Should I attempt to change the PCB myself?

A hard drive consists of fairly basic parts. Often a drive that is not spinning signifies a dead printed circuit board (PCB). Quite literally, the circuitry has blown and burn marks are often visible...read more

How does a hard drive work?

A hard drive consists of fairly basic parts. Very simply the data is stored magnetically on one or more shiny silver platters revolving on a motor...read more

Will my hard drive repair itself?

As you know, hard drives are a combination of sophisticated electronic and mechanical systems that incorporate a number of specialized motors and electro-mechanical components to read and write data......read more

What is a head crash and how does it occur?

A 'head crash' occurs when the heads of a hard disk drive touch the rotating platter surface. The head normally rides on a thin film.....read more

How can RAID arrays fail?

The theory behind the error correction in RAID assumes that failures of drives are independent. In practice, the drives are often the same age.....read more

Can I recover data after a format?

Low level formatting is normally done by the manufacturer of a hard drive to dictate how and where the data is stored on the disk and prepare that disk for initial use...read more

Why is my hard drive clicking after I dropped it?

The internal moving parts of a hard drive are very sensitive, the slightest jolt can result in the liquid bearing seizing or more commonly the read/write heads suffer physical damage....read more

What is virtualisation?

Virtualisation software has enabled organizations to consolidate operating systems and increase productivity for computer hardware.....read more

What is electronic or firmware failure?

Where the external electrical circuits have failed, recovery from a hard disk in these cases is the easiest to provide, as long as a replacement circuit board can be located....read more

How is stiction caused in magnetic tape?

Old tape often becomes sticky, shedding oxide at an alarming rate and this stiction soon causes loss of quality, screeching and even slowing down if not attended to.....read more

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