Data Recovery from IBM / Hitachi Deskstar hard disk drives – part 1

Data Clinic are able to recover data from any type of IBM / Hitachi hard disk.

IBM / Hitachi Deskstar hard disk failure – Data recovery information

Symptoms:
IBM & Hitachi Deskstar hard disks are no different from any other drive in so much as they are prone to all the usual problems suffered by hard disks. However, they are notorious for developing serious mechanical faults, the symptoms of which are a regular “scratch-click, scratch-click, scratch-click” noise coming from the hard disk. Once this has happened the drive will frequently not be recognised in the BIOS and it is important to power the drive down immediately and not power it back on again, as continuous use will further compound the problem. This fault is commonly known as the Deskstar ”click of death”.

What is the cause of this failure?:
The cause of the failure are often the Giant Magneto Resistive read / write heads used by the drive and the way they interact with the data stored on the hard disk. Internal problems within the hard disk cause contamination, which in turn produce the infamous ”click of death” noise detailed above. A further problem we have noticed on IBM Deskstar hard disks is the corruption of data contained on one of the integrated circuits on the controller board; for further information please read our IBM Deskstar NV-Ram fault page.

What are the chances of recovering data?: If the Deskstar is suffering from the mechanical problem above, power it down asap and contact us. It”s important to note that just because you have a Deskstar, it doesn”t necessarily mean that it has mechanical failure. Drives can fail in many ways from which the data is recoverable.

Noisy IBM Deskstar hard disks -
audio examples: If you have an Deskstar that is noisy it doesn”t necessarily mean that the drive has developed the ”click of death”. Here are two audio files that you can use to help diagnose your hard disk, note how similar the two disks sound.

• The first is the sound made by a faulty IBM Deskstar with buffer corruption (.wav file, 250k) – this drive is recoverable
• The second is a faulty IBM Deskstar suffering from the ”click of death” (as described on this page) (.wav file – 340k) – these drives are much more difficult to recover.

What should I do?: Call us on 0871 977 2525 or why not request a free callback.