occurs with a hard drive, it is therefore important to go immediately to a professional. They will be able to determine the cause without causing further damage to the drive. They will know how to carry out a diagnosis and then offer a solution with an estimated price. In any case, it is not advisable to try to repair the drive yourself, at the risk of making it even more faulty and failing to recover the files.
It is also important to remember to keep your important data on another storage device to avoid permanent loss in case the data cannot be recovered.