Perhaps you have accidentally emptied out that recycle bin, or maybe you have perma-deleted any important file from your computer – or worst of all, your hard drive has just been corrupted and you are seeing that windows hard disk problem message on your monitor. In the first two cases, you can almost always recover data yourself by using some data recovery software. However, if your hard disk is corrupted, then how would you know whether you should seek out a professional hdd recovery service or you can do it your own? Let’s find out.
Is it a mechanical or electronic fault?
First, it needs to be determined whether the drive failure is due to some mechanical or electronic issues. This can be done with an easy “listen to test.” You need to remove the HDD from the original pc and connect it with the power supply of another pc and make sure you don’t connect the SATA or IDE cable. Now, just power this second pc on. As soon as you power the pc on, there can be two types of sound. Firstly, the HDD should start to spin with some grinding sound initially, and then that sound will stop soon, and the HDD will continue spinning. If that happens, the HDD most likely has no mechanical fault. Secondly, if the sound doesn’t stop or you hear some clicking type sound, or any other unusual sound –then the drive has some mechanical fault, and you should power the pc off immediately. Then you should take the drive to a professional recovery service.
Now, in case the HDD has no mechanical fault, you have to do another test. This is the BIOS test. If the sound is normal like mentioned above, connect the SATA or IDE cable, and boot the pc up. But don’t boot it fully, instead go to the BIOS before it boots up to windows. Here, you have to notice if BIOS recognized that hard disk drive accurately or not. If the BIOS is showing the exact brand and model number of the HDD, then the HDD passed this test successfully. But in case of BIOS failed to recognize the HDD and showing some unfamiliar code instead of the accurate model number, then the drive must be sent to a professional service.
There’s one last test to be done. If the HDD passed the BIOS test successfully, you have to do a “clone test.” As the name suggests, you have to try to clone this affected HDD to another blank HDD. If this cloning process is done successfully with few errors only, then your HDD probably has no serious hardware issue. But if the cloning process couldn’t be done successfully or if it shows that cloning would take “days” instead of “hours,” the HDD has a serious hardware fault, and you will need professional assistance with proper tools and expertise.
Make no mistake; if your HDD failed, you must seek the help of specialized service
Local computer technicians or shops often claim themselves as data recovery experts and promise to fix your drive for a much lower cost. Even if the cost sounds tempting, you should not take that route. They know a few tricks only which they apply in every drive regardless of the drive’s condition and most of the time they fail to recover any data. Moreover, in their so-called “honest” attempt, they further damage your drive, making the recovery process a few times costlier for you. So, make no mistake and look for only the professional and specialized data recovery services, like Salvage data, which have a proper lab setup with the exact equipment and tools to analyze your drive and chance of recovering important data will be the highest.