Can a broken hard drive be repaired?
People that regularly use computers will inevitably have to deal with a failed or broken hard drive at some point in their lives. Just as a car will eventually cease to function effectively as a result of one of its many moving parts no longer working as it should, hard drives are mechanical devices and – with their various components becoming a little bit weaker each time they’re used – will eventually fail. Replacing a broken car with a new one, however, is less cost-effective than repairing it 99.9% of the time whereas the expense accrued having a hard drive repaired will always be greater than the cost of simply buying a new one; then again, that’s not really the point!
The true value of a hard drive – and any type of storage media for that
matter – is not the cost of the device itself but the worth the user attaches
to the data held on it. This data can be important to users because of its
potential monetary value, emotional merit, practical use or anything else.
Repairing a hard drive will not restore the data it holds. In fact, the task of
putting a broken hard drive back together again is – if not done within a
unique environment – certain to result in it being lost altogether. So, when a
hard drive does fail, what can be done?
What data recovery companies do
In the most basic terms, data recovery companies recover
lost data. You’d probably already guessed this, though, so we think ‘how do
data recovery companies recover data from broken hard drives?’ is a far more
pertinent question – and we have the answer!
The first thing that we’ll need to do to a hard drive that’s suffered
from mechanical failure is open it up within a sterile environment –
specifically our state-of-the-art cleanroom.
This is essential as, whilst everyday particles and contaminants are
harmless to us, they can cause significant damage to a hard drive. Should one
microscopic element find its way onto the part of the drive where data is
stored (commonly known as a ‘platter’) anything stored on it will be lost
permanently. Clean rooms ensure this doesn’t happen by frequently extracting
old air from the room and replacing it with fresh air from which the vast
majority of particles have been removed via a filter. Any that survive are too
small to cause any damage.
Once the drive is in the clean room and its platters exposed, our
technicians can begin the process of reading and duplicating the data held on
the drive before then transferring it to a new one.
How much does it cost to recover data from a broken hard drive?
Sadly, because the process of extracting and duplicating data differs
depending on the drive’s model and manufacturer, how it’s been used, it’s age
and numerous other variables, there’s no easy answer to this question. The good
news is that finding out is easy thanks to our diagnostic service and, as it
won’t cost you a penny, it’s completely risk free too!