Hitting a failing hard drive or SSD will not fix it — it’ll make the problem worse. There, we’re done with
the article.
What’s that? You need proof that percussive maintenance doesn’t work on data storage devices with extremely narrow fault tolerances?
Well, we’ll do our best. In today’s article, we’ll explain the myth behind this “fix,” detail what actually happens inside a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) when you strike it.
If you’ve lost data due to a hard drive failure, SSD failure, or for any other reason, we’re here to help. Datarecovery.com provides risk-free evaluations, and we support all cases with a comprehensive no data, no charge guarantee.
To get started, submit a case online or call 1-800-237-4200 to speak with an expert.
Percussive Maintenance for Hard Drives: At One Time…Not Totally Unreasonable
As anyone who’s owned an old CRT TV knows, the idea of hitting electronics to make them work isn’t entirely baseless. It’s a holdover from an era of bulky, tube-based electronics and clunky mechanical devices.
In those old systems, a good whack could sometimes reseat a loose vacuum tube or jiggle a stuck mechanical switch back into place.
Hitting the device could also cause contaminants to get lodged in the wrong place, which would make the problem worse — but since percussive maintenance worked occasionally, people would try it regularly. After all, it feels good to do something to try to fix a problem (even if it’s not exactly technical).
For hard drives, hitting the side of the chassis would sometimes (temporarily) fix a real failure condition called stiction. Stiction occurs when the drive’s read/write heads come to rest on the data platters themselves. The microscopic-level attraction between the smooth surfaces can cause them to stick.
With older drives, a sharp tap could sometimes jolt the heads free. But that’s no longer an option — modern drives have better safeguards against stiction, and more importantly, they have much, much higher areal density. That translates to more precise tolerances: The heads need to be in an extremely specific position to read and write data.
Even if your drive is suffering from stiction and you manage to dislodge the heads by hitting the device, the heads will not magically become functional again. You’re much more likely to cause permanent damage.
The Anatomy of a Disaster: Hitting a Modern HDD
These badly scored hard drive platters were damaged by a failing head assembly.
Visualize how a modern hard drive works: The read/write heads fly over the surface of the platters on an extremely small cushion of air. The gap between the head and the platter (which is spinning at upwards of 7,200 RPM) is microscopic — just a few nanometers.
When you strike a hard drive, this is what happens:
- You Cause a Head Crash: The shock will probably slam the delicate read/write heads directly into the spinning platters.
- You Scrape Away Your Data: That physical contact, even for a millisecond, scrapes the magnetic layer clean off the platter’s surface. Your data is that magnetic layer. The impact grinds it into a fine, abrasive dust that then contaminates the entire drive. We’ve included an image of this type of rotational damage, which came from a nonrecoverable case.
- You Bend and Misalign Components: The head assembly is a high-precision component. A physical jolt can bend it, knocking it out of alignment. Even if the platters aren’t immediately scored, the misaligned heads will no longer be able to read the data tracks properly.
In our data recovery labs, we frequently receive drives from clients who tried “the freezer trick” or gave the drive “a few good taps.” In almost every case, what started as a recoverable stiction or motor issue was transformed into a catastrophic case with severe platter damage.
Why Hitting a Solid-State Drive (SSD) is Pointless
Applying percussive maintenance to an SSD is even more illogical, though it’s less likely to affect recoverability. A solid-state drive has no moving parts.
There are no platters, no motors, and no read/write heads to get stuck. An SSD is essentially a complex circuit board with a controller and a set of memory chips (NAND flash).
When an SSD fails, it’s for one of these reasons:
- Controller Failure: The main processor of the SSD has malfunctioned.
- NAND Flash Wear: The memory cells themselves have worn out from too many read/write cycles.
- Firmware Corruption: The drive’s internal operating software has become scrambled and can’t initialize.
Hitting a complex circuit board will not fix corrupt firmware. It won’t reset a failed controller.
It’s possible that percussive maintenance will make the problem worse by cracking a tiny solder joint or physically damaging a memory chip. More likely, it’ll just do nothing.
In other words: Don’t hit electronic storage devices. You have nothing to gain (and everything to lose, assuming that you don’t have a backup).
A Safer Action Plan for a Failing Drive
If your drive is clicking, buzzing, not being recognized, or failing to boot, the correct action plan is simple and non-violent.
- Power It Down. Immediately turn off the computer or unplug the external drive. Continued operation, especially with a physical fault, can cause more damage.
- Check Simple Connections. (Gently!) Ensure the power and data cables are securely seated. Try a different cable or USB port.
- Do Not Run Software. Do not run data recovery software, disk utilities, or chkdsk. If the drive has a physical problem, software will only stress the failing components and can compound the data loss.
- Listen. Is the drive making a clicking or grinding noise? That is the sound of a severe mechanical failure. Power it down and do not turn it on again.
Professional Resources for Data Recovery
When a drive fails, it requires diagnosis in a professional, controlled environment. Our engineers use purpose-built hardware and software to bypass drive faults, safely work with failing components, and access the raw data. We’ve seen every failure type imaginable and have developed proprietary techniques to recover data even from drives with significant internal damage.
Stop, power down the drive, and step away. Do not attempt any do-it-yourself fixes; work with a data recovery provider that offers risk-free evaluations and guaranteed results.
Submit a ticket online to begin your recovery or call 1-800-237-4200.
