How to Recover Data from Dead Hard Drives

Noticing that your computer hard drive is inactive and unresponsive can be so disturbing. But, you don’t have to panic. In this article you will learn how to handle dead hard drives. We will tell you how you can troubleshoot an unresponsive drive at home. If your efforts fail, our suggestion at the end of this article will be taking your computer to an experienced expert technician. So, read on to understand this problem and how to solve it.

• Part 1: What is Dead Hard Drive?
• Part 2: What Causes a Dead Hard Drive?
• Part 3: Can I recover data from a dead hard drive?
• Part 4: How to recover data from Dead Hard Drive

Part 1: What is Dead Hard Drive?

When your hard drive does not respond to any request anymore, we could say it is dead. And it is easy to tell that your drive is no longer useful to you. You may hear vibrating noises when you attempt to boot your computer. Shortly after, the booting attempt may stop and nothing will be accessible anymore. If you ever encounter such a thing, take it as a sign that your hard drive might fail for good. Every computer users can get affected by a situation where a computer hard disk does not respond.

A dead hard drive can be worrying, as some of the lost data may be extremely important. However, you should not worry unless the lost files were corrupt. Your can recover data dead hard drive in full. These files can be retrieved in full. But if you are currently not facing a dead hard disk drive, backup your data to be on the safer side. The easiest way to recover your data from a dead disk is via a bootable CD/DVD of data recovery software.

Part 2: What Causes a Dead Hard Drive?

Computers have many problems that affect their normal functioning. However, there is no problem that is as catastrophic as a dead hard drive. There is a chance that your hard drive data could be lost forever. But if you notice that your hard drive is beginning to fail, you can attempt to recover your files. The most prudent thing though is to always keep a data back up. Meanwhile, it is essential to know why a hard drive dies and how to capture the earliest signs.

• Corrupted areas on your hard drive - If you ever try to access files stored in these areas, your computer might respond by freezing. When frozen, a computer will not respond for several minutes. Its hardware devices such as the mouse and keyboard keys and all the active programs on the task bar might get dormant. If you shut down and restart your computer, the problem should resolve itself to indicate that your disk is fine. But if the computer freezes again when trying to access files on the drive, the drive could soon fail.
• Irregular computer maintenance – One thing that will indicate a rarely maintained computer is slow processing speed and lengthy boot sessions. It is imperative to run a disk defragmentation program once or twice a month to boost your computer. If you always do this and your computer is getting slower every day, your hard drive may die any day.
• Mechanical damage – If your hard drive’s head crashes, it will no longer read, write or store data properly. You can tell that your disk has a mechanical fault by listening to the noises it makes when running. If you hear grinding, clicking or scraping noises, that’s a sign that the read-write head is scratched and damaged.

Note that when you have a failing drive, your computer files may disappear mysteriously.

Part 3: Can I recover data from a dead hard drive?

1. Try to connect the hard drive to another computer device and browse hard drive data

If you have another computer, it is a good idea to place the dead drive in it. This will help you determine whether the disk is truly dead. Sometimes the problem is not with the hard drive but with the computer cables and ports. But how can you plug your hard drive into a different machine safely? Do the following.

• In case your hard drive is an external version, unplug it from your current computer and attach it to your other computer. Verify that the replacement cable is in a good working condition too.
• If you own an internal hard drive, you need more expertise. You should first detach your internal hard drive from your PC. Then, buy a USB cable converter or a hard drive docking station. Either of these will help you connect your external hard drive to a new computer. Do not remove a hard drive before you confirm that your computer is unplugged and that the battery is removed—where applicable.
• If you realize that the hard drive is working on the other computer, but failing in yours, the problem is not the drive but the computer’s motherboard. So, call a computer technician you can trust and explain the outcome.

2. Try with data recovery software to retrieve your hard drive data

If you cannot trust yourself to do a good manual hard drive data recovery job, it would be wiser to use data recovery software. It can let you recover even the most sensitive data that could be hidden in a lost partition. With it, you can retrieve your lost photographs, media files, unformat files and vital documents. Besides, data recovery software that is totally reliable comes with clear instructions on the usage. As a result, you can use it even if you have very little software knowledge. Good software will recover data from an external hard drive, memory card, and dynamic disk “Invalid” and other situations. It is the most preferable method if you aren’t sure of your technical abilities.

Part 4: How to recover data from Dead Hard Drive

Wondershare Data Recovery is a professional dead hard drive recovery software,it is a safe and effective data recovery software, recover your lost videos, photos, music, documents, emails, etc. from your PC's hard drive as well as from USB drives, external hard drives, and other storage devices.It also can recover data from dead hard drive,or this hard drive storage damaged.

Step 1: Launch this dead hard drive recovery software and select the type of files you want to recover.

Step 2: Select the partition where you want recover data from. If you are not sure the partiton, go to the option "I can't find my partition" to start

Step 3: Select a partition to scan files from the list.

Step 4: After the scanning completed. You can preview the recovered data from deah hard drive and save to another safe storage device.

Note: This hard drive data recovery will start a quick scan first. If the quick scan can't find your data from hard drive, go to deep scan which will deeply search more data from hard drive.

Tips for data recovery

• If you discover that your hard disk is unresponsive, try to plug it on another computer to establish if it’s really dead.
• Find reputable and effective data recovery software like Wondershare. Follow simple instructions to recover your data.
• If you cannot manually troubleshoot your dead hard drive, and recover data from it, consult a computer technician in your area.
• But if you can do-it-yourself, obtain every tool you will require before you start the process.