Read this before you do anything else
Don't power it on to see if it survived. That test is the risk.
The instinct after a drop is to plug it in and check. On a drive with spinning platters, that check is the most dangerous single action available: if the heads were displaced or the mechanics knocked out of alignment, powering on drives them across the surface holding your files. A drive that was survivable while switched off becomes a head-crash while you watch the progress bar. Whether it was running at the moment of impact matters enormously, and either way the answer comes from inspection, not from another attempt.
Emergency
Dropped desktop hard drive
If your desktop hard drive has been dropped, the most useful thing on this page is above this paragraph, and it is free. What follows is what the fault usually turns out to be, how recoverable this class of failure is, and what it would cost, including the cases we would tell you to take elsewhere.
What this usually turns out to be
Bare drives are almost always dropped while being handled rather than while running, which is by far the better version of this. With the platters stationary and the heads parked off to the side, these drives tolerate a substantial knock, and the specification they are built to reflects exactly that. What actually breaks in a handling drop is more often the circuit board on the underside, a component knocked off it, or a bent connector, none of which touch the data.
A bare SATA drive from a desktop. No enclosure to fail means a fault here is usually the drive itself rather than the thing it was plugged into.
Head assembly displaced or damaged
The likeliest serious outcome when a drive is dropped while running. Powering on afterwards is what turns it into surface damage.
Platter damage from head contact at impact
Where the heads struck the surface during the fall, leaving scoring already present before any power-up.
Nothing at allbetter news
Drives are designed to survive substantial shock while parked and idle. A drop onto carpet while switched off very often does no damage whatsoever.
Cracked solder joint or connector damagebetter news
Common on USB sticks and phones, where the impact is taken by the connector rather than any storage. The memory itself is usually intact.
What to check first on a desktop hard drive
- Confirm whether it was running. A drive dropped while unplugged is very likely undamaged.
- Look at the exposed circuit board on the underside for cracked or dislodged components, and at the SATA connector for damage.
- Connect it once and listen. A clean spin-up with normal detection is the end of the matter.
What not to do
Do not run a full surface scan to reassure yourself it is fine. If there is head damage, a scan is the most sustained contact you can arrange, and if there is not, the scan tells you nothing you did not already know from it mounting normally.
How recoverable this is
Governed almost entirely by one question: was it running when it fell? A parked, powered-off drive dropped a short distance frequently survives with nothing wrong at all. A drive dropped while spinning is the harder case, and it gets harder every time it is powered on afterwards. Flash devices and phones fare much better: with no moving parts, a drop usually damages the connector or the board rather than the storage.
What moves it, for your device specifically:
- Whether the device was powered on and spinning at the moment of impact
- Whether the impact displaced the heads or damaged the platter surface
- How many times it has been powered on since
We will not give you a percentage for your device, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Nobody can know what is recoverable until the media has been imaged and read. What is above describes this class of failure; your drive gets its own answer after an assessment, in writing, at no cost.
What it costs
Assessed free, then referred at no charge
Cleanroom mechanical work
Clicking, seized or head-crashed drives need internal mechanical work in a controlled environment. We don't have one, so we assess it, tell you what we found in writing, and refer it on. That referral costs you nothing here.
Nothing is charged until you have seen a fixed quote for your actual device and agreed to it, and the assessment that produces it is free.
Other faults on a desktop hard drive
Dropped or knocked on other devices
Next step
Tell us what failed.
Free assessment. Fixed quote before recovery starts. No recovery, no fee. Sydney drop-off or Australia-wide by tracked post.