Data Recovery Case File · Portable Drives · The Detail That Decides It
Dropped Drive That Is Just Not Working
His enquiry was a single sentence: "External hard drive got knocked on the floor, now not working." That is a perfectly reasonable way to ask for help, and it is also a description that covers at least four different faults with four different prices and two very different levels of urgency. Rather than guess, this page does what would have been most useful to him: it sets out what "not working" can mean after a fall, why the difference matters enormously, and the one piece of information that separates them — which costs nothing to observe and should be reported to anyone he asks. Because after a drop, the single most valuable thing an owner can say is not the make, the capacity or the contents. It is what the drive does when power reaches it.
| Media | Portable external hard drive — impact from desk or hand height onto a floor; non-functional since; no further symptoms described at enquiry |
| Reported situation | Drive dropped and no longer working · no sound, light or host behaviour reported · powered state at the time of the fall not established |
| Fault class | Undetermined post-impact fault — spanning enclosure, connector, electronics and mechanism; urgency determined by whether the drive runs |
| Equipment used | Behaviour on power established before any decision · laminar flow bench inspection where mechanical damage is indicated · matched donor head service · PC-3000 Express with Data Extractor prioritised head-mapped imaging |
The decode: four meanings, and the observation that separates them
One — it does nothing at all. No light, no sound, no response. That points at the power path: the cable, the port, the enclosure's bridge board, or the drive's own circuit board. It is the least urgent of the four, because nothing is spinning and therefore nothing is deteriorating while he decides. It is also frequently the cheapest, since none of those faults touches what is written on the platters.
Two — it powers up and is simply not seen. A light, a normal-sounding spin, and no drive on the computer. That means the mechanism runs but never reaches readiness, usually a head-calibration or service-area failure. Recoverable professional work, and again nothing is being destroyed.
Three — it clicks, or attempts and stops repeatedly. The head assembly is trying to position itself and failing, which after a fall usually means it was displaced or damaged. This one is urgent, because every cycle is a damaged assembly travelling across the surfaces holding his data.
Four — it scrapes or grinds. The most serious sound there is. It indicates contact between the heads and the platter surface, and it destroys data continuously while the drive runs. This one means unplug it mid-sentence and never connect it again.
Why the distinction matters so much: because two of those four are quietly waiting and two are actively costing him. Someone whose drive is silent can take a week to decide without penalty. Someone whose drive grinds is losing tracks every second it is powered. The same words — not working — cover both, which is why "what does it do when you plug it in?" is the first question any competent bench will ask, and why the answer is worth having ready.
The other detail worth reporting: whether it was switched on when it fell. A drive that was powered off had its heads parked clear of the data surfaces on a ramp, and falls in that state are frequently survived outright. A drive that was running had heads flying nanometres above spinning platters, and an impact can drive them into the surface. He may not know, and that is fine — but if he does, it changes what the inspection expects to find.
And the instruction that applies whatever the answer: connect it once at most. The natural response to a dropped drive is to try it, then try another cable, then another computer, then again the next day. On faults three and four, that sequence is the difference between a recovery and a partial one.
On the bench
What the drive did on power was established first, on instruments rather than by repeated connection, because that single finding decides both the urgency and the route. Where the behaviour indicated mechanical damage, the drive was not powered again: it was opened under the laminar flow bench and the head assembly and platter surfaces inspected before anything was switched on, since their condition sets the plan rather than following it. Matched donor heads were fitted where the finding required them, and imaging ran on the PC-3000 Express under Data Extractor — head-mapped and prioritised, healthy regions captured completely before any damaged zone was approached, in one supervised session.
The outcome
The post-impact behaviour established by measurement, the corresponding route taken and the contents imaged and delivered. Free assessment, one fixed written figure including VAT; where a drive has to be opened, 50% of parts and labour is payable upfront with the balance only on success — otherwise no recovery, no fee. The decode, for anyone whose dropped drive is "not working": that phrase covers four faults, and the one that separates them is what the drive does on power — silence points at the power path and is not urgent; a normal spin with no drive appearing is a readiness fault and is not urgent either; clicking is urgent; and scraping or grinding means unplug it now and never again. Report that observation and whether it was switched on when it fell, because those two facts are worth more than the make, the capacity or the contents.
Just dropped a drive
Plug it in once, listen carefully, and then stop. What you hear decides everything. Silence with no light means the power path — cable, port, enclosure board or the drive's own board — and nothing is deteriorating, so you can take your time. A normal spin with no drive appearing means it runs but never reaches readiness, which is also not urgent. Clicking means the head assembly is failing to position itself, and every cycle crosses your data. Scraping or grinding means the heads are touching the platters and destroying tracks continuously — unplug it immediately and never connect it again. Whatever you hear, don't try a second cable, a second computer, or one more attempt tomorrow. And note whether the drive was switched on when it fell: parked heads survive falls that flying ones don't, and that single fact changes what an inspection expects to find.
Tell us what it does on power — call Glasgow Data Recovery on 0141 404 0294; behaviour established on instruments, surfaces inspected before power where needed, imaged in one supervised session.
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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.