Frequently Asked Questions
- My Hard Drive is making strange noises, what going on?
- What is written to a drive?
- What is inside my hard drive?
- My hard drive was working perfectly and it just died. What happened?
- Are hard drives hermetically sealed?
- What is a solid-state drive?
- What kinds of data recovery are there?
- My hard drive died, can you fix it?
- What is Data Recovery?
- How long does the data recovery process take?
- Will my data be secure?
- Can you recover laptop hard drives?
- How should I package my drive?
- Can you recover data after a virus attack?
- Do you have a clean room and ability to recover mechanically failed drives?
- Can RAID arrays be recovered?
- What disk drive media can Computer Based Associates recover?
- What disk drive manufacturers can you recover?
- What operating systems can you recover from?
My Hard drive is making strange clicking noises, what’s going on? Top
The notorious “click of death” is caused by four different malfunctions. These malfuctions are the following:
1. System area could not be read- the system area is where the hard drive stores all the information that allows it to function properly. This is where the drive stored the location of your data. If this system area cannot be read the drive will click in an attempt to scan the drive for this area. This could mean the platter is scratched or the system area has been corrupted.
2. Preamp Failure- Hard drives encode the data that is being stored. This turns the data from 1’s and 0’s into sound waves. If this preamp fails then the drive is unable to decode the data being read off the platter (similar to a CD) and causes the drive to click.
3. Head Stack Failure- Hard drives are read and written to by small magnetic instruments called read/write heads. These “heads” move just a faction of centimeter over the platter. If for some reason the head becomes damaged or fails to properly read the platter the drive will begin to click.
4. PCB failure- All of the drives parameters are controlled by a chip on the bottom of the drive known as the PCB or Printed Circuit Board. This chip is like the brain of the hard drive and controls all of its functions such as the speed in which it spins, head placement, firmware, and every other control function of the hard drive. If this part fails then the drive will also begin to click.
If any of these symptoms on your drive is occurring, stop using your drive, as you could cause even more damage. It needs to be professionally serviced in a clean room by Computer Based Associates.
What is written to the drive? Top
When data is written to the drive it is encoded. The actual data itself is never written, only the interpretation of the data. If you are thinking that a drive contains 0’s and 1’s then you are thinking about it incorrectly. The data is more like a waveform being written to the drive. It has to be interpreted back on its way out before it becomes a 0 or a 1. Before the data is written the data is randomized. This eliminates patterns that might be the same so that ECC is not confused. It is difficult to do pattern detection on a pattern that appears over and over. EMI can be reduced and have less effect on the bit storage and the timing controls.
What is inside my hard drive? Top
Inside of hard drives are many highly technical and fragile parts.
Platters
The main part where all your data is stored is called the platter. Platters look similar to CD’s and are even more fragile. Just one speck of dust could render the platter unreadable and will cause permanent data loss. Modern hard drives have multiple platter making data recovery much more difficult.
Magnetic Heads
The next part of the hard drive I will discuss are the magnetic heads. The magnetic heads on a hard drive are what reads and writes the data onto the platters. These are highly engineered pieces of machinery. Even if they bend just a millionth of an inch they will cause irreparable damage to the hard drive.
Actuator
The actuator in a hard drive is a powerful magnet, which controls the movement of the read write head. The heads are attached to the actuator arm.
PCB (Printed Circuit Board) The PCB is located on the bottom of the hard drive. It controls all the information that allows the hard drive to function properly. This chip tells the drive how fast to spin, where data is located, and where bad sectors are that data cannot be written.
My hard drive was working perfectly and it just died all of a sudden. What happened?Top
No hard drive ever works perfectly. Even a brand new hard drive in the factory will have multiple errors and bad sectors all day long. This is why when you purchase a 400GB drive it only has 382 gigs to store data onto. This is the manufacturers way of hiding all the bad errors that are already on your drive. Furthermore, hard drives will automatically try to fix the errors occurring every time you use them with a code called ECC or Error Correction Code. Once the drive is unable to fix a bad sector it will mark that sector as unusable. If the drive develops too many bad sectors it will eventually die.
Are hard drives hermetically sealed? Top
A drive is not hermetically sealed! A drive does exchange air with the outside world. The balance the air pressure between the outside and inside of the drive, that is important for the fly height of the heads over the platter and does change according to sea level. This also controls the locking mechanism for how the actuator arm on the drive is locked to keep the head from moving over the platter and destroying the platter.
What is a solid-state drive? Top
When someone refers to a solid-state drive they are usually referring to a zip drive, memory card, or any memory device that has no moving parts. Disclaimer – 30 years of consolidation with Hard Drives, but not here yet on Solid State Drives Most every detail is proprietary on process and format for the data stored on SSD. Every Vendor wants to be the winner in the format for the best SSD device so no one is helping anyone learn about their layout and division of the device.
What kinds of data recovery are there? Top
Two Types of Recovery
Data recovery is necessary when source material fails and where no good backup exists, either Physical or Logical. There are two types of data recovery in the standard basic sense. One type of data recovery is when there is damage to the media and the preexisting data need to be retrieved. This will usually require the media to be repaired.
The second form of data recovery is when files were purposely or accidentally deleted. When this type of data recovery is necessary there is usually no damage to the media and standard software can be used to recover the data. This is the process that most software performs. Very few software programs understand damaged media. Because most software relies on calls and functions from the operating system for its input, it has no control itself over error correction or any functions that the operating system performs on the drive. I believe there a four phases to any data recovery.
My hard drive died, can you fix it? Top
It is impossible to diagnose a hard drive over the phone or live chat. Our company has a very high success rate but there are always issues that no company can fix. Our prices are the lowest possible, while still maintaining a high level of quality for all our customers. In data recovery you usually only get once chance. Do you really want to risk your one chance on a bargain data recovery company? We give all our customers a free evaluation and we will always let you know exactly what’s going on with your drive before we perform any work.
What is Data Recovery? Top
Data recovery is the process of retrieving deleted or inaccessible data from failed electronic storage media such as computer hard disk drives, removable media, optical devices and tape cartridges. Your data can become inaccessible due to a software problem, computer virus, mechanical or electrical malfunction or a deliberate human act. Regardless of the cause of your data loss, our experienced technicians are able to successfully recover lost data 80% - 85% of the time.
How long does the data recovery process take? Top
Evaluation will take one day. Recovery time will depend entirely on the severity of the fault and how much work is required to recover the data. Computer Based Associates aim to complete recoveries within three to five days.
Will my data be secure? Top
Computer Based Associates operates within a secure environment so that you can rest easy knowing that your information is kept private. All members of Computer Based Associates are under non-disclosure. The evaluation and recovery process is conducted in secure labs with controlled access to ensure the confidentiality of your data. We have a written non-disclosure agreements with all of our customers.
Can you recover laptop hard drives? Top
We can recover laptop hard drives using the same methods as the desktop hard drives.
How should I package my drive? Top
We ask that all drives sent to us are packages ideally within a hard drive box. Any packaging such as bubble wrap or shredded paper will help cushion the drive through the post. Please contact Computer Based Associates before any media is sent to us so we can ensure delivery of the media. You can also contact us so we can give you more detailed information of how to package your drive.
Can you recover data after a virus attack? Top
Our software engineers see many drives damaged by viral attacks and are very experienced in recovering and repairing damage done by malicious code.
Do you have a clean room and ability to recover mechanically failed drives?Top
Computer Based Associates has its own class-100 certified clean room. We can recover hard drives that have mechanically failed within the clean room.
Can RAID arrays be recovered? Top
Computer Based Associates has successfully recovered multiple RAID arrays and is very happy to look at any failed array. Please call for details and discuss your problem.
What disk drive media can Computer Based Associates recover? Top
Computer Based Associates can recover from the following media: Hard disks, RAID systems, Disk Arrays, Magneto-Optical, Syquest, Iomega Zip, Iomega Jaz, DR/CDROM, and DVD.
What disk drive manufacturers can you recover? Top
Computer Based Associates has recovered from the following media manufacturers: Seagate, Quantum, Maxtor, Western Digital, IBM, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Hitachi and Conner. Our engineers constantly undergo research on new models of drive and products.
What operating systems can you recover from? Top
Computer Based Associates has recovered from the following operating systems: Novell Netware, UNIX, AIX, MAC, Windows 95/98/2000/XP, DOS, OS/2 Our engineers constantly undergo research on new software products and operating systems.