The first thing that you should know about hard drive recovery is that not all hard disk crashes are fatal and in most cases, recovery of data is possible with fairly good data accuracy rates. However, you will be able to decide on recovery options only if you know what exactly is wrong with the disk.
So, if ever you are that unfortunate computer user to face a hard drive recovery scenario, here are a few tips that might come in handy before you start knocking on the doors of a hard drive recovery expert.
There are a few things you can do which would give you a fair idea about the nature of the hard disk problem and more importantly, these will put you in a position to bargain with the data recovery expert, if you are forced to go to him!
Get into the hard drive recovery expert's shoes!
Ask yourself what is the problem. It could be a logical problem, meaning there is something wrong with the boot sector of the hard drive rendering it un-bootable. In worse scenarios, it could be an electrical problem where the circuit board on the hard disk has been damaged due to a higher than allowed electrical current passing through it. In the worst scenario, it could be a physical problem where the head that reads the data stored on the different platters arranged inside a hard drive has been damaged or the alignment of the platters themselves could have been affected.
Depending on whether it is a logical, electrical or mechanical problem, you will be able to make a realistic assessment about the success chances of a paid hard drive recovery effort.
Do these yourself before you go begging to a hard drive recovery expert
Boot from a floppy and do a read only scan of the disk. This would tell you if it is a logical error. Therefore, you will be able to decide on an appropriate strategy for fixing the master boot record. If the boot sector is lost then you should be able to decide how to go about recovering the data. If there are bad sectors in the master boot record, then attach the hard drive to another working computer as a secondary hard drive and try to recover data using data recovery software.
Open up your system's ATX cabinet box, take out your hard drive, and closely examine the circuit board under the hard drive. Do not touch the board as static discharge can damage the disk's head. If there are tell-tale signs of a burnt circuit board or burnt components, then you can decide for sure that its a board problem. Now that you know its a board problem, you must consult your hardware supplier or service agent to decide what to do about it.
The sure sign of a mechanical problem is the clicking sound that you will hear from the hard drive when it is trying to spin up or spin down. If this click sound is coming, then the problem is related to mechanical trouble inside the hard disk platter assembly. This, more often than not is beyond repair. If a hard drive recovery expert claims it can be repaired, then make sure that is a "no data, no pay" agreement!
