How to fix a dropped drive: recovering a dropped WD hard drive

Physical damage to a dropped hard drive

When an external drive has been dropped, chances are it no longer works properly. It may make clicking, beeping or scratching noises, spin without letting you access the data, or show a “not recognised” error on your computer. The three main mechanical parts of the drive, the heads, the arm and the platters, may have been damaged in the fall.

The read/write heads sit on the end of the arm and read and write data on the drive’s platters. Drives usually have one head for each platter surface. The heads normally float a tiny distance above the platters. A sharp knock can cause a head crash, where a head touches or scratches the platter surface, or can damage the heads themselves. Either can stop the drive working, and scratched platters make recovery much harder.

Trying to see whether it still works is the wrong move, as every power-on can cause more damage and make the data harder to retrieve. That’s why it is important to get a dropped drive assessed as soon as possible by a professional who understands the internal mechanics of a drive. For more on noisy drives, see our guide to what to do about a clicking hard drive.

What not to do with a dropped drive

• Don’t keep plugging it in or power cycling it.
• Don’t run chkdsk, disk repair or recovery software on it.
• Don’t open it, swap its circuit board or try the freezer trick.

Using PC-3000 to repair the modules of a dropped WD Blue hard drive

Contrary to popular belief, not every dropped drive needs to be opened. Depending on the damage, data can sometimes be recovered using the right tools without opening the drive in a cleanroom.

A client brought our team a Western Digital Blue 3 TB hard drive that had been dropped. On diagnosis, the drive’s firmware modules were found to be damaged, and we were able to repair them using PC-3000, which allowed the drive to be read and the data recovered.

PC-3000 is professional data recovery equipment. Its utilities allow detailed drive diagnostics and firmware repair, and let the engineer control exactly how a damaged drive is read, so it can be imaged with as little strain as possible.

Fixing a dropped drive has to be dealt with case by case. The method used depends on how severe the impact was and what damage it caused inside. Where heads or platters are affected, the drive has to be opened in our cleanroom for head replacement before it can be imaged.

Secure dropped hard drive recovery in London SE1

If your hard drive or external hard drive has been dropped and you need a professional evaluation of the damage, contact Data Retrieval on 020 7064 4996.

All our data recovery work is carried out in-house at our lab in London SE1. We have our own cleanroom for head and motor repairs, PC-3000 equipment and board-level repair. We always work from a sector-by-sector copy, never the original, and return your files on a new drive. We are registered with the ICO (ZA060744) and handle all data under UK GDPR. Find out more about hard drive data recovery and external drive recovery.

We offer a free initial assessment and a fixed, no-obligation quote before any work starts. Call 020 7064 4996 or book online, then drop the drive off or send it by courier.