Platters: Hard Drive Repair
Most disk drives contain one to three platters inside the hard drive case. Newer drives may feature up to four hard drive platters.
A hard drive platter is a round metallic disk that holds the actual data. There is no price for the data stored in the hard drive platters; a $125 dollar hard drive may store priceless amounts of information.
A motor causes the hard drive platters to spin, the drive heads read and write data from the platters then this information gets transferred to the computer's memory through the logic or controller board.
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The hard drive platters fail mainly because of two different reasons: The first one is that the hard drive motor that causes the platters to spin gets stuck; the second reason is when the hard drive head crashes on the data platters destroying any data where the hard drive head landed.
Hard drive repair of a stuck motor requires the use of a data recovery clean room. This type of repair usually involves disassembling and exchanging the hard drive head and hard drive platters from a damaged drive onto an identical one known to be in good working condition. This type of recovery must be done in a clean room because even a single speck of dust between a hard drive head and a disk platter could lead to catastrophic results.
A hard drive data recovery professional must be equipped with special tools to exchange platters between two drives.
Some hard drive motors fail due to normal wear and tear; others because of accidents or user abuse, such as in the case of an external hard drive or a laptop falling off the edge of a desk; lastly hard drive fails due to manufacturing defects.
Another data recovery problem where the hard drive platters and the hard drive head is involved is hard drive head crashing. This is when the drive head lands or crashes onto data stored in the platters.
Now, some tips to prevent data loss or the need to have your hard drive repaired by a data recovery company:
- Make periodic backups of all your important files to another device. You might also want to find out how to do remote backups through the Internet
- Do not trust your important data to old drives (hard drives have an average life of 3 to 5 years before they fail)
- Avoid sudden shocks and power surges. To prevent power surges consider purchasing an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
The reason why a hard drive platter does not spin anymore does not really matter, what matters is that your data is no longer accessible. The only solution is to bring your hard drive for repair by a reputable hard drive data recovery company.