The hard drive is considered one of the main components computer system, because without it the system simply cannot work. It is capable of storing a large amount of data that can be accessed at any time. However, sometimes you run the risk of losing important data, for example, if the hard drive is damaged in some way. A hard drive can fail after an accumulation of bad sectors over a long period of time or a sudden failure. phasing out hard drive difficult to detect as its symptoms mimic other computer problems such as viruses and malware. These symptoms are usually file corruption and slow PC speed.

Hard drive failures are usually caused by an increase in the number of bad sectors that accumulate over time. Hard drive failure can be sudden, complete, gradual, or partial in nature, and in most cases, data recovery is the only solution. However, data recovery can never be guaranteed with complete certainty. In this article we will try to answer the question: is it possible to repair a faulty hard drive and how expedient is it in various situations? So, under what kind of malfunctions is it possible to repair the "hard drive"?

Electronics board failure

Usually this problem occurs due to power outages, power surges, etc. In 99% of cases, this malfunction can be diagnosed by a complete lack of response to the power supply. The HDD should not spin the spindle, make any signs of operability at all, and in the event of a short circuit, some of the elements on the board can get very hot.

HDD repair in this situation is possible. It can be elemental, i.e. are changing individual elements on the electronics board, and the board can be replaced with a similar one. However, the second repair option involves only restoring the disk, but not data recovery. The thing is that the data recovery process differs from the repair process in that when data is retrieved, a similar electronics board is adjusted according to adaptives to the “patient bank”, and in the case of hard repair disk, on the contrary, the "bank" is adjusted to the board, respectively, new service information is created and user data will no longer be available.

The presence of a small number of unreadable sectors in the user zone of the hard disk.

Repair of the hard drive in this case is possible only if the amount of damage is small and can be hidden in the factory defect lists, or if unreadable sectors have appeared in a certain area and it is possible to cut off part of the user zone to prevent even more problem areas from appearing. However, we consider such repair acceptable only if this drive will not be used to store important data. The fact is that the appearance of bad blocks usually has an avalanche-like character and it is very unlikely to restore life to a “broken” disk for a long time!

Damaged hard drive SA

This problem has begun to occur rather rarely in recent years, and nevertheless, there are cases when the creation of a new SA (translator, defect lists, etc.) leads to a full recovery of the drive's operability. Sometimes this requires running a full scan and creating a new "service", sometimes only minor manipulations, such as clearing SMART, recalculating the translator, or shifting service areas by small values. In case of mechanical damage, it is no longer possible to restore the working capacity of the hard disk under any circumstances. Even when opening the containment area of ​​a hard drive under special conditions, it is almost always impossible to achieve its normal operation. Therefore, if your disk has been subjected to any physical impact, with a very high degree of probability, the disk is no longer subject to repair, or it is completely impractical, since it cannot guarantee its normal operation.

Damaged files

Damage system files usually occurs when the system shuts down suddenly, making it impossible to access your hard drive and therefore to your system. Some of the causes of corrupted files include power surges, use of malware, accidental closing of a running program and improper shutdown of the PC. The solution, or rather the prevention of preventing this problem, is to close all running programs before proceeding to turn off the computer. In addition, turning off the computer itself is best done in a standard way, and not delay the start button or even pull it out network cable from the outlet (although hardly anyone else does this nowadays). In addition to this, you should avoid installing malware in general and regularly check and clean your HDD so that no unwanted programs stay there for long.

Viruses and malware

Computer viruses and malware are the next factor that can have a very negative impact on the performance of a hard drive. They infect the system and damage the system files stored on it. They usually enter the system from external source, such as from the Internet or external storage. The attacks of these viruses and malware are initially aimed more at HDD, and later can spread to other computers if they are connected to the infected machine via local network. Updating your computer's operating system is one solution to this problem. Moreover, one more possible solution is to install and frequently update a quality antivirus program. This antivirus will protect your system and your hard drive and make sure it stays safe from their threats. So, if the data stored on your hard drive is of great value to you, then you should not save on antivirus.

Manufacturing defect

Oddly enough, this item should also not be overlooked if you want the HDD to serve you as long and efficiently as possible. Hard drives that have not been tested in advance may fail even after several months of use. This problem occurs mainly with new hard drives. The reason for this most often lies, of course, in a manufacturing defect, which leads to a hard drive failure. The best way to prevent this problem - approach the issue of buying a new hard drive as carefully as possible and, if necessary, resort to qualified assistance. It is extremely important to test a new hard drive before installing it in your computer system, if that is possible, of course. And yet, you can never be one hundred percent sure that this will not happen with your purchase. So, in such a case, the only way out of the situation will be a return and replacement.

Overheat

Overheating is also one of the most common problems leading to hard drive failure. If the system is overloaded, the cooler may start to rotate more slowly, as a result of which the system begins to heat up immediately after loading. Moreover, there is a high probability of hearing extraneous clicks, which indicates that the hard drive is overheating. The reason for this is the lack of proper ventilation or a faulty CPU cooler, which overheats the system to the point where the hard drive starts to break down. Part of the solution to the problem is correct installation cooler and provide sufficient cooling for the hard drive. Also, you can install special program, which will notify you of the hard disk temperature. If it starts to exceed the maximum limit, turn off the computer for a while and let it cool down before resuming work, but in the long term, of course, conduct proper diagnostics.

The computer cannot detect the hard drive or BIOS

The inability of the computer to detect the BIOS or hard drive is due to a power failure provided by the UPS. This results in the hard drive not spinning up properly, causing the PC to not detect either the BIOS or the hard drive. The best way to solve this problem is to ensure that the power supply for the PC hardware components, especially the hard drive, is functioning properly. You can do this by simply replacing the cable connecting the UPS to the computer, as well as replacing the UPS itself with a model from a more reliable and trusted company.

Unexpected computer crashes

When a hard drive gets too old, it starts showing all sorts of problems that can lead to unexpected computer crashes. The reason for this is mainly the accumulation of bad sectors over a large period of time. As bad sectors accumulate, the drive and read/write head of the hard drive jams. If this happens, you will start to hear grinding noises and files and folders will suddenly disappear. You can avoid this by periodically conducting various hard checks drive and (again) installing anti-virus programs that protect your hard drive from the threat of viruses, which can lead to the creation of bad sectors. Moreover, replacing the hard drive every 3-4 years is also a good way to solve this problem.

Human factor

Mistakes made by the user also have an impact on the occurrence of hard disk failures. For example, incorrect installation operating system, making changes to system registry settings, and changing the location of system files are all very common custom errors, which can cause irreversible damage to your hard drive. Avoid making any unnecessary changes to system registry settings or changing the location of system files. Also, make sure you install the operating system correctly.

Hard drives are vital to the proper operation of a computer system. However, they are vulnerable to damage and problems that can lead to the loss of data that has been stored on them. However, by taking the necessary precautions, you can avoid possible faults hard drive. Below are some tips to remember if you don't want to lose your precious data:

• Install good antivirus program to your computer and update it regularly.
• Always back up your data in a separate location.
• Never turn off your computer while any program is running.

For help in preparing the material, we thank the experts of the AIKEN laboratory.

The best programs for diagnosing a hard drive

If you don't know anything about the state of your hard drive, you may simply not have time to save your data when the critical moment comes. You must understand that any of the possible hard drive failures can take you by surprise, and that is why you will need to know when it is time to back up your data. To monitor the condition of the hard drive, especially if visible reasons there are no problems, it is best to install high-quality software to periodically diagnose its condition. You can find some of the most popular programs below.

CrystalDiskInfo

This is a handy free program that can control S.M.A.R.T. attributes and will display basic information about the disk and its temperature. It comes in multiple versions that include more themes and support for multiple languages. The installer may suggest other software, so be careful, as you probably won't want to install a couple of things along the way. unnecessary programs. The program uses a simple interface that will display information about the status of your hard drive's S.M.A.R.T. attributes, hardware specifications, and temperature. If a problem occurs, you can easily find it in the list of attributes.

HDDScan

HDDScan was created to support all types of hard drives, regardless of who makes them. This program is portable, and once downloaded, you can run it directly without installing it. It can check the status of your hard drive's S.M.A.R.T. attributes, and in addition, you can access a wider range of tests and features. It also supports RAID arrays, which allows it to test for them as well. These tests include writing, reading and erasing information on the HDD. All completed tests will be added to the Test Manager section, and will automatically be queued to run when completed.

PassMark DiskCheckup

This hard drive testing software is free for personal use. To get started, you will need to download a small 2 MB file, and then simply install the program. In the corresponding tab S.M.A.R.T. Info file in the program, you will see the current state and attribute values, such as disk pack spinup time, error rate when reading data from disk, errors that could not be recovered using hardware error recovery methods, and other S.M.A.R.T. In addition, the program records the history of the characteristics observed DickCheckup, which can be used for comparison in case they get out of control or fail. DiskCheckup can also run two types of disk tests: short (5 minutes) and extended (up to 45 minutes).

HDD Regenerator

HDD Regenerator can help reverse some of the negative effects bad sectors have had on your hard drive. In some cases, it can repair problem areas, so if successful, you will be able to continue your usual work on the computer. In other cases, HDD Regenerator at least gives you the opportunity to get important information before you need to completely replace the hard drive. This program is very useful because it supports many various types hard drives. The developers claim that it can recover approximately 60% of hard drives. And although this is not the highest chance of success, such an outcome is still better than nothing. The only subjective downside is that HDD Regenerator can be a bit more difficult to master for novice users.

For some users, files from a non-working HDD are much more valuable than the device itself. Therefore, if the drive was accidentally formatted, it was covered and there is no way to back up files in the usual way, you have to resort to using third-party applications to extract data.

What to do in order not to lose information on a faulty drive

If the hard drive is covered, important information is not read from it or completely disappeared, there is no need to panic, try to reinstall the system or thoughtlessly run useful and not very programs. Remember the following rules that will help you at the first stage, at least not aggravate the situation:

1. Minimize all calls to the HDD - do not run any diagnostic programs, antiviruses, defragmenters, etc.
2. If possible, try to copy the remaining important data.

If there is another computer at home, then it will not be difficult for you to create an emergency flash drive or disk on it in order to boot from this drive for backup or connect the failed disk to it as an additional one. In any case, if your device contains unique data, it is useful to write down in advance just in case bootable flash drive with utilities for resuscitation of data from a damaged hard drive in case of unforeseen failures.

If user data is corrupted

It's pretty easy to recover files if hard section The disk has been formatted and has not been written to since. When it is possible to connect a failed hard drive to another computer and the device is detected by the system, there should be no serious problems.

To do this, you can use the Zero Assumption Recovery application (ZAR for short), which is one of the best in its class.

It must be installed in an HDD partition other than the one from which the copy will be made.

Otherwise, the chances of "pulling out" important documents from the carrier, which is covered, are drastically reduced. Better yet, don't use the hard drive at all by booting from another device or connecting it to another PC.

Working with Zero Assumption Recovery:

Disable the antivirus so that the process does not drag out. ZAR will inform you about this in the start window of the program, click Close.

In the main window, click the "Restore Windows Data” (photo and media recovery is a separate mode that is activated when you press the topmost button).

ZAR will detect every drive on your computer, including flash drives. If the drive is identified by the program, then you just need to select it and click "Next".

The scanning process will start, after which the utility will show directories and files. This information can be restored.

Highlight photos and whatever needs to be recovered. Click "Save", after specifying the directory in which it should be placed.

Zero Assumption Recovery reliably restores all data that can still be retrieved from the hard drive, completely preserving the previous directory structure, which distinguishes the program from similar applications.

When the system won't boot

If the hard drive was completely formatted or it just completely covered itself and the computer does not boot, you will have to restore files in another way by booting from a rescue disk or flash drive. For this in advance or at the first sign incorrect work HDD, create a boot drive.

How to create a bootable USB flash drive or disk to recover lost files

One of the best solutions for creating bootable media is Hiren's BootCD. This is a free distributed ISO-image containing a huge number of utilities that can be used to restore the system and files from disks. The distribution kit in the form of a zip-archive can be picked up at the office. application site.

The image size is about 500 MB, so you can use CD, DVD optical media, as well as a USB flash drive or external hard disk to make a backup of the information extracted from the damaged hard disk.

We will deploy the downloaded image on the media using the most popular UltraISO application. It is widely known for its ability to work with both optical media and any other drives, including flash drives, which is indispensable when working with netbooks and other laptops.

Create a bootable Hiren's BootCD:

All that remains is to press the button that allows recording, and in a few minutes a bootable Hiren's BootCD or flash drive will be created.

Rescue photos, videos and documents from a damaged HDD

Since the system is not able to boot on its own, we boot from Hiren's BootCD flash drive by first changing the BIOS settings or selecting the appropriate laptop boot option. When reading data from a flash drive, you will be prompted to boot in DOS mode or in graphical mode. The latter option is more convenient for most users, so select the first line Mini Windows XP.

Important information is often stored on users' personal computers - documents, photos, videos, but data backup is usually not well established.

A hard drive that stores valuable information can fail at any time, but data that has become inaccessible can usually be salvaged. How to recover information from visible to the system hard drive?

If the hard drive does not load the operating system or gives a read error, you need to find out its cause:

• if the drive shows signs of physical failure, or it cannot be plugged into Computer BIOS, this means a physical disk failure;
• if the drive is detected in the BIOS and does not show any signs of a physical problem, it is likely that a logical hard drive read error has occurred.

Reference! The BIOS is a computer boot system that controls its internal devices.

Step 1. If the PC does not boot, look at its boot menu. If there is a message in the menu that says "Disc Boot Failure...", this indicates a system hard drive failure.

Important! See below for troubleshooting system disk errors. Errors of additional disks connected to the PC are eliminated in the same way.

Step 2 Check the disk for noise by bringing your ear close to the PC system unit. If you hear a strange noise, clicking or buzzing sound from the unit, this is a clear sign of a physical problem with the drive.

When diagnosing disk noise, it is necessary to distinguish it from the noise of PC coolers (fans), as well as from the quiet, rhythmic noise of the heads in some models of hard disks.

Reference! Booting a PC from a "noisy" hard drive can be a serious stress for the drive and permanently disable it. In this case, it is better to remove the disk and place it in an external case to copy data.

If the hard drive is not making strange noises, another reason for its failure may be the lack of spindle rotation associated with a disk drive problem or a banal waste of the power cable.

You will need a Phillips screwdriver to check spindle rotation.

Step 3 Disconnect the computer from the network.

Step 4 Unscrew the fixing screws of the right side panel at the rear system block PC (viewed from the side of the connectors) or release the latch at the back of the panel. Perhaps the screws can be unscrewed by hand.

Step 5 Remove the panel by pulling it along the case towards the back of the PC and then sliding it to the side, out of the connectors.

Step 6 has a rectangular shape and is placed in a special compartment of the computer. It is usually connected to a PC using two cables - power and data. Gently, but with force, squeeze the cables into the hard drive connectors, eliminating the possible lack of contact.

Step 7 Do the same on the other side of the cables on the side motherboard PC.

Step 8 Start the PC, and by touching the drive from the sides or top, check if there is a slight vibration on its case, indicating that the drive spindle is rotating.

Step 9 If the hard drive spindle does not spin, unplug the PC from the mains, connect another power cable to the drive, and start the PC again to check.

Step 10 If the disc still won't start, check your computer's documentation to see if the PC's power supply is delivering enough power to start.

Reference! If the listed parameters are in order, but the disk spindle does not rotate, you can try in an external case.

Checking the BIOS settings

If the hard drive spindle is spinning and the cables that fit it are OK, you need to check the BIOS settings to connect the drive.

Step 1. Write down the hard disk data indicated on its label.

Step 2 Restart the PC and repeatedly press the "Del" or "F2" ("F1" in some laptop models, after holding "Fn") key.

Note! The button responsible for calling the BIOS can be found in the documentation for the PC motherboard.

Step 3 When the BIOS menu appears, press the left-right keyboard arrows to select the "Main" item. If there is no disk with the data indicated on the label in SATA1-4, use the up and down arrows to navigate to the “Not Detected” item and press “Enter” to determine it. If the disk is defined, select it with the arrows and press "Enter".

Note! In others BIOS versions disk connection setup is similar, see the documentation for the PC motherboard.

Step 4 In the disc menu, you can leave the default settings and press the "Esc" key (top left on the keyboard) to exit.

Step 5 Go to the "Boot" menu item, then to the "Boot Device Priority" sub-item, press "Enter".

Step 6 Navigate to "1st Boot Device" and press "Enter". Select with arrows desired disk and press "Enter".

Note! For a non-system (optionally connected) hard drive, it must be selected in the “2nd Boot Device” item.

Step 6 Go to the "Advanced" menu, select "SATA Operation" and set the mode to "ATA" or "IDE" (compatibility mode with "ATA" or "IDE" drives).

Step 7 Press "F10" and press "Enter" to exit the BIOS and save the settings.

If the hard drive is not detected, you can try to “hardware” reset the BIOS settings to their original state.

Step 1. Disconnect the PC from the network.

Step 2 Find the "Clear CMOS" switch on the motherboard and move the jumper from pins 1-2 to pins 2-3, wait 30 seconds and return the jumper to its original position.

Note! For more information on hard reset BIOS settings see your PC motherboard documentation.

Step 3 If the drive is not detected, turn off the PC and replace the hard drive data cable by repeating the steps to connect it in the BIOS.

Reference! If the drive fails to connect, you can place it in an external case to read the data.

Hard drive logical error

A logical hard disk read error occurs when the disk is healthy, but it is impossible to boot the operating system from it (with the issuance windows messages failed...) or read files.

This type of failure can be caused by viruses, system driver conflicts, software glitches, etc.

The Windows operating system has built-in data recovery utilities. However, in the event of a hard drive failure, you should not run CHKDSK utility or reinstall Windows, because. these measures can only worsen the situation.

It is best in this case to external connection hard drive to extract information from it using data recovery software so as not to lose them.

External hard drive connection

In all cases of disk inoperability, you can place it in an external case or a special adapter, connect it to a working PC and try to copy data from it by regular copying or using special software.

An external drive enclosure (adapter) is fairly inexpensive and can be used with the drive as an external storage device by connecting the drive to USB port, FireWire or eSATA.

External drive enclosures are available in desktop (3.5") or laptop (2.5") sizes. It is also important to make sure that the correct internal drive-to-chassis interface is selected - IDE/ATA or SATA, depending on the type of hard drive being used.

Reference! Drive enclosure configurations may include an external power supply. It is advisable to select this option to guarantee the startup of a failed hard drive.

After placing the disk in the case, you must:

Step 1. Connect it to a working PC like a normal external device. After connecting Windows disk will automatically detect and install it.

Step 2 You will be prompted to access the drive from the folder. Click on the option "Open folder for viewing ...".

Click on the option "Open folder for viewing ..."

Data recovery

After connecting hard disk, you can view the data on it and copy it to another disk.

When copying, it is important to look at common data storage locations such as the user folder "C:"-"Users" and "C:"-"UsersPublic".

In addition, if there is unstructured information on the disk, you can find it at the address: "C:" / "Users" / "User_name" / "AppData" / "Roaming" / "Microsoft" / "Program_name", copying its data to the appropriate directory in a new location.

Note! Instead of "Username" in the address bar, you need to substitute the username in the operating system.

Data recovery with Magic Partition Recovery

Damaged partitions, deleted files and folders, incl. data from another file system, can be done with Magic Partition Recovery.

Note! To find setup file programs can be in the browser settings menu by going to its "Downloads".

Step 2 Run the setup file with the left mouse click.

Step 4 After installing and launching the program, launch the "Wizard" in its upper left corner.

Step 6 Select by mouse click physical disk to restore and click Next.

Step 7 Leave the checkbox "Full analysis" and click "Next".

Step 8 The program will find and restore all logical disk partitions. Mark files and folders for recovery and click on the "Restore" button on the panel. The save wizard will open.

Step 9 Select the data storage source and click "Next".

Step 10 Select a working disk in the line, put marks on 3 recovery points and click "Restore".

Reference! To save data, you will need to purchase a license for the program at: https://www.magicuneraser.com/en/buy.php.

The data will be saved.

Reference! After extracting all the data from the hard drive, it needs to be formatted.

Please note that if the disk is physically defective (has extraneous noise), it cannot be used as a system disk and can only be used to store non-essential user information.

Video - Recovering data from a dead HDD Recovery data

Video - The computer does not see the hard drive. What to do?

An external hard drive is more vulnerable than a fixed drive. It is constantly moved from place to place, exposed to environmental influences, risks of falling and improper connection. Therefore, it fails much more often. If the next time you connect to a computer, it cannot be detected by the operating system, then this may indicate damage to its file system. Consider how to restore external media without formatting.

Causes of Removable Disk Problems

• The file system is corrupted.
• happened software failure devices.
• The removable hard drive has been affected by a virus.
• The device was incorrectly disconnected from the computer.
• Careless handling of the drive, mechanical damage.

Is it possible to restore a portable hard drive without formatting it yourself? In most cases, unless the device has been mechanically damaged, the data on it can be recovered. To do this, consider 2 ways.

Media recovery using Windows

The external hard drive is checked for errors on it. To do this, the utility is launched, which is included with Windows. To run it, you need command line write the cmd command. After confirming the command, a console appears on the monitor, where the line "chkdsk h: / f" is written, in which "h" is the letter of your removable media.

If, when trying to check, the computer displays a message stating that in this moment it is impossible to check, then you need to agree to the offer to check the selected disk at the next system reboot.

You can choose another way to check the disk for errors, more visual and accessible. To do this, follow these steps:

In most cases, after a scan, the hard drive will completely restore its structure without formatting. After the treatment, it will start on its own, and all the data will be visible on the monitor.

Restoring an external drive using R-Studio

You can restore external media without formatting. This utility works with all known file systems, recovers information from deleted and damaged partitions, works with encrypted files.

After starting the program, all disks will be displayed in its window.

On the left side, all media connected to the computer will be visible. Media recovery is performed in the following order:

1. By selecting an external hard drive from this list, you can take a look at information about this medium. It will be displayed in the right window.
2. When you click on the "Scan" button, the program will scan the selected media and display information in the form of colored clusters.
3. When you hover over a cluster, all information about it will be displayed in the right part of the window. The duration of the scan depends on the storage capacity. In some cases, it can take tens of minutes.
4. When the test is completed, the following window will appear:
   
5. We need to go to the "EXTRA FOUND FILES" subsection. A list of found files will appear.
   
6. Now the found files can be restored. To do this, you need to put labels in front of those files that we need.
7. Press the RECOVER button. If you decide to restore all found files, you can immediately use the "RECOVER ALL" button.
8. After confirming the choice, you need to decide where to save the recovered files.

Since they take up a very large amount of space, a decent-capacity hard drive is required. With a shortage of free space on the media, only part of the information can be restored. The restore operation starts with the appearance of such a window.

Read about causes of hard drive damage. How to recover data from a disk that has received physical or logical damage. Any malfunction of the hard drive can lead to its damage and loss of all information stored on it. However, even such a catastrophic situation is not hopeless. IN individual cases the user can repair the hard drive and recover data, partially or in full, from a damaged or non-working hard drive. In our guide, we will describe the main reasons that can lead to hard drive damage and introduce effective ways return your data.

The most common devices used by users on a daily basis, which assist us in carrying out various activities, are personal computers and laptops.

Thanks to high speed data processing, powerful GPUs, voluminous information storages and high overall performance, their help is invaluable when performing various high-cost activities.

But their main function is the processing, exchange and secure storage of important information, as well as providing access to it, at any time at the request of the user.

For control over a computer device, its full functioning, as well as for safe use and information management, special software is responsible. The most widely used software in the world today is the operating system. Windows from a corporation Microsoft, which easily provides full control of the device, processes and protects any user information.

The main element of a personal computer or laptop responsible for the safe storage of any user data is a hard drive. HDD. Whether you are using external rigid disks or internal, they have the largest storage capacity of any other storage device, which is the key to their extraordinary popularity and wide application.

It is not surprising that in the event of damage, malfunction or failure of the hard drive, all the information on it becomes inaccessible to the user. Critical user data, which took a lot of time and effort to collect, may be lost, and it is not possible to recreate it (for example, personal photos and video chronicles). However, despite the tragedy of the situation, it is not critical, and user data can be restored. In our guide below, we will note the main causes of hard drive corruption and present ways to get user data back.

A Brief Overview of the Hard Drive

Before proceeding to a description of the possible causes that can lead to a breakdown or damage to the hard drive, it is necessary to dwell on the description of the disk device for a more complete understanding of the essence of the problems.

HDD(in other words, a hard disk drive) is a mechanical storage device, the main features of which are aimed at recording and storing a variety of user information. For example, business and personal documents, music, videos, various photos and snapshots, electronic messages, projects and presentations, scientific and literary research, games, etc. - only a small part of all the data that the hard drive is responsible for storing and accessing.

The main components of the hard drive are glass or aluminum hard plates ( magnetic disks), covered with a layer of special material, intended directly for data storage. Recording and reading of any information occurs through special reading heads, which do not touch the plates during operation, thereby increasing the durability of the hard drive. And administration and full control over all the main functions of the hard disk is carried out by the board electronic control.

The combination of these basic elements allows the disk to store, write and read any data, at the request of the user, for a long time.

Have a backup copy of your data

Hard drives are quite reliable, but they have a certain resource. And the closer it comes to an end, the higher the chance that the hard drive will deteriorate or stop working. However, even in such a situation where the drive stops functioning, there are ways to recover the data stored on it.

Therefore, given that your drive may become unusable, especially if there are warning signs that we will describe below, you need to take care of creating a backup copy of the drive, for example, on an external storage device. Or use any of the possible ways to create a backup in the cloud storage. This method is quite convenient, because it allows you to save a lot of time in case of an unexpected failure of the main hard drive, and at the same time, gives you access to your data at any time and from any computer device.

Despite the positive outcome of creating a backup, such methods may have some disadvantages. When storing data on another device, there is a risk that it may also fail, like the main storage. But the chance that both devices will become unusable at the same time is very small. Also the device used as backup storage should have a significant internal volume, because the amount of data used by the user is growing daily.

At cloud storage a backup copy of data, there is always a risk of access to them by third parties, loss as a result virus attack or hack. Therefore, this method is suitable only if the user is completely confident in the safety of his data or is not afraid that they can be stolen by fraudsters.

Learn more about backup in the operating system Windows, system recovery, creating a system image and a recovery disk, as well as get acquainted with the benefits of cloud storage and its configuration for data backup, you can visit our video channel in the following video guide: "Reserve Windows copy(OneDrive, File History, System Image, Recovery Drive)"

Based on their own preferences, users choose one or another backup method for themselves. However, the main conclusion remains that such copying is necessary.

Possible Signs of Imminent Hard Drive Damage

If certain signs occur, you can know in advance about a future hard drive failure and prepare for it by securing your data by backing up or transferring them to another storage device. Here are some of the main signs that you should pay attention to:

strange noises- Sometimes users may hear strange noises that may indicate that your drive is damaged and you need to urgently repair it. In this case, further use of such a disk is unacceptable.

Disappearing Data- when data disappears on a personal computer or the user cannot save documents, this may mean that your disk is trying to repair damage, and you should think about rescuing all the data before it completely deteriorates. Or there may be other reasons, such as exposure to malware (viruses), which can also cause the drive to fail.

Computer crashes- If your computer has a blue screen on a regular basis, or it resets during the initial boot, this may indicate a problem with the disk.

Slow access time – modern computers have ultra-fast processors, so it doesn't take long to open a folder or delete certain files. If the processes on the computer are running slowly and the performance of the computer has dropped, then there is a good chance that your disk is becoming unusable.

As soon as you encounter any signs that indicate that your hard drive is about to fail, there are a number of steps you need to take to reduce the risk of permanent loss of data stored on that drive.

The first step is to determine if it is indeed a hard drive failure that the user is experiencing. Therefore, you must stop using the computer and turn it off. Even if the user does not directly access the disk, the operating system can independently perform various actions and write various data to the disk. system disk: temporary files, separate fragments of the paging file, registry data, accounting log, etc., which can overwrite information that needs to be restored. Sometimes, even very small changes can be enough to lose the necessary data forever.

The next step is to remove the problematic hard drive and connect it to another alternative personal computer as additional disk. Try to connect the hard drive with a separate cable or use a universal adapter. If there is no other computer, then take a spare working hard drive that you are sure is working and insert it in place of your drive, the health of which you want to check. Install the operating system on the new drive and use it as the main one, and then additionally connect your drive to be checked.

If the computer can confirm that the hard drive is healthy and give full access to its contents, then the problem is probably with other hardware - with cables or ports on your computer. Then replace the damaged cables with new ones and reconnect your hard drive to a different connector. In rare cases, a hard drive that does not work on your particular computer (but is fully functional on others) may indicate a motherboard problem. In any case, it will be necessary to perform a technical check of the personal computer as a whole.

Causes of Hard Drive Damage and Possible Fixes

There are many situations that result in disk corruption. Your personal computer is working fine, but one day it suddenly stops starting, there is no download or there is no access to files. However, no matter what happens, there are two main reasons that can lead to a hard drive failure: mechanical damage or malfunction due to a logical failure. Each of the reasons combines several types of breakdowns, which we will consider further.

Mechanical damage

This general damage includes three main types of faults:

Damage to the electronic control board: Such a malfunction results in loss of access to the hard disk. In this case, all data will be completely safe, or only a small part of all information may be damaged. It is possible to repair a damaged board (for example, replace swollen capacitors) or completely replace it with another working board. However, it must be taken into account that the electronic control board must be compatible with the disk, that is, match the main parameters (for example, model, series and firmware version) and satisfy adaptive settings specific instance. After the steps have been taken, the disk can be used again.

Hardware mechanical failures inside the HDA: Mainly accompanied by separation or chipping of heads, destruction of bearings and motors, which in turn can lead to damage to the plates. Sometimes, the head unit can get stuck in the parking zone, or head damage blocks access to certain sectors. With such a malfunction, the hard drive, as a rule, does not start and is not detected by the base system "BIOS" computer. It will be almost impossible for an ordinary user to fix the problem on their own, because even microparticles of dust that get into the drive when it is opened can lead to its final failure.

Damage to the internal magnetic platters of the hard drive: It is both an independent type of damage, and a consequence of the hardware problems described in the previous section. The main damage is manifested in the appearance of scratches or "BAD blocks"– damaged areas inaccessible for data collection. As a result, the possibilities of hidden reassignment of sectors come to an end. Therefore, if the damaged sector contains information about the structure, then the corresponding level disappears. logical structure disk, if the file - then the file becomes inaccessible.

With mechanical types of damage, if you are not confident in your abilities and do not have sufficient knowledge to perform repair work on a damaged or inaccessible hard drive, the best choice You will contact a specialized laboratory to recover lost data and repair damaged disks. Any careless action can lead to a complete loss of data without the possibility of recovering it back.

Each laboratory has specialized equipment, the necessary sterile, dust-free hard drive enclosure, laboratory facilities, and has enough qualified personnel to recover information from damaged, damaged or completely non-working drives.

A significant disadvantage of applying to such a laboratory is its unusually high final cost of services. Despite all their capabilities, the laboratory specialists do not give any guarantees that user information from such damaged disks can be restored in full. However, the user will still have to financially compensate for the full cost of the work performed, even if they did not lead to a positive result.

Therefore, before contacting the laboratory, the user needs to compare the amount of data stored on a damaged hard drive with the cost of extracting them, and decide whether they are worth such costs. And either accept losing them or use professional data recovery software to get your information back.

With a logical failure, a malfunction occurs at the software level, when, for some reason, user data or internal information is erased, which is responsible for the full functioning of the system. With this kind of problem, the hard drive won't make any extra noise, but it won't boot up and won't let you access the data stored there. However, with the help of professional data recovery software, you can extract all the necessary information back for later use. Learn more possible ways, if there is no access to a personal computer or laptop, if there are problems with loading and operating the operating system, you can from the video review: How to recover data if windows computer or the laptop does not boot, freezes, crashes"

The main causes of hard drive logical failure are:

Accidental corruption of sector contents: This problem is quite rare, but it does happen in some situations. Random sector data corruption may be an indicator of an imminent mechanical failure, a malicious attack, or an accidental entry due to power surges. Such defects can cause the hard drive to be inoperable.

Master Boot Record (MBR) corruption: This kind of logical failure can lead to a situation where partitions are either not found operating system, or their parameters will be defined incorrectly. The simplest consequence of such a failure would be signature corruption, in which the operating system assumes that there is no boot record in place. useful information, and the disk is not partitioned at all.

If the bootloader code is corrupted, the operating system fails when trying to boot from such a disk, causing the computer to freeze. In this case, the logical structure of the disk can be preserved and no data loss will occur.

The most difficult consequence of a logical failure can be corruption of the contents of the master boot record, which can lead to the destruction of the partition table and the loss of access to the information stored in the partitions. The contents of the table may have varying degrees of damage, which will affect the final amount of data recovered.

File system corruption: Such a failure is very similar in its characteristics to damage to the contents of the master boot record, with the only difference being that access to the partition will be denied, or the system will determine it as unallocated. Accordingly, all the contents of such a section will not be available. Sometimes fixing file system problems does not solve the problem, and some of the data appears as lost logical chains.

Data Recovery Methodology logical form hard drive damage comes down to using professional data recovery software. Leading position among many similar programs, takes the program « Hetman Partition recovery" from company Hetman Software, fully capable of recovering any information after various types of failures: a hard disk partition is deleted, data is lost after formatting or deleting a logical partition, data is inaccessible due to a virus attack, file system failure, etc.

The program combines a set of powerful algorithms that can recover additional file attributes and correct any errors in the logical structure of the hard drive.

Hetman Partition Recovery analyzes all data on the disk, even if the tables are erased or missing, restoring lost data using a signature search method. The program also performs deep hard analysis disk, which allows it to recover information after system or mechanical failures, in the absence of access to the disk, and return data from damaged, unreadable, inaccessible and non-working disks almost in full.

The program has a pleasant user-friendly interface, similar to the operating system Windows, the way files are presented, and with powerful internal functionality, is quite easy to use and will be understandable to everyone, even novice users.

A huge advantage of the program is the implementation of a step-by-step recovery assistant, with the help of which any user can determine the analysis parameters and recover their data in a few steps. Depending on the selected type of analysis, the program will be able to recover lost files and completely restore the disk structure, organizing them by type of file format.

An equally important feature that greatly facilitates the use of users Hetman Partition Recovery, the option appears preview recovery results, which reflects the contents of each file when it is clicked (for example, the user can view text documents, tables, photos, videos, listen to music, etc.).

After viewing the contents of each file and selecting the necessary ones, the user will be able to save them using various methods offered by the program by default: write to an optical storage medium "CD/DVD disc", create "ISO Image", upload files to remote server with help "FTP protocol" or save data to any storage of your choice (for example, hard disk, memory card, "USB Flash Drive").

The user's files have now been restored and are stored in a secure, healthy data store. Learn more about the features of the program Hetman Partition Recovery, its methods and all the advantages can be found on our video channel in the review: "Recovery deleted files in 2018 Hetman program Partition Recovery"

Conclusion

Information is of the utmost importance for each user and its safety is given paramount attention.

However, no matter how reliable storage devices users use, there is always the possibility of their failure for various reasons.

Sooner or later, this can happen to everyone and we must be prepared for such a situation. Knowing possible reasons damage to the hard drive, users can react in time to the signs of its failure and protect their data from irretrievable loss.

And even if the drive is damaged, inaccessible or out of order, there are effective ways to recover the information stored on it, for example, use professional data recovery software. Hetman Partition Recovery.

If you have any questions or suggestions on the topic of disk repair HDD and data recovery from a damaged or non-working hard drive, then write to us in the comments, and we will definitely answer them.