The disk does not pass smart diagnostics. Assessing the condition of hard drives using S.M.A.R.T

Sequence of actions in the presence of S.M.A.R.T. errors hard drive or SSD. How to fix a disk and recover lost data. When you boot your computer or laptop, S.M.A.R.T appears. Hard drive or SSD error? After this error, your computer does not work as before, and you are worried about the safety of your data? Don't know how to fix the error?

Relevant for OS: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, Windows Home Server 2011, Windows 7 (Seven), Windows Small Business Server, Windows Server 2008, Windows Home Server, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT.

What to do with a SMART error?

Step 1: Stop using the failed HDD

Receiving an error diagnosis message from the system does not mean that the disk has already failed. But if there is S.M.A.R.T. errors, you need to understand that the disk is already in the process of failure. Complete failure can occur within a few minutes or after a month or a year. But in any case, this means that you can no longer trust your data to such a drive.

You need to take care of the safety of your data, create backup copy or transfer files to another storage medium. Along with the safety of your data, it is necessary to take action to replace the hard drive. The hard drive on which the S.M.A.R.T. errors cannot be exploited - even if it does not completely fail, it can partially damage your data.

Of course, HDD may fail without S.M.A.R.T warnings. But this technology gives you the advantage of warning you when a drive is about to fail.

Step 2: Recover deleted disk data

In case of SMART errors It is not always necessary to recover data from disk. In case of an error, it is recommended to immediately create a copy of important data, since the disk may fail at any time. But there are errors in which it is no longer possible to copy data. In this case, you can use a recovery program hard data disk - Hetman Partition Recovery.

For this:

  1. Download the program, install and run it.
  2. By default, the user will be prompted to use File Recovery Wizard. By pressing the button "Further", the program will prompt you to select the drive from which you want to recover files.
  3. Double-click on the failed disk and select the required analysis type. Choose "Full Analysis" and wait for the disk scanning process to complete.
  4. After the scanning process is completed, you will be provided with recovery files. Highlight necessary files and press the button "Restore".
  5. Select one of the suggested ways to save files. Do not save recovered files to a disk with an error.

Step 3: Scan the disk for bad sectors

Start checking everyone hard sections disk and try to correct any errors found.

To do this, open the folder "This computer" and click right click mouse on a disk with a SMART error. Select Properties / Service / Check In chapter Checking the disk for errors.

As a result of scanning, errors found on the disk can be corrected.

Step 4: Reduce disk temperature

Sometimes, the cause of the “S M A R T” error may be exceeding the maximum permissible operating temperature of the disk. This error can be resolved by improving the ventilation of the computer. First, check if your computer is equipped with sufficient ventilation and that all fans are working properly.

If you have identified and corrected a ventilation problem, after which the disk operating temperature has dropped to a normal level, then the SMART error may no longer occur.

Step 5:

Open the folder "This computer" and right-click on the disk with the error. Select Properties / Service / Optimize In chapter Disk optimization and defragmentation.

Select the drive you want to optimize and click Optimize.

Note. In Windows 10, disk defragmentation and optimization can be configured so that it occurs automatically.

Step 6: Buy a new hard drive

If you encounter SMART hard mistake disk, then purchasing a new disk is only a matter of time. What kind of hard drive you need depends on your style of working with a computer, as well as the purpose for which it is used.

What to look for when purchasing a new drive:

  1. Disk type: HDD, SSD or SSHD. Each type has its own pros and cons, which are not critical for some users and very important for others. The main ones are the speed of reading and writing information, volume and resistance to repeated overwriting.
  2. Size. There are two main drive form factors: 3.5 inches and 2.5 inches. The disk size is determined in accordance with the installation location of a particular computer or laptop.
  3. Interface. Main hard drive interfaces:
    • SATA;
    • IDE, ATAPI, ATA;
    • SCSI;
    • External drive (USB, FireWire, etc.).
  4. Specifications and performance:
    • Capacity;
    • Read and write speed;
    • Memory buffer or cache size;
    • Response time;
    • Fault tolerance.
  5. S.M.A.R.T. The presence of this technology on the disk will help determine possible mistakes its work and prevent data loss in time.
  6. Equipment. This item includes the possible availability of interface or power cables, as well as warranty and service.

How to reset SMART error?

SMART errors can be easily reset in the BIOS (or UEFI). But the developers of all operating systems categorically do not recommend doing this. If the data on your hard drive is of no value to you, then SMART pin errors can be disabled.

To do this you need to do the following:

  1. Restart your computer, and by pressing the key combination indicated on the boot screen (at different manufacturers they are usually different "F2" or "Del") go to BIOS (or UEFI).
  2. Go to: Advanced > SMART settings > SMART self test. Set value Disabled.

Note: The location of disabling the function is indicated approximately, since depending on the BIOS or UEFI version, the location of this setting may differ slightly.

Is HDD repair worthwhile?

It is important to understand that any of the methods for eliminating SMART errors is self-deception. It is impossible to completely eliminate the cause of the error, since the main reason for its occurrence is often physical wear and tear on the hard drive mechanism.

To eliminate or replace malfunctioning hard drive components, you can contact service center a special laboratory for working with hard drives.

But the cost of work in this case will be higher than the cost of a new device. Therefore, it makes sense to perform repairs only if it is necessary to restore data from an already inoperative disk.

SMART error for SSD drive

Even if you have no complaints about your job SSD drive, its performance gradually decreases. The reason for this is the fact that the memory cells of an SSD disk have a limited number of rewrite cycles. The wear resistance feature minimizes this effect, but does not eliminate it completely.

SSD drives have their own specific SMART attributes that indicate the state of the drive's memory cells. For example, “209 Remaining Drive Life”, “231 SSD life left”, etc. These errors can occur if the performance of the cells decreases, and this means that the information stored in them may be damaged or lost.

In the event of failure, SSD disk cells cannot be restored and cannot be replaced.

For example, let's take a real hard drive with bad sectors

Friends, the minimum unit of information on a hard disk is a sector; the volume of user data is 512 bytes; if the information in a sector cannot be read, then the sector is unreadable or, in other words, faulty. All operating system freezes occur when reading information from such a sector.

This hard drive WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2 (500 GB capacity) is really faulty,

operating system It constantly freezes and periodically when loading it starts checking the hard drive for errors. The last straw for the owner of the hard drive was that it was impossible to copy important data to another drive, and even reinstalling the operating system ended with another hang on unpacking Windows files, replacement installation disk nothing happened with the operating system, the freeze was repeated at another stage of the installation.

That's when the question arose about what to do about it. hard drive, because one of the partitions contained important data and needed to be copied.

Launch of Victoria

Launching the Victoria program on behalf of administrator. We agree with all warnings about working on a 64-bit system.

Select the initial tab Standard. If we have several hard drives, in the right part of the window, select the desired hard drive with the left mouse, in our case WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2

and go to the SMART tab,

press the Get SMART button, the GOOD message will light up to the right of the button and S.M.A.R.T. will open. the hard drive we have selected.

5 Reallocated Sector Count - (remap), indicating the number of reassigned sectors, this means the spare sectors on the backup tracks are running out and soon there will be nothing to reassign bad sectors with.

Go to the Tests tab.

Hard drive surface test in Victoria!

On the right side of the program window, check the Ignor item and the read item, then click Start. A simple hard drive surface test will run without error correction. This test will not bring any good or bad effects on your hard drive, but when the test is finished, we will know what condition our hard drive is in.

The surface of the hard drive begins to be scanned and after a while bad sectors are detected. After 40 minutes, Victoria gives us the following result:

A lot of good sectors with a good read latency of no more than 5 ms - 3815267

There are also sectors with a bad read delay of 200 ms

There are no sectors with unsatisfactory read latency of more than 600 ms (candidates for bad blocks), but...

What’s really bad is that there are full-fledged bad sectors (bad blocks), the information from which could not be read at all - 13!

13 bad sectors (bad blocks), they all start in the area 6630400 and end at 980000000, that is, scattered throughout the hard drive. Bad block numbers must be written down. Friends, it is quite possible that all our problems with the hard drive can be due to these 13 bads and we need to get rid of them, but first we will make a sector-by-sector image of the diseased screw.

The hard drive of the victim WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2 (capacity 500 GB) was divided into two partitions: drive D: with the operating system, capacity 120 GB, and drive E: with data, capacity 345 GB.

Before working with the Victoria program, let’s protect ourselves and make a full image of the E drive partition: the volume is 345 GB and we will extract the data from the image. We will create the image in another DMDE program and place it on another physical disk SAMSUNG HD403LJ (400 GB capacity). I will show you how to do this.

Managing my computer's disks

Left click to enlarge screenshot

Important data is located on the New Volume (E:) with a capacity of 347 GB of the WDC WD5000AAKS hard drive (total volume 500 GB), which means we will create an image of the partition (E:)

We will create a sector-by-sector image of the partition (E:) on a SAMSUNG HD403LJ hard drive (400 GB capacity), there is only one partition without data on it. New volume (F:)

The third physical disk in the system is a solid state SSD drive(volume 120 GB) disk (C:), our operating operating system is located on it Windows system 8.1, which is where we are now.

Creating a sector-by-sector image of the entire hard drive or the desired partition in the DMDE program

Also DMDE is very good tool to create sector-by-sector copies of a faulty hard drive.

We go to the DMDE program website http://dmde.ru/download.html and download the program, click GUI for Windows.

DMDE is downloaded in an archive, unzip it and run the file dmde.exe.

Then select the Russian language.

We accept the terms of the License Agreement. In the initial window of the program, we need to select or Physical device(that is, a complete hard drive) or a data partition.

We only need volume (E:), so we mark our hard drive WDC WD5000AAKS with the left mouse, then check the item Logical drives

and partition (E:), then click OK.

Menu. Create image/clone...

Place for recording, click Disk.

New volume (F:) and OK. It is necessary that the partition on which the sector-by-sector image of the faulty hard drive (or partition with unreadable data) will be created should be no smaller in volume than this disk.

All data on the new volume (F:) will be deleted, we agree Yes.

The creation of a sector-by-sector copy of the partition (E:) of the diseased hard drive WDC WD5000AAKS begins on a new volume (F:) of another healthy hard drive of the SAMSUNG HD403LJ drive, which continues for 6 hours (the image is removed from particularly “bad” screws for several days) and freezes completely at 83 percent, after waiting a couple of hours, I clicked the Abort button!

Friends, if we interrupt the creation of the image of a sector-by-sector division at the very end (after all, 83%), then two options await us, as Suvorov used to say - “either the chest in the crosses, or the head in the bushes.”

After interrupting the operation, go to the New Volume (F:) and see if there is any data on it and... they are there, all the main things we needed, the DMDE program was able to transfer to disk (F:), almost all the data read without errors. This means our case is not complicated and the troubles are mostly software.

But in some cases, not everything will be so rosy, and when we try to enter a partition with a sector-by-sector copy, this error will await us: No access to F:\. The file or folder is damaged. Reading is impossible.

No access to F:\. The file system is not recognized. Make sure everything required system drivers loaded and the volume is not damaged.


But even in this case, we will not give up and will do so.

What to do if creating a sector-by-sector image fails?

Friends, the process of creating a sector-by-sector copy does not always end successfully even after several hours, but if you stop creating a sector-by-sector copy, the data in it may become unreadable.

Or during the process of creating a sector-by-sector copy, the following error will appear " The request failed due to an I/O error on the device" (see screenshot below) indicating that DMDE was unable to read the information in the bad sector (the sector number is indicated in the error) in this case, click

“Repeat” will make a second attempt to read information from this sector and it may end in success. If this error with the same sector will appear again, then click

"Ignore" and the creation of a sector-by-sector image will continue, but we will lose information in this sector and as a result, one file will not open in a sector-by-sector copy. If the "The request was not completed due to an I/O error on the device" error appears too often, you can select

"Ignore everything" and similar errors will be skipped, or you can press the button

"Options" and adjust the DMDE program accordingly for such a severe case. Click the Options button in this window.

"Reverse move", sometimes it brings results.

And press again "Options".

In this window, check the box "- Always". If you select this option, the operation will continue even

in case of an error due to the device not being ready. If you do not check this option, then on some “poor” hard drives a warning will be displayed with the expected user reaction, that is, the image will not be created automatically.

Number of auto retries on CRC error - 0

Fill bad sectors (hex)

Then OK And OK, the creation of a sector-by-sector image begins.

Left click to enlarge image

This setting option also proved to be workable.

Ignore I/O errors - Always

Don't wait if the device is not ready - Always

Number of retries on CRC error - 0

Number of auto retries if sector not found - 0

In general, I advise you to study the manual for the DMDE program http://dmde.ru/manual.html or http://dmde.ru/docs/DMDE-manual-ru.pdf, you can also wait for our article on creating a sector-by-sector image of a faulty hard drive various programs, in it we will even consider the creation bootable flash drive with the DMDE program.

  • If DMDE does not help you, then you can try other programs, for example. Of course, there are still ways in which you can make a sector-by-sector image of a faulty screw, for example, booting from some operating system based on Linux, for example Ubuntu, but I will not describe the process itself here and would rather write a separate article. You can also run the safecopy utility under Linux.
  • What to do if you still cannot make a sector-by-sector copy of the hard drive is up to you to decide. You can contact a good and proven data recovery service and specialists will take a sector-by-sector copy of your hard drive using special expensive equipment, for example using the same PC−3000 complex. If you don’t mind your data, then you can take a risk and run algorithms in the Victoria program that rid the surface of your hard drive of bad sectors (bad blocks), how to do this is written below, the hard drive can come back to life after this operation.
  • Important: Kazansky(program developer Victoria) promises that the most innovative algorithm for hiding bad blocks BB = Advanced REMAP is NOT destructive for data, but in some cases it can be destructive for your files, since even the most advanced Victoria algorithm Advanced REMAP hides defects (remap), This is, in any case, a change in the translation of the screw, which means the loss of user data (details below. I want to say that sometimes it happened that Victoria would cure a hard drive of bad problems and you would even be able to copy information from such a hard drive, but unfortunately not all the information is readable .

So, in our case, the DMDE program managed to make a sector-by-sector copy of the diseased hard drive, namely a new volume (E:), although in some places DMDE froze a little, but everything ended successfully. A sector-by-sector copy of the new volume (E:) is an exact copy and is located on the volume (F:). All available data is successfully read and copied.

The main problem has been solved and user data has been saved, now we proceed to the hard drive treatment procedure.

How to get rid of bad sectors (bad blocks) using Victoria programs

Friends, let’s now imagine that we were unable to make a sector-by-sector image of a hard drive with bad blocks and we couldn’t come up with anything else and decided to rid our hard drive of bad blocks in the Victoria program, in the hope that after hiding the bad sectors we will be able to read and copy the information to your hard drive.

Note: it is difficult to rid a screw of bad blocks in a running Windows, especially if, for example, you have a laptop with one hard drive and an operating system is installed on the same hard drive and you want to cure the same operating system from bad blocks. In such cases, create a bootable USB flash drive with Victoria, boot the laptop from it and get rid of bad sectors. I propose to create a bootable USB flash drive in the next article, but now we will find out how this is done directly in a running operating system, I will show you everything.

Remap

In the main Victoria window, check the Remap item, which denotes the algorithm for reassigning bad blocks to sectors from backup tracks during the scanning process. Test in reading mode Read, that is, from beginning to end and click on the Start button.

While the scanning is underway, let's talk about this.

1. What happens with this Remap algorithm? An attempt is made (several times) to force information to be written to the bad sector of the hard drive., if the attempt is successful, then the sector becomes healthy and is removed from the list of bad blocks (remap does not occur). If the write attempt is unsuccessful, then the diseased sector is reassigned to a healthy sector from a hard drive backup track specially designed for such cases.

2. Remap is the reassignment (replacement) of a diseased sector, assigning its LBA number to another physically healthy sector from the reserve track. Information from the sector (at the time of reassignment) hangs in the screw's RAM, and as soon as the sector is reassigned, it is written back.

Remap is basically not destructive for information; if your data is lost, it will only be in one bad sector, but you must admit that the data in the bad block was already unreadable. In the second case, the data will simply be transferred to the sector from the backup track.

Result. As I said, it is difficult to fix anything in a running Windows and Victoria cannot perform a Remap. After 20 minutes, the same result, 13 bad blocks, and you and I will have to make a bootable flash drive with Victoria and work in DOS.

How to scan a specific area on your hard drive in Victoria

If you know the exact addresses of bad sectors, you can set the exact scanning parameters in the Victoria program. For example, we know that our bad blocks start from sector 770,000,000, then at point Start LBA: (beware, in some cases your data on your hard drive will be deleted).

  • Most often, you come across software (program) bads that are removed most quickly by resetting them - the Erase algorithm, and even if writing to the zero sector is unsuccessful, Remap may well occur, since the hard drive firmware may consider such a sector to be faulty. If Erase does not help, then you can choose Remap, but as we know, the chances that Remap will be performed in a running Windows are low.
  • In some cases, software bads can be removed even by simple formatting using Windows itself. Read all the difference between existing bad blocks: physical and software in our article. I’ll explain in a nutshell that physical bads (a physiologically destroyed sector) cannot be restored (only repair, reassignment is possible), but logical ones (software, sector logic errors) can be restored.
  • Friends, we can, but then our article will be even longer, we will also do this in the next article.

I don’t want to experiment with our WDC WD5000AAKS hard drive, since in the next article I plan to cure it of bad blocks in DOS mode using a bootable flash drive with the Victoria program and still return to the owner the hard drive cured of bad blocks with intact data.

I'll just show you on another hard drive how to run this test in a running Windows.

In the main window of Victoria, select our hard drive and go to the Tests tab and check the Erase item (beware, in some cases your data on your hard drive will be deleted)- when an unreadable sector is detected, it forcibly rewrites the entire block of 256 sectors with zeros; naturally, the information in the entire block of sectors is completely lost, but if rewriting occurs, the block returns to work (becomes healthy).

Test in reading mode Read, that is, from beginning to end and click Start.

Often, when “resetting” in a running Windows, the following errors will appear:

Block (bad sector number) try Erase 256 sectors. It was not possible to rewrite the block of sectors.

Write algorithm

The Write mode does not look for any bad sectors, but simply immediately erases all the information on the hard drive by filling all sectors with zeros, this is what repairmen say in the jargon of “Write across the entire clearing”, this algorithm is able to cure a hard drive from bads and simply bad sectors with great reading delay, but After such a test, it will be impossible to restore data on the hard drive, so first copy everything important files to a portable hard drive.

In our time of technology, users are increasingly faced with computer problems. Today I will try to give detailed answers to many questions about fixing hard drive problems.

Checking the hard drive

I wrote in the article how to check the hard drive. The article describes the steps in detail and any user can easily check the HDD for errors or bad sectors.

Using this utility you can also check the SMART status. However, your HDD must be connected to a computer or laptop via an IDE or SATA connector, and not through an adapter connected to USB ports. To check the status you need to go to the SMART tab. Click the Get SMART button. At the bottom you will see one of three inscriptions:

"Good SMART" - everything is fine.

“Bad SMART” - retire immediately.

"Get S.M.A.R.T. command… Error reading S.M.A.R.T!” - reading error. Most likely your drive is not connected via SATA or IDE interface, or you have a solid-state SSD.

The operating time of the hard drive can be seen in the Power-on time line, calculated in hours.

The SMART status can also be seen when you turn on the computer, if the BIOS provides and enables the display settings function.

If the condition of the hard drive is completely deplorable, then the Windows operating system will constantly remind you to make a backup copy or archive. If this window constantly pops up, then these are the first signs that your disk is in its death throes.

Hard drive treatment

The Victoria program test showed the status SMART Good, but a lot of Bad (Error). You can try to restore your hard drive by redistributing bad sectors using . Best suited for this HDD programs Low Level Format. The program is very easy to use and has only three sections.

Before formatting, extract all the necessary information; after low-level formatting, it will not be possible to return the information.

How to recover a hard drive

To the question: "TOHow can I restore my hard drive?— I will answer, as a rule, the hard drive is restored by specialists to extract information and it is not suitable for further use.

Why is my hard drive not visible?

Why doesn't a computer or laptop in Windows and BIOS see the hard drive? There may be several reasons. Let's start from the simplest to the most complex.

  1. Most often, the hard drive is not detected due to corrosion on the board contacts for connecting the heads. This problem occurs very often, and this is the first thing you should pay attention to. Remove the bolts holding the circuit board. Remove and turn the circuit over; if there is oxidation, clean with an eraser until clean. Put it back together and check if it works by connecting it to your computer.
  1. In previous generation HDDs, it was possible to replace a faulty board with a working one from a similar hard drive. Modern ones use new architecture and technology; each HDD contains unique microcode. Simply replacing the circuit board will not only not solve the problem, but may also lead to complete loss of data on the media. There are two reasons for this failure:

A) TVS diodes have burned out, usually there are two of them - 5 and 12 Volts. They serve as protection against voltage surges. You can check it with a multimeter; if the resistance shows about 0 Ohm, then the diode has burned out. The problem can be solved with a simple replacement. Remember that without TVS diodes, the hard drive remains without protection against voltage surges!

B) If the multimeter shows the correct resistance, then you need to replace the board. A ROM block with a unique microcode is soldered onto the board; you need to unsolder it and solder it onto another similar working board. Some manufacturers' drives, such as Western Digitals, lack the ROM block, and the firmware is contained in the main controller, which is almost impossible to replace.

The disc starts up and a clicking sound is heard

Clicks indicate damage to the magnetic heads, and it may also be magnetic disk. With such damage, you should not run it, as the magnetic disk may completely deteriorate and it will not be possible to retrieve information in the future. It's better to contact specialized service. There the HDD will be opened in complete cleanliness and the information will be restored. By opening it at home, you expose the device to dust!

Hard drive beeps

The motor tries to spin the disk, but cannot.

The first reason is sticking magnetic heads. After turning off the HDD, the heads, instead of going into their parking spaces, remained -on or -above the surface of the disk. An autopsy is required within the walls of a sterile room and only by a professional. Damaged magnetic heads are being replaced.

The second reason is spindle lock. This is the axis of rotation of the disks. Usually fails when the HDD is hit or dropped. Restoring a hard drive occurs in one of two ways: replacing the spindle or transferring magnetic disks to a donor disk.

The hard drive starts but is not detected or is detected with the wrong capacity

The hard drive is damaged, or rather there are problems with the firmware. That is, your magnetic disk is not read correctly or written to by a faulty magnetic head. It can only be removed by specialists, do not experiment under any circumstances!

Hard drive hangs

Occurs due to a large number bad sectors on the hard drive – that is, damage to the surface of the magnetic disks. The condition can be checked by reading the chapter described above.

If the test shows a positive result, but the computer is slow to open folders, then try. If it doesn’t help, then the problem most likely lies in the small volume or weak processor.

Recovering data from a hard drive

Programs for hard recovery The disk does not exist, but there are many options for recovering data from a hard drive. I won't describe them. I will describe only one method that the user can use at home. Reasons for using this program: many bad sectors and files cannot be opened, deleting necessary data, . Under these program conditions, R-Studio can help you. More details in my article .

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Imagine: you are working at a computer and then you need documents with external hard disk. You plug it in and... nothing happens. Your HDD is not working. Don't panic, there are several ways to extract data from it that you can try before turning to the professionals.

Failure can occur for a number of reasons, but most often for the following two. The first (and most easily fixed) is a software problem. You may have accidentally deleted necessary folders or formatted the disk. The second - and most common - is disk damage. As a rule, in the event of a damaged disk, there is little you can do on your own; you will need the help of professionals. However, here several tricks that can save your files.

Data recovery using software

The first thing to remember when recovering data is the damaged disk should be disconnected. With every second he works with the computer, the chances of his recovery dwindle. The computer's operating system constantly reads and writes information to the disk, regardless of whether you are working with it or not. It will identify the space freed up from lost files as “unallocated” and write new data, erasing the last chance of recovery.

Turn off the computer to which the lost data drive is connected. Now that the HDD is relatively safe, you can make a copy of it and try to recover data from it.

There are many different programs for disk cloning; Clonezilla and Redo Backup Recovery are suitable for Linux.

Scan the clone with several recovery programs: TestDisk (Windows/Mac/Linux), Recuva (Windows), PhotoRec (Windows/Mac/Linux), Restoration (Windows), Undelete Plus (Windows).

Main components of the hard drive: cover and circuit board removed.

Disassembling the hard drive

Congratulations if you managed to recover your lost data software. But what if the disk is not detected, or the computer detects it but freezes when accessing it? Or does it just not start and you can’t hear the characteristic sounds of rotation?

Let's briefly look at the main components of the HDD and the symptoms when they break down.

Printed circuit board: The green board at the bottom of the device contains the main controller (analogous to the processor in your computer) and many other electronic controllers. This is an interface that turns binary code into accessible to the computer teams.

Magnetic disks (“pancakes”): HDD contains from one to several thin magnetic disks. Data is stored directly on them. Made from glass or alloy, they are coated with a magnetic layer and rotate at speeds from 5900 to 7200 rpm.

Head block: Data from magnetic disks is read by a set of magnetic heads. During operation, they do not contact the surface of the disk, but “hover” nanometers away from it, reading and writing information. As a rule, everyone HDD drive equipped with two voices, one on each side. If the heads break after a device is dropped or hit, they no longer “float” above the disk, but come into contact with its surface, destroying data at speeds of several thousand revolutions per minute.

Firmware: Data processing is controlled by the device firmware. A failure in the firmware can result in data on the disk being unavailable. Unfortunately, the HDD firmware is not similar to that used in mobile phone or tablet - it cannot be updated or flashed.

Now, having familiarized ourselves with the main components of the HDD, let’s look at breakdowns and their symptoms. Having determined where the problem arose, you can assess the likelihood of fixing it on your own.

Disk won't start

This is a case where there is a good chance of resurrecting your hard drive if you are willing to put in the time and effort. If the disk does not respond at all when connected to the computer, in 99% of cases the reason is printed circuit board.

For previous HDDs, it was sometimes possible to find a suitable board from a similar device and replace the defective one. In modern ones hard drives New architecture and technologies are used, each HDD contains unique microcode. Simply replacing the board in this case will not only not solve the problem, but can also lead to complete loss of data.

There are two reasons for such a failure: due to a voltage drop, the TVS diode burned out or one of the main components of the board failed. To protect against voltage surges, the hard drive board is usually equipped with two TVS diodes: 5 and 12 Volts. If the problem is only a burnt-out diode, replacing it will bring the device back to life. This is easy to check with a multimeter - if the resistance is near zero Ohm, the diode is burnt out. Remember that after removing the TVS diode, the hard drive remains defenseless against voltage surges!

PCB: TVS diodes marked
If the multimeter shows the correct resistance, the problem is in the printed circuit board and needs to be replaced. A ROM block with a unique microcode is soldered onto the board; to restore the device, it must be unsoldered and transferred to a new board. Some hard drives, for example, Western Digitals, do not have a ROM block, and the firmware is contained in the main controller, which is almost impossible to replace. You should also check the head connectors on the board. Sometimes they become corroded over time, which can be easily removed with an eraser.


Contact corrosion can cause drive failure.

The disc starts up and a clicking sound is heard

This is serious damage to one or more magnetic heads, and may also indicate damage to the magnetic disk. In this case, you should contact specialists. The HDD will be opened in a clean room (no dust), the head will be replaced and the data will be recovered. The clicking disk should be turned off; turning it on again may permanently damage it.

Hard drive after damage to the magnetic heads that scratched the disk.

The hard drive starts and is detected by the computer, but freezes when trying to access it.

This usually means damage to the surface of the magnetic disk. The disk tries to read bad sectors, of which there are too many, and hangs. If SMART monitoring shows a large number of reassigned sectors, the diagnosis will be confirmed. This common problem, which can be solved using professional equipment to take a disk image.

If you want to fix this problem yourself (at the risk of worsening the situation or losing all the information at once), you can use software to take a disk image. The Linux application dd_rescue is best suited for this purpose. However, the effectiveness of such programs is limited, since the commands still go through the BIOS.

The hard drive beeps when turned on

The beeping sounds mean that the motor is trying to move the disk and cannot. This may be a “sticking” of the magnetic head. If the heads are not parked correctly and are left above the surface of the drive after it has stopped, they may become stuck to the surface of the drive. To fix this failure, you need to open the disk in a clean room, remove and replace the heads. Definitely a job for professionals.

Parked heads after the disk has stopped. When they stick, they get stuck on the surface of the magnetic disk.

Another reason for beeping sounds when turning on the disk may be a spindle lock. This is the axis of rotation of magnetic disks. The spindle may become jammed due to a fall or impact. HDD . There are two solutions to this problem, both requiring professional intervention: replacing the spindle or swapping the magnetic disks into a new donor hard drive.

The hard drive starts normally, but is not detected or the disk size is detected incorrectly

Typically, this indicates problems with the firmware. It is not read correctly, possibly due to a faulty head, or is not written correctly for the same reason. Modern HDDs in this case require professional intervention.

To summarize, in several cases you can try to resuscitate your hard drive yourself. However, remember that any such attempts are very risky and, if the lost data is very important, it is worth seeking professional help.