Hard Drive Clicking And Crash Tips

For common problems like a hard drive clicking noise, or something of that nature, HDRS offers these safety tips:

Fully evaluate the problem you are experiencing. If the situation is NOT extreme (i.e. not mentioned in our disaster recovery page), this advice will help you safely get your drive working again.

If your hard drive emits unusual noises such as clicking, scraping or grinding, turn off your computer immediately. Typically this denotes a protective head failure that threatens to destroy your data. Hard drives spin with extreme speed (7,200 to 15,000 revolutions per minute) and without the head in place damage can occur almost immediately.

Clicking noises are signs of physical hard drive failure: contact us here for a free evaluation.

In this situation the best thing to do is to contact us for a data recovery assessment. Your hard drive may need to be serviced in our clean room data recovery labs.

Tips on Using Disk Utility Programs

Data retrieval software offers excellent preventative maintenance by correcting minor day-to-day problems, but in extreme cases they may not have the capabilities to deal with severe corruption. In these cases it may be best to get your hard drive to a computer data recovery expert.

1. Do not use utility software when strange noises are present. If your drive sounds or acts erratically in any way, DO NOT USE UTILITY SOFTWARE. Software can only fix operational errors, it cannot fix physical damage to your hard drive.

• Damaging sounds include clicking, scraping or buzzing.
• Back up your data immediately (if you are already booted up).
• Shut down the computer to avoid further damage to the drive and its data.
• Contact us first before sending your drive to us for professional recovery in our Cleanroom labs.

2. Always Save an "Undo" File

Saving an "undo" file, a record of the changes the utility has made to your drive, is one of the most important things to do. In the event that the utility does not correct your problem, you prevent any further damage to your data. Also, by sending this file along with your drive to us, you help ensure recovery of your data.

DO NOT use a utility program if it does not allow you to save an "undo" file of the repairs it makes.

3. Windows NT/2000 and Server, UNIX and NetWare Require Professional Expertise

The more complex a software utility is, the more difficult it is to use it efficiently. Due to the broad range of circumstances and potential hazards when using utility software, we recommend contacting us for professional recovery advice first before using a "recovery utility" on an enterprise-level server.

Most data losses are caused by one of two problems. Human error, you accidently deleted your important information and emptied your recycle bin. The question is, is it gone forever? The second is hard drive failure. In the first case, there is not much you can do yourself and professional data recovery services is required if you want to retrieve your data.

If you suspect that your hard drive has experienced a problem - electronic or malevolent - the number one thing to do is to power off your computer. Every passing moment that your hard drive is connected to a running system is a moment that you lose a chance at full recovery. Your operating system is reading and writing onto your drive constantly, whether you are using it or not. Now that your computer sees the deleted data as "free space" it may overwrite it, causing you to lose your data permanently.

SSD Hard Drive Crash

One of the interesting myths that many people assume is that SSD drives do not crash. The logic behind this idea - that these drives don't have mechanical platters and read/write heads that are constantly in motion and thus cannot become misaligned - is very flawed. The key point, of course, is that SSD drives do use circuits. These circuits, as well as the memory modules that make up the actual storage capacity of an SSD drive, are not constructed to last forever. In fact, most SSD drives are only really recommended to be used for 1000 writes. After that, they can become very, very susceptible to data loss

Just keep this in mind if you find your SSD drive seems to be failing.

Remember, a hard drive crash isn't the only way that your valuable data can be put at risk. The causes are many and the severity ranges widely, as do the potential solutions. If your data is at risk, but you're not sure where you stand, read the following to get a better idea of what the cause of your data loss may be and how to fix the situation - file recovery software, get data back, and hard drive data recovery.

Would you like a hard disk data recovery evaluation? Click here.