Data Recovery Case File · Portable Drives · Impact and Crush
Dropped and Stepped On: Two Kinds of Damage
Her enquiry described an accident with two distinct phases, and they do different things to a drive. An external drive that "was dropped and stepped on, causing it to stop working. The hard drive is making a clicking or sticking noise and is not being recognised. I really need to get images from this." Most impact cases in this archive involve a fall alone. Hers added a crushing force afterwards, which is a separate damage mode with separate consequences — and it changes one piece of practical advice quite sharply, because a deformed case invites an instinct that must be resisted.
| Media | Portable external hard drive subjected to a fall followed by crushing force — clicking and sticking sounds present; not recognised; photographic content required |
| Reported situation | Drive dropped and subsequently stepped on · non-functional since · clicking with an intermittent sticking character · not enumerated by the host · images sought |
| Fault class | Combined impact and compression damage — head assembly disturbance with possible chassis deformation constraining the mechanism |
| Equipment used | No power applied · enclosure and drive chassis assessed for deformation before anything else · laminar flow bench inspection of heads, surfaces and mechanism clearance · matched donor parts as required · PC-3000 Express with Data Extractor prioritised imaging |
The decode: two damage modes, and the instinct to resist
What the drop does: shock. The mechanism is subjected to a sudden acceleration, and the head assembly — whether parked at the edge or flying over the platters — is displaced or damaged. If the drive was powered at the time, the heads may have contacted the surfaces. This is the familiar impact damage, and it produces the clicking she can hear.
What being stepped on adds: something different. A crushing force does not shock the mechanism so much as deform the structure around it. The outer case bends; the drive's own metal chassis can bend with it; and because the internal clearances in a hard drive are measured in fractions of a millimetre, even slight deformation can press the casing against the mechanism, constrain the head assembly's travel, or distort the spindle's alignment. That is consistent with her second word — sticking — which describes something being physically obstructed rather than merely failing to position.
Why the combination matters: because it means the drive may not be able to run correctly even after the head assembly is dealt with. A serviced mechanism inside a bent chassis is still a serviced mechanism inside a bent chassis. So the assessment has to establish clearance as well as component condition — whether the structure is holding the mechanism out of true — before anything is powered. This is why a crushed drive is inspected before power rather than tested.
The instinct to resist: a visibly bent case invites straightening, and it is the wrong move for the same reason it is on a bent phone or stick. Bending it back is a second deformation applied to a structure that is already damaged, and it can press components into contact that are currently merely close, or shift a mechanism that has settled. Nothing should be straightened, prised, or opened to look. The drive should be kept flat and still and moved as little as possible.
Why images are the right thing to ask for: she has named her priority, which on a drive with genuine physical damage matters — imaging is sequenced to capture photographs first while the serviced mechanism is at its most reliable, rather than sweeping in disk order and hoping.
On the bench
The drive was not powered. The enclosure and the drive's own chassis were assessed for deformation before anything else — because a crush affects clearance rather than components, and a mechanism constrained by a bent structure cannot be tested safely. It was then opened under the laminar flow bench, with the head assembly, platter surfaces and mechanism clearances inspected together, and any scoring located and measured. Matched donor parts were fitted where required and the mechanism relieved of any structural constraint. Imaging ran on the PC-3000 Express under Data Extractor, head-mapped and sequenced to take her photographs first, in one supervised session.
The outcome
The deformation assessed before power, the mechanism serviced and freed, and the images captured first and validated by rendering. Free assessment, one fixed written figure including VAT, 50% of parts and labour upfront with the balance only on successful recovery. The decode, for anyone whose drive was dropped and then crushed: those are two different kinds of damage — a fall shocks the mechanism and displaces the heads, while a crushing force deforms the structure around it, and because internal clearances are fractions of a millimetre, even slight bending can obstruct the mechanism; that is what a sticking sound describes; do not straighten the case, because bending it back is a second deformation and can press components into contact; keep it flat and still, and name your priority so imaging captures it first.
Drive that was dropped and then crushed
Don't try to straighten the case. A bent enclosure invites bending it back, and that's a second deformation applied to a structure that's already damaged — it can press components into contact that are currently just close, or move a mechanism that has settled. Keep the drive flat, keep it still, and carry it as little as possible. Understand that you have two problems rather than one: the fall shocked the mechanism and disturbed the head assembly, which is what the clicking is, while being stepped on deformed the structure around it — and because the clearances inside a hard drive are fractions of a millimetre, even slight bending can physically obstruct the moving parts. That's usually what a sticking sound means. Don't power it up to check, don't open it to look, and say clearly which files matter most so the recovery captures those first.
Don't bend it back — call Glasgow Data Recovery on 0141 404 0294; deformation assessed before power, mechanism inspected and freed, your photographs imaged first.
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Our case files are drawn from genuine enquiries received by our laboratory over the past ten years, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery procedure our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.