What Is A Hard Disk Head Failure ?

No we’re not referring to the type of head failure known to George W…

If you have ever experienced the so called ‘click of death’ on a hard drive then you’ve experienced hard disk head failure, but what is it exactly ?

Inside the hard drive casing, files are stored magnetically as a series of 0’s and 1’s on rotating circular platters. It’s the job of the hard drive’s heads to read and write this data between the computer and the hard disk.

The read / write heads lie at the very tip of the hard drive’s actuator arm. Too small to be seen with the naked eye, these are the components that read and write files to the the hard drive’s platter surfaces and are extremely delicate.

When a hard drive is dropped or knocked the read write heads can be easily damaged. This damage usually results in head failure, and the computer will no longer be able to access the hard drive. Subsequently, a repetitive clicking noise will be heard from the hard drive when it is powered on.

When data recovery companies or computer repair technicians describe a hard drive as having a head failure this is what they mean. You can watch a Data Clinic YouTube video of this here https://youtu.be/_4Due_-8J4o.

Is Data Recovery Possible ?

Yes, expert data recovery companies like Data Clinic can successfully recover the data from a hard drive with head failure and it’s important to stress that this is a highly skilled job. Taking a hard drive to a high street shop or a friend who works in IT often proves disastrous as
(a) they lack the skills and knowledge of how to recover the data
(b) they lack the equipment necessary (hardware and software)
(c) their efforts often damage the hard drive further making any subsequent recovery attempts impossible.

If you have a hard drive with head failure and require the data back call the Data Clinic on 0871 977 2525.