Hard Drive
Data Recovery

Not rocket science, it's very easy to figure out. If the hard drive is showing any of the following behavior then it could be imminent indication of Hard disk failure:

• The hard disk is undetectable or not recognized at all by the system.
  
• The system fails to boot or hang in mid of the booting process.
• System BIOS is unable to detect the hard drive.
• Hard Drive isn't spinning.
• Clicking sound or unnecessary noise is arising from the system hardware.
• Files mysteriously disappear. Usually more than once
  
• Locking up during the boot process - hard disk problems are indicated if this happens frequently
• The computer often freezes, and when it does you are left without mouse or keyboard input and have to do a hard reset
• Standard file processes like saving and opening slow down interminably, even for small files
• Increase in the number of bad sectors noted when running "chkdsk" command
• Files mysteriously disappear. Usually more than once
  
• You can't speed up computer performance even by applying optimization tricks
• You notice that your computer is unusually hot
• Your computer is bumped or jostled while it is running
• The electric motor which allows the platter to spin fails due to bad bearings or other components
• The filter on your air intake gets too clogged or the filter isn't working properly
• Extreme heat while running causes the electronic circuit board to fail
• There is a sudden power failure while the disk is writing

Hard disk failure is most common cause of data loss. Over the years, we at Stellar Data Recovery India have noticed that around 70% of data recovery jobs which we receive are related to HDD only. This is common with domestic and corporate users. There could be many possible reasons for disk failure; like computer systems are being used more frequently and data is stored continuously. Other factors such as increase in data density and number of platters may also be contributing factors for hard drive failures. It is documented that 60% of the Hard disk failure occurs because of mechanical failure and the rest 40% occurs through misuse.

Physical Hard Disk failure: - As the name suggests any kind of physical damage to the hard disk like dropping, burning of hard drive can make device nonfunctional. A physical case may appear if:

• Computer not detecting the Hard disk
  
• Drive not spinning (no power)
• An abnormal ticking noise whilst the drive is reading data
• A loud clicking or grinding noise

A physically damaged hard disk failure can be easily noticed by looking into a hard drive. In case of a physically damaged hard disk, you may not recover data with the help of any data unauthorized recovery software. Also don't try to open the hard disk by yourself, it may damage your drive further, and you may lose your data permanently.
In case none of the above problems are shown by your HDD, it could be a case of logical failure.

Logical Hard disk Failure: - The damage/ failure occurs in the hard drives file structure or software or malware infections, human error or corrupted files or the hard drive does not boot up. A logical hard disk failure may appear if:

• Computer Bios see hard disk drive but the data is not accessible.
  
• Defective media/ bad platter.
• Data corruption from other file source.
• Human errors for E.g. modification in the registry files of the system, alteration in files' attributes of the system and many more can lead to logical damage of the Hard disk drive.

Logical Hard disk failure does not require opening the Hard disk drive; one can use hard drive recovery software's to get the data. But it is important to analyze the type of logical failure before one attempts to recover data, hence experts' advice is essential and seek experienced HDD data retrieval services. You can contact us or call us at 1800 -102-3232 to discuss your logical disk failure case. Using any untrusted software can harm your hard disk further, or it could also lock your data, which might be very difficult to recover.
If you think your hard disk drive hasn't encountered a physical or logical failure, then the reason could be electronic/mechanical hard disk failure.

Electronic/Mechanical hard disk failure:- Electronic/Mechanical failure is related to components of the hard drive goes faulty, and the drive will not be accessed to store data. An electronic/mechanical hard disk failure may appear if:

• Hard disk head or heads crash.
• Hard drive motor failure.
• Damage of magnetic platters
• PCB damage.

Out of the errors mentioned Electronic/Mechanical hard disk failure is complicated and often encompasses logical, electronic or firmware failure. Hence, it takes lot of effort and time, for hard disk data retrieval process, and such cases are treated in Class 100 Clean Rooms only by Data recovery experts.

Bad sectors are the areas of hard disk that are either inaccessible or un-writeable. The bad sectors can occur due to physical damage to the surface, software error, manufacturing defect or regular wear and tear etc. HDD with small bad sectors can work fine but it's advisable to replace the hard drive if there are large numbers of bad sectors on the hard disk drive because it can lead to hard disk failure and data loss. It's recommended to regularly monitor the status of the HDD with disk monitoring utility like S.M.A.R.T. Even if the hard drive is functioning properly, a small cluster of a bad sector can corrupt data and be the reason for data loss.
When the system gets notifications of bad sector, it marks the sector as bad and ignores it. The sector will be remapped and the reads and writes to that sector will go elsewhere. In case if the data is on these bad sectors then the chances of losing data becomes high. Hence, it is advisable to take regular backup of the data and also to consult a data recovery professional to recover data from bad sectors.

Crashed hard disk means that its internal component like read-write head, platters, spindle etc. have been damaged. There can be many reasons which are categorized as, logical crash, logical cum physical crash and physical crash. For logical error download Stellar Data Recovery software, to recover data. But in the case of physical crash or logical cum physical crash, the data can be recovered only by professional data recovery experts.

Hard disks are extremely fragile and dropping hard disk can be fatal, dropping the hard disk can damage to its parts like the platters, read/write arm, spindle and other component. This leads to physical damage to HDD and data stored on it becomes inaccessible. To recover data from physically damaged hard disk, it has to be opened in Class Clean Room Labs. Class 100 Clean Room Labs have controlled environment that is suitable for Hard drive, the lab has less than 100 dust particle of size 0.5 microns per cubic foot as compared to 500000 to 1000000 particles in the normal air.
In case of physical hard drive damage it's always recommended to visit or seek professional data recovery services to regain data.
Note: Never open hard disk on your own, it can lead to permanent data loss.