Data Recovery FAQ
Hard Disk Read Write Head Crash

Question:

Hard disk read-write head crash - I constantly hear this but actually what is it ?

Answer:

Typically inside the hard disk, there is a very delicate mechanical assembly. It is very much like an old music record player where you see a spinning music record disc (equivalent to the hard disk data platter) read over by a floating head (equivalent to the hard disk Read Write head). In this case, the speed of data platter is rotating at extremely high speed, typically in excess of 4000 revolutions per minute. The gap between the Read-Write head and the data platter is a few thousand times thinner than the size of a hair. Imagine there is some electronic or mechanical faults that send the read-write head against the data platter. The strong abrasive force will virtually "tear" and "wear" the coating of the data platter where your magnetic data resides.

That is exactly the reason why you should not even attempt to power on the disk if your hard disk is making weird noise in order for us to successfully recover your data.

For full details, you could go to our technical resources and read more about read write head crash.

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