It Was Dropped, and Your Own Drive Can Hold the Results

The decode

A dropped drive has a head fault. That the drive was dropped points at a head fault — a fall jolts the read/write heads, which float a hair above the spinning platters, and knocks them out of true, so afterwards they cannot read and the drive cannot present its data. So the fault is in the heads, disturbed by the impact, not in the recording: the drop has stopped them reading, rather than the data being gone. His data is usually still on the platters, behind that head fault, reached by replacing the heads in clean air. A dropped drive has a head fault, not lost data.

It's worked in clean air, not run on. Because the fault is in the heads, the drive is opened in clean air — the heads replaced with matched donors, alignment set, and imaged, so the data is read once the heads read again. And it must not be powered further, as disturbed heads can score the platters. The free diagnostic confirms the platters, and one fixed quote goes in writing before you commit to anything.

Your own drive can hold the results. On his practical question, providing his own new drive to copy the recovered data onto is fine, and can keep the cost down — the recovered files have to be written to fresh media, and a drive he supplies serves that as well as one provided, so bringing one is a sensible way to save. So the answer is yes: the dropped drive is worked and read, and the results written to the new drive he provides, or to media supplied if he prefers. His data is delivered on the drive he brings, ready to use. Your own drive can hold the results.

The honest prognosis rests on the platters. If the heads are at fault over intact platters — likely if the drive is not run repeatedly after the drop — clean-air head replacement lets the drive image and the data come back, often in full. If it was run on and the platters were scored, recovery narrows to the intact regions. Which applies is determined by inspection under magnification, with the recoverable extent confirmed before anything is asked of you — the data usually recoverable where the platters were spared.

On the bench

The drive was not run on given the drop. It was taken from its enclosure and profiled on a current-limited bench supply, the head behaviour assessed. It was opened in clean air under laminar flow, the heads and platters inspected under stereo microscope, matched donor heads fitted, alignment set. It was imaged on DeepSpar behind PC-3000 UDMA, the data located in R-Studio and written to fresh media, supplied or provided.

The outcome

The head fault addressed in clean air, the drive imaged, and the data written to the fresh media provided. The diagnostic stage is free and reports back within two working days of the media arriving; after it you hold one written quote, fixed with VAT included. Opening a drive commits donor stock and clean-air bench time, so half the quoted figure is payable before that stage begins, and the remaining half falls due only once the recovery has succeeded — if it fails, the rest is never billed. The decode: a dropped drive has a head fault — worked in clean air, and your own drive can hold the results. Addressed with sound platters, your data comes back.

Our case files are written up from genuine enquiries our lab has handled for customers across Swindon and Wiltshire, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery approach our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.