Working with huge amounts of information? You know the panic moment when you realize that you need some files that you deleted a long time ago. This is the subject of this post : Ask me how to recover lost files from WD Elements portable hard drive. First lets start with some general data recovery tricks, valid for all type of data devices, PC’s, Mac’s, phones.
Most laptops and even desktop computers come with just one hard drive. In such case, a crashed hard drive can be a real disaster. Not only do you lose access to your operating system, but you also lose your pictures, documents, videos, application data, and everything else that was stored on the computer. A free partition editor, such as GParted, allows you to create extra partitions on a single hard drive and thus separate the OS and programs from data. The newly created partitions will be located on the same physical disk, but the extra layer of separation between them gives you an useful protection against damage caused by human error and malware.
The first step is to remove the hard drive from the device if possible, or otherwise stop using it. Any actions, even installing a recovery app, risks overwriting the files you need. The good news is that when you delete a file on a drive, all that data doesn’t immediately go away. The computer mostly erases the information that points the computer to that chunk of data, which will remain until it gets written over. This works differently depending on whether you have a magnetic spinning disk drive or a solid-state drive (SSD), which you’ll find on most modern computers. But either way, recovery is possible.
On being struck with a logical failure, the hard drive won’t make any noises, but it won’t boot up or let you access the data. And here’s the good part. When a hard drive fails, or you accidentally format it or delete data from it, the data doesn’t disappear. It stays on the drive until something else is overwritten on it. Usually, with a properly working hard drive, all data has its own dedicated storage space. Deleted data or formatted storage or in this case, storage on the failed hard drive is marked as “fit for overwriting”.
If you want to replace the PCB then you’ll need to fine a matching replacement and have the ROM chip moved. There are many online providers that will sell you a matching PCB. Some of them even offer to move the ROM chip for you, saving you the hassle of soldering and possibly damaging the chip. If the PCB was the only damaged component and the drive’s internals are OK, then after the replacement and ROM swap, your drive should be up and running again. Another PCB-related item to check are the head contacts. Sometimes they corrode with time, but are easily cleaned with a rubber eraser.
Modern solid state drives (SSDs) in newer portable computers are much more difficult to access. These laptops are built very thin, and reaching the casing screws is sometimes impossible. Even if the case can be opened, many of these drives are inaccessible and sometimes even soldered directly onto the other components, so removal is virtually impossible. If someone has an SSD laptop that’s inoperable and contains important data, then the only viable option is to send the machine to a specialised shop. This company will open the device in a clean room and have the right sockets to match to the laptop’s proprietary connectors. While such recovery is usually successful, it could potentially cost thousands and will require a considerable amount of time.
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