Damaged hard drive data recovery, How To Perform It Safely

Damaged hard drive data recovery, How To Perform It Safely.

damaged hard drive data recovery
Damaged hard drive data recovery | Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

We all have some information that we would like to keep safe for future reference. Simply known as data, it can be documents, videos or pictures that have some significance to us. As such, we store them on our computers. The primary location of storage is the hard drive. This is the largest, hardware storage device in a computer system. Often referred to as the C drive, it is the spot where your computer files are normally stored.

Damaged hard drive data recovery

Examples of hard drive manufacturers are Toshiba, Hitachi, Sea Gate, and Western Digital. Hard drives can get damaged. They can get physically damaged or have some liquid splashed upon them and short circuit. They can also get infected or suffer a major crash that leaves them barely functioning or dead. What can you do if this happens to yours? Here is how to perform damaged hard drive data recovery.

How to get back your data

There are two main ways to get your data back from a damaged hard drive. They include:

• Software approach

• Hardware approach

Software approach

In case your hard drive got damaged due to a software malfunction, you can use another type of software to recover information from it. There is some which you can use to clone the hard drive and then recover information from it. Some of the options available to you are free while others require purchase. These software tools can help you to recover your data intact unless it got corrupted. Some examples of free software which you can use for damaged hard drive data recovery include Recuva and EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard WinPE Edition.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard WinPE Edition is actually a bootable data recovery software. If you had removed the hard drive from your machine, reattach it and start up the machine. Place the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard WinPE Edition bootable disk in the drive and then restart the computer. This will launch the software and help you to recover your data. It is capable of recovering photos, documents, media, and formatted files. It can perform damaged hard drive data recovery from lost partitions too.

Hardware approach

One of the most visible symptoms of a damaged hard drive is one that is not spinning at all. It does nothing when you apply power to it. In such a case, the problem is a malfunctioning PCB. It is the circuit board that converts bits in the hard drive into information you can understand.

To fix this, inspect the PCB to find out if it has a shorted diode. If you accidentally plugged your computer into a high voltage outlet or there was a power surge, a diode could have shorted and caused the problem. When you find one that is shorted. First, remove it and your PCB will begin functioning again and you can begin damaged hard drive data recovery. You can use a multimeter to do this assessment.

If a shorted diode is not the problem, you need to replace the entire PCB circuit board. You can go online and search for a replacement PCB for your hard disk. Look on the PCB circuit board to identify the manufacturer and model number. After that, you can buy a matching replacement, attach it and revive your hard drive. This will automatically allow you to recover your data.

Conclusion

Hard drives can get damaged and stop working normally. If yours does this and contains sensitive information, you can apply the steps above to perform damaged hard drive data recovery. It is always important to take good care of your computer by using anti-virus software and plug into correct power outlets to prevent problems that can damage your hard drive.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.