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1) |
Hard drive clicking
from a head crash |
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In our experience,
the top reason for failure in laptop hard disks is a head crash
which will cause hard disk clicking
noises.
A head crash can be caused by many things including dust or
debris entering the platter area, vibration, and physical abuse.
A head crash results from the read/write heads making contact
with the platters of the disk. If your
hard disk
is making clicking noises, it is imperative that you properly
power off the disk and contact a data recovery company. |
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2) |
Power surge |
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There are many
things that can cause power surge including lightning strikes
and sudden power spikes. A power
surge can originate from outside the home or inside the home.
Your utility company sometimes makes changes in
the flow of electricity from one area to another causing a
fluctuation of power to your home. There also can be a
change in the flow of electricity taking place inside your home
when high powered appliances are being used. No
matter what caused the power surge, it can have a detrimental
effect on a hard drive. |
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3) |
Motor or controller
Failure causing the drive to stop spinning |
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If your hard
drive has stopped spinning, the cause is often hard drive motor
failure
or controller failure. Both the
motor
and controller help a hard drive to function and spin.
When either of these components fail, it can cause the
drive to
stop spinning. |
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4) |
Blue screen error,
black screen or stop error |
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When you are
experiencing a blue screen or Windows stop error, in most cases
the cause is software related. It can
make the data inaccessible thus creating a need for data
recovery and an operating system reload. A black or blank
screen generally indicates a corrupted system files.
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5) |
Physical abuse of
the hard drive |
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This is a fairly
common reason for laptop drive failure. As laptop
computers are more easily transported from one
location to another, there is an increase in physical abuse of
the internal hard drive. Laptops are easily dropped if not
properly secured in a padded carrying case. The internal
hard disk can also become damaged as a result of vibration
experienced during a bumpy ride. A less frequent cause is
intentional abuse by the user who often takes out their
frustrations on the computer or hard disk. |
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6) |
BIOS does not
recognize the hard drive |
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Any type of physical
drive problem can cause the hard drive to go through the BIOS
undetected. |
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7) |
Accidentally
formatted the hard drive |
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Many users have
accidentally formatted their hard drive containing data.
This makes data recovery difficult for the
user as the partition table will be wiped. A trained data
recovery specialist can recover any data that continues to
reside on the disk. |
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8) |
Computer virus |
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There are computer
viruses that are designed to delete files and reformat a hard
drive. If you are experiencing a
virus on your computer that is affecting your hard drive, it is
important to shut down your computer and contact a
data recovery company immediately. |
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9) |
Corrupt partition,
master boot record corrupt, or partition table corrupt |
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This is most often
caused by software or user error. |
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10) |
Natural disaster
(fire, hurricane, flooding) |
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In some cases, the
extreme heat from fire can damage a hard disk beyond repair.
However, there are cases where
the hard drive can be recovered if it did not suffer from too
much heat. Flooding can cause water and debris to
enter the ventilation hole on the top of the hard disk. If
you have a hard disk that has suffered from water or heat
damage, it is critical that you handle the disk carefully and
contact a data recovery company immediately.
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