Can a Magnet Destroy Data on a Hard Drive?

Hard drives store data magnetically — the read/write heads float above platters, which are disks coated with a thin layer of magnetic material.  The actuator heads rely on magnetism, so it’s logical to wonder whether another magnet could interfere with...
July 12, 2023

The Hard Drive Freezer Trick: Debunking the Oldest Data Recovery Myth

Can you freeze a broken hard drive to restore it to a functional condition and recover the data?  No, you cannot — at least, not anymore. The “freezer trick” was one of the first data recovery methods to hit the...
July 10, 2023

Why You Shouldn’t Use Rice to Dry Hard Drives (or Anything Else)

When we treat water-damaged hard drives, solid-state drives, and other storage devices, we often receive the devices in plastic bags filled with white rice — which tends to complicate the data recovery process. Of course, “put it in a bag...
May 26, 2023

Hard Drive Seek Error Rate What It Means (And Why It Matters)

Seek error rate is a hard drive performance metric reported through Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) tools.  Hard drives, solid-state drives, and other storage devices use SMART to monitor for issues that may indicate an impending failure. For hard...
May 3, 2023

Hard Drive Seek Time: What It Means (And Why It Matters)

A hard drive’s seek time is the time that the head assembly takes to travel to a specific track on the platters where data can be stored. Since seek time varies depending on which track it needs to access, “seek...
May 2, 2023

What Is a Lost Hard Drive Partition?

In data storage technology, a partition is a container with a file system. The file system allows the data storage device to manage files.  Every popular data storage device uses partitions. Without partitions, a device might still contain the magnetic...
April 12, 2023

Why a Hard Drive Reads as a RAW Drive

If your computer identifies a hard drive (or other data storage device) as RAW, that means that the file system has become unreadable. The operating system cannot understand how the data is organized, so the drive is treated as unformatted. ...
April 11, 2023

Do Most Hard Drives Fail Before the 3-Year Mark?

Conventional wisdom holds that a hard drive lasts for about 3-5 years — and most manufacturer warranties tend to support that assumption.  But it’s important to remember that despite precise engineering, hard drives are profoundly sensitive devices. Recently, we’ve seen...
March 28, 2023

How to Check Your SSD or HDD Health in Windows 11

The Windows Management Instrumentation Command-Line Utility (WMIC) is a simple tool that allows users to manage their Windows operating system.It runs through the Command Prompt and can access information from Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART), a monitoring system...
February 7, 2023

Can You Perform a Hard Drive Head Swap?

Hard drives contain actuator heads that float just above the surface of the platters (discs coated in magnetic material that stores data).  When the actuator heads fail, data is inaccessible — and in many cases, the heads need to be...
January 24, 2023