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Understanding Data Recovery: Common Failures, Causes and Costs
When a storage device fails, the cost and complexity of data recovery depends on the type of failure. Below is a guide to some very common scenarios regarding data loss, what causes them, how data recovery specialists attempt to recover the data and an approximate cost scale.
Costs will vary from one part of the world to another and obviously change over time so I’ve used a cost scale of cheap, moderate, expensive and very expensive. However, to give an idea of how that translates to actual dollar amounts, one data recovery specialist in Perth, Western Australia (as at January 2025) has a list of services with charges ranging from from $250 to $10,000.
1. Deleted or Corrupted Files
Symptoms: Missing files, unreadable documents or unique/specialised software that won’t run any more due to file corruption.
Cause: Accidental deletion, software errors, malicious software (viruses, etc) or power loss to the computer while saving a file.
Recovery Process: Specialists use data recovery software to scan the drive for deleted or corrupted file fragments. If the file system is damaged, specialists reconstruct it manually.
Cost Estimate: Cheap – Usually software-based recovery and relatively quick.
2. Failing or Bad Sectors on a Hard Drive
Symptoms: Sudden but continuous slow performance, frequent crashes, unreadable files or the drive may keep disappearing from the system.
Cause: Physical wear, minor head degradation or data corruption from bad sectors forming over time.
Recovery Process: Specialists clone the drive, sector-by-sector, to a stable disk and must bypass damaged areas to extract as much data as possible.
Cost Estimate: Moderate to Expensive – Depends on the extent of the damage.
3. Clicking Hard Drive (Repetitive Clicking Sounds)
Symptoms: The drive makes loud, repetitive clicking noises and cannot be accessed. Computer won’t boot if the main drive is the “clicker”.
Cause: Repeated head seek failure, where the read/write heads in the drive continuously reset (the cause of the click) due to internal damage. This can be caused by head crashes, misaligned servo tracks, failed electronic components or firmware corruption of the drive.
Recovery Process: Requires cleanroom work (see more info about cleanrooms, below). Technicians may replace the read/write heads or transfer the drive platters (the physical medium the data is stored on in the drive) from the failed drive to a donor drive. If successful, data is then extracted from the donor drive to a new backup drive.
Cost Estimate: Very Expensive – Requires physical repair, many hours of highly skilled labor and a highly-maintained (ie, expensive) cleanroom.
4. Unresponsive External or USB Drive
Symptoms: The drive is not detected by the computer, does not power on or has intermittent connectivity issues.
Cause: Faulty USB controller, firmware corruption, or electronic failure on the circuit board.
Recovery Process: If the controller has failed, specialists attempt to extract the NAND memory chip (in flash drives) or repair the circuit board (in external HDDs). If necessary, a compatible donor circuit board may need to be found.
Cost Estimate: Moderate to Expensive – Depends on whether firmware reconstruction is needed.
5. Water or Fire-Damaged Drives
Symptoms: The drive is physically damaged, with visible burn marks or moisture exposure.
Cause: Electrical short circuits from water damage or extreme heat melting internal components.
Recovery Process: The drive is carefully dried (if water-damaged) and disassembled in a cleanroom (see more info about cleanrooms, below). If necessary, data is extracted from undamaged platters using donor parts.
Cost Estimate: Very Expensive – Extensive physical repair is required, with a high risk of data loss.
Why Cleanroom Recoveries Are Expensive
Many people assume that if a damaged drive just needs parts from a donor drive, the recovery should be relatively cheap because drives themselves aren’t expensive. However, any repair requiring a cleanroom is expensive due to:
- Highly Skilled Labor: Technicians require years of training to handle microscopic drive components without damaging them further.
- Specialized Equipment: Precision head-removal tools, platter alignment tools and forensic imaging software are required.
- Platter Handling Complexity: If platters must be moved, they must remain perfectly aligned to within fractions of a millimeter or data becomes unreadable.
- High Risk of Failure: Even with expert handling, success is not guaranteed and failed attempts add to overall costs.
If your storage device has failed and contains critical data, it’s essential to stop using it immediately and seek professional advice before attempting DIY recovery methods. If you need assistance diagnosing a failing drive, feel free to contact me for guidance!
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