Data Recovery From Physically Damaged and Corrupted Seagate Hard Disk

A client from Kolkata found themselves in a bind when their laptop’s internal Seagate hard drive suddenly stopped responding. Before it failed, the HDD had started making grinding and clicking sounds — a clear sign of an HDD making grinding and clicking noises due to internal issues. Hoping for a quick fix, they tried removing it from the original device and connecting it to another laptop using a portable external SATA-to-USB HDD enclosure. However, that made the situation worse and, as we found later, damaged it further.

After a few more desperate attempts, they reached out to Stellar Data Recovery in Kolkata for Seagate Hard Disk Data Recovery, as the drive contained their personal files and they were wary of local vendors due to privacy concerns and other risks.

A Glimpse of What Was at Stake

The laptop was old, and years’ worth of memories were stored in the drive, including pictures and videos of family vacations and special occasions. While a few photos and videos were backed up (shared on social media), most were unique, i.e., the drive contained the only copy.

Device Specifications

• Device Type: 2.5” Seagate SATA Internal Hard Disk Drive
• Capacity: 500 GB
• Issue: Physical damage, bad sectors, lost partitions, and corrupted MBR
• Affected Files: Photos, videos, and documents

Stellar’s Approach to Recover Data From Seagate Internal HDD

Though the drive was getting detected by our proprietary software, we sent it straight to our ISO-certified Class 100 Cleanroom lab as the client had informed us that they’d heard strange noises from the HDD.

Step 1: Cleanroom Repairs & Cloning

The technicians at our cleanroom lab found that one of the platters had suffered some damage. Additionally, all four R/W heads were misaligned—most likely due to rough handling when the drive was transferred to the external casing.

Data recovery from damaged HDD platter is complex but possible. So we swapped the head stack assembly with one from a matching donor drive.

We then generated a sector-by-sector clone of the damaged drive. This serves as a replica of the original, permitting data recovery attempts on the clone without causing additional harm to the source drive.

Step 2: Examining the Partition Table

During initial inspection, the disk had shown indications of bad sectors and partition issues. Our technicians also observed that the partitions could no longer be accessed since the NTFS file system had failed.

• They manually located the partition table at offset 0x1BE.
• One of the four partitions was missing. Scrolling through sectors, they analyzed trends and searched for recognizable partition markers.
• They reconstructed the partition table.

Step 3: Inspecting the File System for Corruption

After the partition was restored, Stellar Data Recovery’s technicians thoroughly examined the file system for any corruption. The NTFS/FAT boot sector and Master File Table (MFT) were intact, allowing direct file recovery through our proprietary software.

Step 4: Obtaining the Files

After manually rebuilding the lost partition by editing the Master Boot Record (MBR) and examining the file system, we proceeded with Seagate Hard Disk Data Recovery, carefully recovering all the important files. Our team identified the required photos and videos by scanning the cloned image using Stellar’s proprietary tools and file signatures. The missing files started to come back one by one, clear and complete. All required data was successfully recovered from what first appeared to be a completely dead drive, demonstrating the accuracy and skill of Stellar Data Recovery specialists.

This case is a strong example of how professional HDD data recovery services can bring even severely damaged drives back to life.

Conclusion

Our client was relieved to have their data back. This Seagate case highlights the importance of professional HDD data recovery services for handling physically damaged and corrupted drives. It also shows why attempting DIY fixes can make things worse. At Stellar Data Recovery, we have the knowledge, expertise, and infrastructure to deal with such complex physical and logical issues. Therefore, if your data is lost, instead of going for any DIY fixes or to a local vendor, contact our data recovery experts for a reliable and realistic solution.

If you found this recovery story helpful, here are more real-life cases where our team successfully recovered data from different storage devices:

• Deleted Video Footage Recovered From Corrupted SSD at Stellar – Nehru Place
• How a Hospitality Company Recovered 5 Years of Overwritten Tally Data
• Data Recovery From an Outdated 80 GB PATA Hard Drive | Stellar – Chennai
• Video Repair and Recovery From HIKVISION 1TB External SSD
• Data Recovery From BitLocker-Encrypted Drive After Deletion | Complete Guide

About The Author

Urvika Tuteja

Urvika Tuteja is an SEO Executive at Stellar® with a good understanding of online marketing. She is known for her quick and enthusiastic learning abilities. Urvika contributes her skills to managing operational activities and driving the growth of organic traffic.