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Hard Drive Damage Question

G

GizmoFreak

Golden Member
Dropped my laptop and it hit the ground pretty hard. Most of the other components seem to have survived ok other than some chassis damage, but the hard drive was definitely affected. Win XP boots up just fine but I noticed that about 15% of my data files are corrupted. For example, picture files will show only half the image or not open at all. The corrupted files cannot be copied and pasted either. Only deleted. Surprisingly, most of my applications seem to be running fine.

Now my question is this. Is this a case of a permanently damaged hard drive or is this a case of the impact of the fall temporarily damaging the hard drive and corrupting a few files? Or more succinctly, if I do a format and re-install of the OS, will I be good to go? What does this sound like to you guys?
 
If it was on when it fell, it is likely that the heads came into contact with the platters. If this did happen, then some of the magnetic media may have been scraped from the platters. This is a permanent loss of those sectors. If you use any hd utility that will do a surface scan, it should mark those sectors as bad and not allow writing to them again. If this is what happened, the rest of the hd is probably fine.
 
Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
If it was on when it fell, it is likely that the heads came into contact with the platters. If this did happen, then some of the magnetic media may have been scraped from the platters. This is a permanent loss of those sectors. If you use any hd utility that will do a surface scan, it should mark those sectors as bad and not allow writing to them again. If this is what happened, the rest of the hd is probably fine.
Click to expand...

Yes, but fine for how long? If his files are corrupted due to the fall the heads had to hit the platter. This happened and those tiny bits or particles are flying around inside the drive and will continue to do more and more damage as time goes on = more and more BAD Sectors which = more bits flying around ... see where this is going? The drive is going to fail.

I would back up my data and replace the drive asap.

We all need to remember that the heads of a hard disk can be crashed by a molecule of smoke. True story. At best this drive will be unreliable, and the cost to replace it with peace of mind is small.

pcgeek11
 
Originally posted by: pcgeek11
I would back up my data and replace the drive asap.

We all need to remember that the heads of a hard disk can be crashed by a molecule of smoke. True story. At best this drive will be unreliable, and the cost to replace it with peace of mind is small.

pcgeek11
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
 
I agree with replacing that drive ASAP. If you haven't already moved whatever data you can access off there, do it now.
 
I have seen several drives that have survived for a long time after a head crash. Whether the particles attached to the magnets in the drive or were just lodged out of the way I don't know. While I would not trust it 100%, it may still be usable.

And yes, I am aware that the heads run only a few millionths of an inch from the platters and they are assembled in a clean room.
 
Originally posted by: Captante
Just run a checkdisk & be sure to enable scan for & attempt recovery of bad sectors.
Click to expand...


What is a checkdisk and how do I run it?

It seems the camp is split on whether the drive can be salvaged. My data is already backed up (at least whatever wasn't corrupted). I'm just wondering whether to reformat and continue using the drive or saving myself the trouble and going straight to a new drive.
 
The drive obviously suffered physical platter/head damage from the drop. If you don't care whether your drive is reliable, then keep using it. Otherwise, replace the drive.
 
You can download a harddisc checking utility from the manufacturer's website. Do that and run it. It will often warn you if the drive is failing.
 
The head, platter surfaces, and possibly bearings or more are damaged. The damage is at least permanent, and probably cumulative, will progress further at a rapid pace unless you were very lucky.

1) Do not use a system after this happens. Every single moment that hard drive spins, you are likely to be losing more data. It may completely fail at any moment.

2) The very first sign of drive problems is the time to drop everything (If the data is valuable at all), including sleep and eat, and copy off the data. No forum question, no nothing else first, time is working against you. It might be you are lucky and have more time than average, or you might not - by the time I've finishe posting this all your files might be completely gone already.

3) There is no temporary, the drive's data is in jeopardy and the drive is damaged beyond reasonable salvage.

4) DO NOT CHECK THE DRIVE WITH A UTILITY. The very last thing you want to do is to access the drive at all, to even turn on the system and apply power to the drive unless the very next thing you do is copy off data without hesitation. After you have made all copy attempts, or ran a data recovery scanner program (Ontrack Easyrecovery for example) that copies off the data to a different drive (very important), only after data salvage is at an end would you do any step to chkdisk or any other access. At that point the only question is really whether you can accept the loss or want to just play around with it till it is obvious that even the OS can't be salvaged,

 
I have already backed up all my data. So there is no risk running a checkdisk. If it breaks the hard drive completely, then I will replace. However, it seems like it's worth a shot.

I should also add that the drop happened over a month ago and the machine is still running fine. It's a secondary machine I've been and will be using for strictly websurfing so there would be no catastrophe if it were to die suddenly.

My question is whether it's even worth the effort to try.
 
Originally posted by: pcgeek11
Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
If it was on when it fell, it is likely that the heads came into contact with the platters. If this did happen, then some of the magnetic media may have been scraped from the platters. This is a permanent loss of those sectors. If you use any hd utility that will do a surface scan, it should mark those sectors as bad and not allow writing to them again. If this is what happened, the rest of the hd is probably fine.
Click to expand...

Yes, but fine for how long? If his files are corrupted due to the fall the heads had to hit the platter. This happened and those tiny bits or particles are flying around inside the drive and will continue to do more and more damage as time goes on = more and more BAD Sectors which = more bits flying around ... see where this is going? The drive is going to fail.

I would back up my data and replace the drive asap.

We all need to remember that the heads of a hard disk can be crashed by a molecule of smoke. True story. At best this drive will be unreliable, and the cost to replace it with peace of mind is small.

pcgeek11
Click to expand...

While I agree with the gist of your post, you don't actually believe bits are some sort of physical entity, right?

Yeah, when the head collided with the magnetic media of the hard drive, it could have removed a few specs of the material. (Like you said, the air cushion between the platter and head is unbelievably small)
However, since that material is magnetic, one could also assume that the immensely powerful permanent neodymium magnet which is used, in tandem with an electromagnet, to move the arm, would have attracted the microscopic debris.

Also, not sure how you damaged a hard drive with smoke, but they have charcoal filters to prevent just such damage.
 
While I agree with the gist of your post, you don't actually believe bits are some sort of physical entity, right?
Click to expand...

No silly! I'm not talking about Ones and Zeros type bits... I meant phsycal bits as in very tiny pieces of the platter coating. Physical bits and like pieces. 🙂

Funny thought even so! " I knocked all the ones and zeros off my Hard Drive. " 🙂

Also, not sure how you damaged a hard drive with smoke, but they have charcoal filters to prevent just such damage.
Click to expand...

I didn't damage a drive with smoke. I was refering to the physical dimension between the flying head and the platter is smaller than a particle of smoke. So a particle of smoke could actually cause a head crash.

one could also assume that the immensely powerful permanent neodymium magnet which is used, in tandem with an electromagnet, to move the arm, would have attracted the microscopic debris.
Click to expand...

Not even close. You should never assume.

pcgeek11

 
Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
I have seen several drives that have survived for a long time after a head crash. Whether the particles attached to the magnets in the drive or were just lodged out of the way I don't know. While I would not trust it 100%, it may still be usable.

And yes, I am aware that the heads run only a few millionths of an inch from the platters and they are assembled in a clean room.
Click to expand...
I also lost a 60GB hard drive to a head crash. In its final minutes, the heads could be heard scraping the platters to pieces. I recovered 80MB of data off of it before it finally stopped being recognized by Windows.


If you have anything important on the drive, get it off of there now. Then use the drive for a paperweight, or let it run to see how long it works until dying.🙂



Originally posted by: pcgeek11
one could also assume that the immensely powerful permanent neodymium magnet which is used, in tandem with an electromagnet, to move the arm, would have attracted the microscopic debris.
Click to expand...

Not even close. You should never assume.

pcgeek11
Click to expand...
Indeed. The fields from those neodymium magnets are concentrated very close to their surfaces. It's more likely that electrostatic attraction would be the stronger force at the platters - strong enough to keep any metal particles stuck to the platter.
 
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