Hard drive recovery is simple in theory and complex in practice. When one’s computer hard drive fails to either return wanted data or to even load the operating system the cause is usually very recognizable. Unfortunately the remedy is far more difficult to pinpoint.
The first step in effecting a hard drive recoveryis to determine if the failure was cause by a physical or logical failure.

If the computer hard disk has failed physically it is the result of several options. The disk may have become open to dirt or moisture. If even the slightest dust lands on a hard drive disk that sector of the disk may be rendered unreadable. Moisture infiltration essentially produces the same result with a pinpoint sized blemish of the platter surface resulting in thousands of bytes of information being lost. Symptoms of physical damage to a hard drive are fairly simple to discern.
If smoke is seen coming from the unit, chances are high that the control board for the hard drive holding an IC chip has overheated and damaged the IC. If a hard drive is making a great deal of clicking noise the head on the unit may be frozen. Conversely if no sound at all is heard from the area of the drive the motor that turns the platter may have expired. It should be noted that physical damage to a hard drive almost always has a cause. With laptop computers it is almost always the result of a unit being dropped. With desktops, failure is usually tied to over heating. In either case, the hard drive repair solution remains the same, replace the unit. But what of all the data contained on the hard drive? That must be retrieved. And that is the basis of hard drive recovery. When dealing with a physically damaged hard drive, there is no viable do it yourself recovery solution. The hard drive must be disassembled in an ISO certified cleanroom and the data copied from the original disk.

This is accomplished via techniques known as disk imaging or disk cloning. Skilled data recovery technicians will either repair the damaged drive sufficiently so as to run the disk and copy the data stored. This information is either stored as a single file image of the retrieved data or the entire disk structure and data are cloned identically onto another hard drive. If that is not possible a tool such as a magnetometer is used to read in the most raw form the data on the hard drive platter. This raw data is then restructured so as to be “read’ and placed onto conventional media such as a DVD. Individuals simply cannot do repair of physically broken hard drives for the purpose of recovering data. It is tantamount to performing home dentistry.

Should a computer hard drive failure be caused by a logic crash the prospects for  hard drive recovery are far brighter. A logic crash only requires a logic repair solution. If one can determine where the system failed it can then replace the failed data components and restart the drive. Of course this cannot be done by a physical examination and no amount of mere ponderance will tell a user which partition needs to be reformatted. This knowledge of the logical damage must be gained be scanning the computer hard drive for anomalies that indicate an overwritten sector or simple operational files that have gone missing. There is software specifically designed for this purpose. This software will deep scan an entire hard drive and find corrupted files. These files are then semi-automatically reconstructed or replaced. Once this is done, the hard drive will be basically as good as new. Such software is commonly referred to as data recovery software. Its primary use is for straightening out corrupted hard drives but of late this same software has been varied to facilitate dozens of data retrieval applications. Quality software for data recovery and hence hard drive repair must be able to find the errors and then repair them. Any program that does less than this is simply a variation of MS DOS chkdsk and as such is worthless for repair of a logical crash on a hard drive. Quality hard drive data recovery programs are capable of reconstruction of corrupted partition tables.

These programs are available for the do it yourself computer owner or for those engaged as computer technicians. In order to affect a personal hard drive recovery repair one must remove the malfunctioning drive unit from the desktop or lap top computer. This unit must be plugged in as a secondary hard drive into a working computer. The analysis and recovery software shall have been installed on this second undamaged computer. The repair program is opened and a user-friendly interface is followed. The actual process of finding corrupted files on a hard drive and reconstructing them is extremely simple. If one feels they are incapable of the dismantling and attachment of the failed drive to the working computer it is then recommended that the logical crash repair be turned over to a skilled computer repair or hard drive recovery firm. Still, armed with the general knowledge of what is required one is protected from being mislead as to the actual cost of the repair required.

Hard drive recovery is either a physical process left to experts or a simple procedure capable of being accomplished by a novice. The steps for success in this are simple.
First, determine whether the damage is physical or logical.
Second if it is a physical problem and the data stored is of little consequence replace the drive and reload the system. If the data is valuable, locate a hard drive recovery company in your area. Remember that anyone claiming to recover data from or repair a damaged hard drive without access to an ISO certified cleanroom is completely unable to recover your data.
Third, if the damage is logical either purchase a quality data recovery tool and follow its instructions to the end result of recovering your files or hand the computer over to a local technician who has assured you they have the software required to restore your lost data.