The sudden and out of the blue discovery that a hard drive isn’t working can lead to people desperately trying to fix it themselves using pseudoscientific DIY data recovery solutions, often that they’ve heard through friends or on the internet. Here are some of the most common data recovery myths.
 

An old myth is that freezing your hard drive can increase the chance of a successful data recovery. The idea behind this is that when a hard drive is frozen, the components will shrink, and when warmed to room temperature, they expand, causing the spindle to be released. While in theory this is true, putting your hard drive in the freezer can cause irreversible platter damage, and therefore data loss. Moisture may also get into the drive, reducing the chance of a successful data recovery even further.

Data Recovery Myth - Busted

One of the biggest myths is that you can create your own data recovery clean rooms at home. Clean rooms like the ones we undertake all data recovery work in are expensive to set up and run, so the idea that you can simply set one up at home is ridiculous. The logic behind it is that you can use steam to remove particles from the air, by closing your bathroom with the hot water running from your tap or shower. While this may pick up smaller particles, larger ones aren’t going to be collected. In addition to this, like the freezer myth, using the “homemade clean room” method will only introduce moisture into your hard drive, making the chance of data recovery even lower. A Class 100 clean room, like the one we complete all data recovery work in, ensures the air is almost contaminant-free.

Data Recovery Myth - Busted

Perhaps one of the oddest myths is that hitting a hard drive with a blunt object will magically fix it. This obviously isn’t true, and hitting a hard drive is only likely to make the problem worse, and it can jeopardise the chance of a successful data recovery at all. The internal components of a hard drive are incredibly sensitive, and we’ve written before about how even a small knock or bump can cause a head crash.

Data Recovery Myth – Busted

While it might seem like a good idea at the time, attempting an amateur data recovery can put the slim chance of a professional data recovery specialist being able to get your data back. If it’s undeleting files – that’s cool. There are loads of great free data recovery programs out there. But if your hard drive has suffered a physical fault like a head crash, leave it to a data recovery specialist. Free data recovery can seem like a tempting prospect, but we urge you to think again if you want to get your data back!