A drive knocked while powered off usually survives — the heads are parked and the mechanism tolerates real shock. Dropped while spinning, the heads can strike a surface they normally fly above, and the damage is immediate. The instinct to plug it in and check is understandable, and it is the thing most likely to finish the job.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sda → Device: Seagate ST1000LM048 · 1 TB · 2.5" → Status: DROPPED — head crash / heads not reading → Client: confidential · Reading, Oxfordshire $ bdr engineer-working → Donor heads matched: from stock · 0 days wait → Head-stack swap: complete → Imaging: 0.81 TB / 1.00 TB (81%) $ bdr verify → ✓ photos — 58,210 files → ✓ university_work — 3,940 files → ✓ everything reachable — recovered
The most common way dropped drives are lost is the check afterwards. If it was running when it fell, the heads may already be resting on the platter — and powering it up spins that surface underneath them. If it now makes any noise, that decision has already been made for you.
The same drop produces very different damage depending on one detail — whether the platters were spinning at the moment of impact.
A dropped drive that still mounts is not evidence that nothing happened.
Heads that struck the surface can continue reading while carrying debris or a bent slider, and the drive will appear to work. What is happening underneath is that each pass distributes the damage further and the drive accumulates reallocated sectors. It commonly fails properly days or weeks later, at which point far less is recoverable than immediately after the impact.
So if a drive holding anything irreplaceable has been dropped while running, the right move is to copy the data off once, immediately, to different media — and then stop using it, whether or not it seems fine. If it has already started making noise, skip the copy and switch it off.
Impact damage is the least predictable category, so the work is deliberately cautious.
The drive is opened under filtered clean air and the platters examined for scoring before any attempt to spin it. This determines what is realistically achievable.
A head crash generates particles that circulate and cause further damage. Surfaces are cleaned and the internal filter replaced as part of the work.
A matched donor head-stack is fitted, or where the spindle has seized, the platter pack is transferred to a donor chassis with alignment preserved.
Reading is targeted at the areas holding what you asked for first, because a damaged surface may not tolerate a full pass. Undamaged regions image normally.
Where platters are scored, those tracks are gone and we say so by name rather than returning files that open to nothing.
Physical damage means committed costs, whatever the outcome.
A dropped or physically damaged drive is from £300 +VAT after a free 48-hour diagnostic and a written quote. Clean-air and donor work carries a 50% deposit with the balance due only on success. External units should be sent complete with their enclosure.
Full write-ups: Iomega Recovery: “Access Denied” on a Backup Drive and a dropped Sony VAIO.
Send the device in for its free diagnostic and tell us briefly what happened; an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before anything starts.
Getting your data back begins with getting the device to us. Pack it up safely, pop your contact details inside, and send it over — once we’ve run the free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work starts.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is what we’d recommend. Rather drop it in? You’re welcome Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just package the device up as above first.
Want a bit more detail first? Fill in the form with more about your issue and an engineer will review it and send you a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01865 593000.
The questions we hear most about dropped and impact-damaged drives.
It depends entirely on whether it was running. Powered off, the heads are parked and drives tolerate considerable shock, so often nothing is damaged. Running, the heads can strike the platter and cause real damage — and that is when it should not be powered on again.
Not necessarily. Heads that struck the surface can keep reading for a while, distributing damage with each pass and accumulating bad sectors until it fails properly days or weeks later. Copy the data off once, immediately, then stop using it.
No, and this is how most dropped drives are lost. If it was running when it fell, the heads may be resting on the platter, and powering it spins that surface beneath them. Have it assessed rather than tested.
Partially at best. Scoring destroys the magnetic coating in those tracks and nothing recovers what was there. Undamaged regions of the same platter usually image normally, so the answer is often a partial recovery with the missing files reported by name.
Unplug it and leave it off. Noise after a fall means mechanical damage, and further attempts widen it. Send the unit complete with its enclosure rather than removing the disk.
From £300 plus VAT for a single drive after a free 48-hour diagnostic and a written quote. Clean-air and donor-part work carries a 50% deposit, with the balance payable only on a successful recovery.
Every repair is backed by a 10,000-piece donor store, opens with a free written diagnostic, and on most jobs is no fix, no fee. Begin today.