Why you Shouldn’t Attempt Recovering Data from Western Digital External Hard Drive?
At Five Star Data Recovery, Western Digital Data Recovery is our specialty. We’ve recovered data from thousands of WD drives each with their own specific issue. The root cause of a drive failing is only one of so many issues (bad sectors, physical damage, operating system corruption, deletion, electronic failure, firmware corruption).
With the best tools in the industry, training from the top Data Recovery Engineers in the world and an ambition to constantly educate ourselves in the industry, recovering data from Western Digital drives with any of these issues is really a walk in the park for us. What makes our job difficult is when users attempt to recover the data themselves before bringing it into our laboratory.
What types of issues do we see? I’ll list a couple for example and also attach photos from real life cases:
Common Issue: Customer dropped a Western Digital My Passport External hard drive. The drive would power on and initially was recognized by the computer and the files were accessible. But when the customer tried to open a file, the drive would respond extremely slow. After the customer ejected the drive and tried to mount it again, it was responding even slower. Customer googled “How to recover data from western digital external hard drive” and followed online guides on the process. The customer attempted to scan the drive with multiple Data Recovery softwares, but none would give her any results. After a couple of hours of working on trying to recover the data, the drive was no longer recognized by the computer.
What’s the problem here? When the drive took a drop, the read/write heads make contact with the platters for a split moment and caused very light media damage (something that is really not a big issue if addressed immediately and properly). When the customer tried to access the files on the drive, she was forcing the read/write heads to read the data that was written on a damaged portion of the platters. The drive attempted to read the data so many times until it developed a firmware issue known as the “Western Digital Busy Bug.” In most cases, we are able to repair this issue with the drive and recover the data from around the damaged areas on the platters. But in some cases, the customer has made so many attempts that they have caused major damage to the platters that is irreversible (see photos in article).
Common Issue: Customer has another model Western Digital My Book External hard drive. The drive is close to ten years old. Sometimes the drive would mount, sometimes it wouldn’t. Customer decided to move the files off from the drive to a new drive. While he dragged and dropped files, he would constantly get an error message “the finder can’t complete the operation because some data cannot be read or written.” So, he decides to use software again to attempt the recovery himself. The drive was a 500GB My Book. Customer ran the scan for over 2 days, and it was only 10% complete. Eventually the customer realized the drive is no longer mounted and the computer is not being recognized by the drive anymore.
What’s the problem here? The hard drive’s issues were that the read/write heads became weak and could no longer read. We removed the heads from the drive, inspected them under a microscope and there was no physical damage to the heads at all. If the customer would not have stressed out the heads by trying to force the heads to read, we would have been able to recover the less than 50GB that was on the drive by reading at a slower and safer speed from the drive.
Common Issue: Customer was working on her drive and the drive fell off the table while it was still powered on. Customer reconnected the drive to her computer and it was making “Beeping” sounds. So, she immediately did some research and found a video on how to fix a drive that has stuck heads (very bad idea, anyone who is thinking to doing this……please continue reading and don’t try this yourself). She goes to the store, buys the right screwdriver and attempts to fix the problem (we won’t go in detail the steps, as it’s a bad idea). She closes the drive’s lid, connects it to her computer and it no longer beeps, but now it is making clicking sounds. The sounds soon develop into grinding sounds as she is searching for a data recovery software while the drive is connected and clicking.
What’s the problem here? Pretty much everything. In cases where the drive has been dropped and is making any unusual sounds, first thing you should do is STOP. Put the drive in a safe place and find an honest, reliable and trustworthy Data Recovery company. Not a computer repair shop who will attempt How to Fixes. These types of cases are not software recoveries or something that should be taken lightly. The drive should be opened in a safe and secure Clean Room Environment. The heads should safely be removed off the platters (not with an icepick type tool). Once the heads are removed from the platters, they should be removed from the drive and inspected under a microscope to make sure there aren’t microscopic traces of damage. If there are, the heads MUST be replaced. If they don’t get replaced, the heads will destroy the surface of the platter making the data unrecoverable. We have seen this too many times (real life case photos attached). Every customer who comes with such drives that are unrecoverable has tried to fix the issue themselves before coming to us. If the drive is not tampered with before seeking our professional services, the chances of recovery would be close to 97%. Online “How to Guides” have decreased consumer’s chances of recovering their data substantially. We urge customers who are in this specific situation (hardware issue with the drive) to not attempt to recover the data yourself, unless you are okay with the idea of losing the data on the drive forever.
Why do we (Professional Data Recovery Companies) have the edge on being able to recover the data? Why is the cost of Data Recovery relatively expensive?
Experience, Knowledge, Tools. By far the number one benefit of seeking a Professional is their experience in the industry. When a customer is honest to us about how his/her hard drive failed, we can have the data recovered with so much more ease then in a simpler case where the customer is trying to hide facts because they are worried, we may charge more (our prices are flat rate).
Understanding the issue with the drive and knowing the best approach to recovering the data ensures that your data is never at risk of being lost forever. There is no gambling of data when you seek a professional.
If you are in need of Western Digital Data Recovery, please feel free to contact us anytime at 818–272–8866. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
