The head of a hard disk is a component that hovers above its surface during the operation, using the aerodynamic properties of its slider. The surface of the MR head element has a perfectly flat surface and has a specific pattern of dimples and bumps.
The speed of rotation of a modern hard drive spindle motor can vary from 5400 rpm to 15000 rpm, depending on the value of the drive. At this rotation speed, a powerful airflow arises inside the disk, which is used for the aerodynamics of the heads.
Damaged Block Of Magnetic Heads
Damage to the block of magnetic heads is one of the most challenging causes of failures in hard drives. Data recovery is a time-consuming process on the verge of possibility.
Restoration in case of such malfunctions in an inappropriate place is impossible due to the complexity of the technological process and the inability to create conditions at least slightly close to laboratory ones. Work on data recovery from a hard drive with damage to the block of magnetic heads is performed only on stationary equipment by highly qualified engineers.
We had a customer with a failed external hard drive, which made irrelevant noise after falling on the ground. When our engineers inspected the device, they found out that the block of read/write heads was stuck to the surface of the magnetic disk. A distinctive feature of this malfunction is that the disk can be detected in the system – the electronics board goes into service mode. In this case, the wrong volume will be indicated in the disk passport, for example, 0 bytes.
Recovery of Damaged Read/Write Heads
After our engineers ran diagnostics of the hard drive, the second step was to remove magnetic heads from the disk.
The sticking of the block of magnetic heads is fixed with the help of a specialized BMH puller, which allows you to safely bring the heads from the surface to the parking ramp.
The implementation of this procedure in our laboratory is carried out by specialists with extensive experience, who have undergone special training and have practiced at least a hundred successfully solved cases of this kind. The procedure itself lasts less than a minute, but any wrong move can lead to indelible consequences: skewed sliders, scratches on the surface, or separation of the head from the guides.
The most terrible result of unqualified interference is the head sliders remaining on the surface and the subsequent power-up. At the same time, the destruction of the surface with user data occurs in a matter of seconds, and it becomes impossible to restore the data. This process was done in the ISO Certified Class ISO 10 Cleanroom. When the heads were removed, they were inspected under the microscope to check if they scratched the disk.
As ceramic particles were seen on the heads, full recovery was impossible. Scratches on the surface of magnetic plates are the most severe lesions, which fatally affect the ability to recover information from hard disks successfully.
The very fact of scratches on the disks of the drive indicates that all the information will not be able to recover because the data located in the area of scratches is irrevocably lost. However, our data recovery experts transferred all the files that could be recovered to a new hard drive. The new drive with all the restored files was sent to the client, who was very satisfied with the results.
If you are facing similar trouble with your hard drive, do not hesitate and contact us by calling at (888) 611-0737 or filling out the form.