Three Common Hard Drive Problems and Why You Can't Fix Them

An Anti-Do-It-yourself Guide to Hard Drive Repair

When a hard drive fails, many users have a pretty simple knee-jerk reaction: how can I fix it?

The trouble is, hard drive problems usually can't be fixed by their owners. That's why data recovery companies exist. But many users don't listen to this; they try crazy stuff with hard drives, and end up ruining their chances of data recovery.

Here are some common hard drive problems that a typical computer user might face-and why the typical computer user has absolutely no chance of fixing them.

Head Crash

What it is: When a drive fails, sometimes the heads the read the information come into physical contact with the platters which contain the information. This is called a "head crash", which is where the term "hard drive crash" comes from. It's one of the more common problems a hard drive experiences and typically is accompanied by a clicking sound or a scraping sound. It's really important that if this happens, you don't try to run the drive any further, as that may cause additional damage.

Why you can't fix it: Head crashes require either the heads being manually reset or replaced (which requires a lot of training and a clean room, as the slightest contaminant will make the drive unrecoverable) or tinkering with the firmware on the board in very rare cases. Either way, a standard home computer isn't up to the job; just to attempt this on a single drive, you'll have to shell out tens of thousands of dollars, and even then the chances of a successful recovery are infinitesimal compared to the chances a professional data recovery company would have.

Electronics Damage

What it is: Exactly what it sounds like. Physical or electrical damage to the electronic PCB board of a hard drive.

Why you can't fix it: A common misconception is that the PCB boards of two similar drives are the same, but the PCB often contains a drive's specific firmware. Therefore, a PCB swap requires some soldering, a very precise knowledge of PCB components, and occasionally even some work with microcode; and that's if the board failure didn't cause any other problems with the drive (board failures usually do). Data recovery companies can handle this.

Stuck Spindle