As you are probably more than aware, water and electronics do not mix, and hard drives are no exception. If you have an HDD that has been in contact with water, you need to act fast to ensure that a successful hard drive data recovery is possible.
The most important thing to remember is that time is of the essence, and you should not delay attending to a water-damaged hard disk drive. The longer the drive is wet, the more it will spread to other parts of the drive and the less chance of a successful recovery there will be. The first thing you should do is power down the hard drive, and remove it from all power outlets immediately. This will prevent further damage to the drive in the form of electrical surges, which can fry the circuitry.
After the drive has been disconnected from the power outlet, you should carefully and delicately try to dry away any surface moisture, without touching the circuitry if possible. Although you will need to dry your hard disk drive as quickly as possible, you should never resort to using a hair dryer, as this can cause further damage. As well as obviously giving off heat, which can corrupt any data that’s left on the drive, hair dryers also give off an electrical charge. Instead, you should place your hard drive in an airtight container with a desiccant material such as silica gel, or uncooked rice. Being careful not to get any debris in the hard drive, you should leave it in the container for a minimum of 48 hours.
After you think you have dried the hard disk drive out, you still shouldn’t attempt to connect it to a power supply and fire it up yourself; this will likely cause even more damage, as water can leave behind tiny particles that can get trapped within your hard drive. If the data on the hard drive is precious, you should consult a hard drive data recovery specialist immediately.
