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When a Hard Drive makes a clicking sound that is a sure sign that you have mechanical issues with your drive. Clicking is a symptom that should be an alert to immediately power down your hard drive. Continued use of a clicking Hard Drive could result in your data being unrecoverable.

There are several reasons a Hard Drive can start clicking. The most common cause of Hard Drives clicking is failed heads. Failed heads are the main reason to power down your drive when you hear clicking. The reason being is that a failed head can easily cause surface damage to the platters that store your data. This is called media damage. Media damage if severe, will render your data to be unrecoverable.

Hard Drive clicking can also be caused by other issues. These issues include: Failed PCB, Service Area Damage, Firmware corruption, alignment issues, and a few other specific problems.

No matter what the issue that is causing your Hard Drive to click, know that only Professional Data Recovery Companies like 24 Hour Data can recover data from a clicking drive. Computer Repair Stores and IT Professionals cannot recover data from a clicking Hard Drive. Professional Data Recovery companies will offer you a Free Quote for Data Recovery and a No Data, No Charge policy. Stay away from companies that charge to bring your drive in or charge even if they cannot recover your data.

Many people mistake their External Hard Drive as a backup drive. In the world of Data Recovery we see people come in everyday for recovery on their backup drives.The question is always asked, if this is your backup drive then where is the data that was being backed up?

The fact is if your data is not at least in two places there is no backup. Purchasing an External Hard Drive is a great idea. However, if you are using the drive to extend your storage capacity you better purchase an additional drive for backup.

Data Backup is critical not only for businesses, but also for individuals. The question is not if your drive will fail it is when. If your data is only in one place then it is time to buy a real backup drive.

Every year in March, April, and May we see an increase in drives needing to be recovered from power surges. Many companies and individuals alike do not protect their systems from surges of electricity caused by  lightning strikes.

We highly recommend using a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) with any computer system. Protecting your data from power surges and sudden shut down is vital. Power surges can cause havoc with controller boards on any drive. Solid State Drives seem to be more affected by power surges and loss than hard drives.

Now that we are in the season of rain and thunderstorms, make sure you protect your data with a UPS or at least a surge protector.  Thunderstorms are much more likely to cause a Data Recovery than a natural disaster. When summer comes we also see the power going out from the heat. Sudden power loss for any reason can cause drive failure.

Data Recovery Checklist

When you are faced with Data Loss your next steps are critical.  Take a few minutes to go over our Data Recovery Checklist to help you make the best decision.

•    Assess the value of Data that potentially requires Data Recovery. Important Data should be taken to the Professionals. Trying a Do It Yourself Data Recovery or going to your local Computer Store is not the best decision in these cases.

•     Do you have a Backup of your Data? Think twice, many times you may have a backup of important files.

•   Is your Hard Drive making unusual sounds like Clicking, Grinding, or Beeping? Power down your drive immediately if you hear any of these sounds. Continued use can result in permanent Data Loss.

•    
Have you deleted files? If you accidentally delete files do not write new data to the drive that data has been deleted from.  Deleted files can easily be overwritten when you continue to use your computer.

•    Choose a Professional Data Recovery Company. If your Data is valuable do not trust your recovery to your local computer store or an IT guy. Trying to save money up front can cost you 2 to 3 times the money and potentially your data. Quality Data Recovery companies like 24 Hour Data will give you a Free Quote and offer a No Data, No Charge policy.

The Washington Post posted a great article about upgrading from hard drive to SSD in your laptop. There is some very good information here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/01/AR2010040104824.html. You can get some basic ideas about SSD technology and if your laptop is able to be upgraded.

Mac computers use HFS as their native file system. At 24 Hour Data we have many clients that think their external hard drive has failed, because their Mac will not mount the drive. Most External Hard Drive manufacturers like Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, and more Pre-Format drives with Windows file systems. By default most externals are formatted FAT or NTFS.

Macs will see HFS, FAT, and NTFS. However, if you have a Mac you will not be able to write to NTFS formatted drives without a third party application. Many Mac users get a drive from Frys, Best Buy, Comp USA, and so on that is pre-formatted FAT. When they start using the drive they have no issues. This because Macs can read and write to the FAT file system just fine.

What many Mac users are finding out is that their external drive suddenly stops mounting when the plug it in or turn it on. Before you panic and call a Data Recovery company like 24 Hour Data try connecting your drive to a PC. We have found that once FAT formatted drives are connected to a Windows machine then brought back over to a Mac they work fine.

This is only a temporary fix and may have to be done several times. The long term fix is to backup your data on the drive and format the drive HFS. You can format the drive using Apple’s Disk Utility in the Utilites Folder. Be careful not to format any drive without backing up your data first.

If your drive does not mount after connecting it to a PC then you have a potential Data Recovery. Also, if you hear any unusual sounds like clicking or grinding always power down the drive immediately. 24 Hour Data offers a Free Quote for Data Recovery and a No Data, No Charge policy.

Solid State Drives are definitely the future of storage. The benefits of SSD are numerous. However, there are several disadvantages with this technology. Here is a list of the Pros and Cons of SSD.

Advantages

•    Fast
•    No Moving Parts equals less mechanical failures
•    Low Power Use
•    Silent
•    Ability to endure shock, vibration, temperature variations, altitude
•    Small Form Factor
•    Flash SSD have 2X Density of Hard Drives

Disadvantages

•    Expensive
•    Low Capacity
•    Encryption Issues
•    Limited Life
•    No Defragmentation

The major disadvantage to SSD technology is chances of recovery when these drives fail. Even the top Data Recovery companies in the world are recovering less than 50% of the Solid State Drives sent into them. In fact, very few Data Recovery firms even recover data from SSD.  At 24 Hour Data, we have seen a huge increase in the number of SSD recoveries in the last 6 months.

If you plan to buy SSD or if you have this technology already in place think twice about your Backup Solution. In corporations large and small we most often see that laptops slip through the cracks with data backups. Laptops are also where most Solid State Drives are being used due to size, durability, and low power consumption.

This is not our normal blog post, but check out this cool Hard Drive Clock. We couldn’t resist buying one for the 24 Hour Data lab. Our clock is made from a 40GB Western Digital Caviar PATA Hard Drive.

When a hard drive fails the most important thing to do is listen for abnormal sounds. If you hear sounds like clicking or  grinding it is time to power the drive down and call an expert.

Clicking sounds indicate that you have the symptom of a failed head assembly. The concern here is that a failed head can scratch into the platters and cause media damage.  The image above shows the effects of heads scratching into the platters. The dark rings you see are media damage. In many cases media damage can leave your hard drive unrecoverable.

Grinding sounds indicate that the hard drive has sustained media damage. The grinding you hear is the heads going over the media damage on the platters.

Media Damage is what we hope to avoid. That is why professional Data Recovery Companies always ask the same questions. If you hear either of these sounds immediately power down your hard drive. Only professionals can recover hard drives that click or grind. One of the reasons is that in most cases a clean room is needed to work with these issues. Not to mention the experience that is required to replace a head assembly or swap a platter stack.

Companies like 24 Hour Data offer a Free Quote for Data Recovery and a No Data, No Charge policy. Always avoid companies who charge to diagnose a Data Recovery.  Also, stay away from Data Recovery Services who charge you if they do not recover your data.