Many users may want to disassemble a hard drive when they find it failing. Yet, is it right to open a broken hard drive and fix it by yourself? Will it cause further damage to the drive? This article will discuss about this question in depth.
When a hard drive fails, you may discover many symptoms. For example, any files may become damaged or inaccessible like corrupt Outlook file, or your computer works strangely slowly, or you hears any clicking noises from the hard drive, or the drive totally doesn’t spin up. In a nutshell, hard drive failure is very knotty. At that point, you will definitely want to repair the hard drive and get back data. Yet, it is actually inadvisable to disassemble the hard drive yourself to check if the drive components is fine. Here are 4 top reasons. If you are suspicious about this suggestion, please read on to get them in detail.
1. Dust
Hard drive is extremely sensitive. First off, you should know that your drive data locates on the circular disk platter magnetically. Also, the platter is commonly made from aluminium or glass with a thin layer. If you open a hard drive yourself in a non-cleanroom, dusts in the air will fall on the platter. At that time, your data will suffer irreparable damage.
2. Moisture
A cleanroom is built with appropriate temperature, moisture and air pressure. If you open a hard drive yourself, you cannot ensure the moisture in the current environment. Once the hard disk suffers high humidity, the next when you switch on the hard drive, it may be subject to electronics short circuit and corrosion. At that time, the drive may be compromised thoroughly.
3. Tools
In most cases, you definitely do not have the special tools to disassemble a hard drive. Most of time, you may just use a screwdriver nearby regardless of whether it is suitable for opening a hard drive. At that point, inappropriate tools may lead to scratches or dents on the drive. It’ll result in great harm and make potentially successful recovery impossible.
4. Experience
As an amateur, you may be unfamiliar with the components of hard drive, not to mention having the relevant experiences of opening hard drive. In this situation, it is common that you may make some improper operations that will surely cause the hard drive further damaged.
In conclusion, you should not attempt to disassemble hard drive yourself unless you are an experienced data recovery professional in a cleanroom environment.
Author Introduction:
Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including mdf recovery and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com
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Great post, Shirley. Very succinct and well written. I’d like to add that one other thing professional data recovery labs have that a home user lacks is a sizeable supply of donor parts. Hard drives can be so sensitive that it’s not uncommon for a replacement set of parts from even a compatible hard drive to still fall short, so anyone looking to fix a hard drive needs to have a wide array of matching hard disk drives on hand to serve as potential donors.