Is Platter Damage the End of the Road for Recovery?Īs described previously the heads are so delicate and hovering at so minute an elevation above platter surfaces spinning so quickly that any disruption to the platter surface is effectively a brick wall waiting to impact and wreck the read /write head. It is much talked about but is rather like the lottery in that you only ever hear about the winners and their chances are one in a million! If you believe that cooling might help, and no question- sometimes it can, then by all means try a few fans (if you are really dedicated you can even try homemade Peltier units which can bring down significantly operating temperature). Opinion is divided between the small number for whom the trick has worked and the vast silent majority for whom it has resulted in pretty patterns on the platters but no recovered files. The idea is that cooling the drive in the freezer will magically allow access. This is an urban myth “solution” to a struggling hard drive much-touted online. It may be that this drive has been the victim of the infamous (and misguided) “Freezer Trick”. While there has been some physical damage akin to that shown in Figure 2, the platters appear to have been exposed to some other hazard. is another commonly seen pattern of physical damage: Figure 3. Why so much damage so quickly? Consider that in the average hard disk the platter(s) are spinning at 120 revolutions per second under an extremely delicate read/write head which floats on a cushion of air the tiniest fraction of a mm thick above the spinning surface.įigure 3.
![hard disk drive platter hard disk drive platter](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71bYPLF9m0L._AC_SS450_.jpg)
Similarly if debris gets inside and reaches the surfaces then it can become trapped between the head and the platter, this will almost certainly instantly destroy the head and gouge a ring similar to those shown above. The arrows indicate where the heads have come into contact with the platters A typical scenario would be a set of head impacting momentarily with the disk surface (perhaps the drive was subjected to a knock while writing) Figure 2 below shows the typical result: Figure 2. Physical damage is typically caused by either a mechanical failure or the drive itself suffering an impact (and it is surprising how little force is required to cause damage).
![hard disk drive platter hard disk drive platter](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-jnch6he7lv/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/17395/13673/mackie_studio_bundle_-_home_studio_small__53287__10077.1598391914.jpg)
A platter as it should look, the arrow indicates the landing zone the disks stop rotating), this is normal and doesn’t represent damage. You will usually see a small dark ring at the inner edge, this is an area often referred to as the landing zone, where the heads are intended to rest when the drive spins-down (i.e. The platter surfaces should look like a perfect blemish-free mirror. The platter(s) are rotated by the spindle motor at a constant speed (typically anywhere from 4200 to 10,000 RPM for the most common models).
![hard disk drive platter hard disk drive platter](https://www.elindo.fr/760-home_default/casque-standard-philips-acc0233.jpg)
They are a sandwich of different materials designed to receive, store and subsequently allow the stable read back of the electromagnetic signal that is your data. Today’s hard drives will house anywhere from 1 to 4 platters depending upon the storage capacity. These are the physical storage location for the user files and folders. A Quick Overview of the Impact of Platter Damage What Is A Hard Drive Platter?