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Great result on a dropped Hitachi external hard drive (with pictures)

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To be honest, I told the computer company that gave me this that I didn't think it was recoverable. You will see why in a minute, but I did one like this a few years ago for BT and it went really well so I spent some time on this one. Lets have a look..

If you are used to my rambles and pictures you will recognise this as the inside of a hard drive and the heads that read the data resting on the ramp, we can see in the image below that the heads are bent and not sitting pretty like they should be. Every data recovery guy would make a screwed up face looking at this but old hitachi drives (and the new HGST) desktop ones can take quite the kicking so this one may be ok. 

Here is another picture of the heads out , better image of the damage. This drive has been spinning like this creating all sorts of damage to the platters. 

Here is another picture of the heads out , better image of the damage. This drive has been spinning like this creating all sorts of damage to the platters. 

The 15 minute hunt for a "donor drive" to replace parts. On these I match the model number and the top line of the 3 digits on the side (you only really need the first 2) but I wasnt taking any chances with this one. 

The 15 minute hunt for a "donor drive" to replace parts. On these I match the model number and the top line of the 3 digits on the side (you only really need the first 2) but I wasnt taking any chances with this one. 

Note the matching model numbers 

Note the matching model numbers 

For this case I am using my custom made hard drive unit, the extended elevation gives me perfect access to the underside head screw. My good friend doogie made this, he's a bit of a superstar.  

For this case I am using my custom made hard drive unit, the extended elevation gives me perfect access to the underside head screw. My good friend doogie made this, he's a bit of a superstar.  

These are the heads out the "good" drive, we are going to put these in the bad one for a healthy chance at recovery, go back and look at the bad heads and you will see what all the fuss is about. 

These are the heads out the "good" drive, we are going to put these in the bad one for a healthy chance at recovery, go back and look at the bad heads and you will see what all the fuss is about. 

Good heads ready to get slid back onto the ramp, perfect. 

Good heads ready to get slid back onto the ramp, perfect. 

Ok, initial reports are good, drive spins up and reports no SA errors. This is encouraging but at this point we have read zero data so its not in the bag yet.

Ok, initial reports are good, drive spins up and reports no SA errors. This is encouraging but at this point we have read zero data so its not in the bag yet.

Here we can see some damage, I was fully expecting this but if we are clever and a tiny bit lucky this wont impact the data we need too much. As long as we have green where the important data is then im happy. 

Here we can see some damage, I was fully expecting this but if we are clever and a tiny bit lucky this wont impact the data we need too much. As long as we have green where the important data is then im happy. 

This is what we want, nice and healthy green on the data that we need. 

This is what we want, nice and healthy green on the data that we need. 

Full folder listing with 100% recovery on the data the customer needed and 95% on other data that they didnt really need but I recovered it for them anyway. Check out some other jobs like this one here

Full folder listing with 100% recovery on the data the customer needed and 95% on other data that they didnt really need but I recovered it for them anyway. 

Check out some other jobs like this one here