Tips To Get Your Files Back From A Dead Hard Drive

In today?s digital era, we prefer saving our important data on various storage devices, including hard drives. Whether it is significant work-related documents or your memorable photos and videos, you should keep them secure on your devices. 

But sometimes, your computer?s hard drive goes into a dead state without any prior warning and makes all the stored files and folders inaccessible. Don?t be upset when your hard drive does not respond properly or if you are facing any other hard drive problems. 

Luckily, there are a lot of methods available that one might apply to recover your data from a hard drive that has been dead. In this article, we will discuss some valuable tips to get your files back from a dead hard drive. So, go through this post to get back the data that are lost on a dead hard drive.

What Causes Hard Drive Corruption/Dead?

There are various reasons why your hard drive becomes dead or non-function. Some of the main causes of hard drive failures are:

1. Physical damage: 

If your hard drive gets physically damaged due to mishandling, dropping the drive, or any such reason, it becomes dead or inaccessible. Even when you expose your hard drive to excessive heat, moisture, or sudden electrical failure, it corrupts your hard drive and causes data loss issues. 

2. Mechanical failure: 

With the continuous usage of hard drives for several years, their internal mechanical components can wear out or fail. The spindle motor that rotates the platters of your hard drive gets affected, and thus, the hard drive may become dead.

3. Firmware corruption: 

Firmware is the software embedded in your hard drive that controls its read/write and many operations. Sometimes, the firmware becomes corrupted or damaged, which leads to the failure or corruption of your hard drive. This causes inaccessibility of data stored on your hard drive and is unrecognizable by your computer.

4. Logical errors: 

Such errors mainly occur when the file system or data structure on the hard drive becomes corrupted or damaged. This can be due to sudden power failure, inadequate shutdowns, virus or malware attacks, or any installed software conflicts.

These are some common reasons for the corruption of your hard drive or why it became dead all of a sudden. It might be critical to note that hard drive dead issues arise without any prior warning. Try keeping your hard drive away from excessive heat/moisture and connect it to reliable power sources. Taking such measure help you to avoid such issues and protect your valuable data. 

How Do I Recover Files From A Dead Hard Drive?

Now that you are familiar with the exact reason why your hard drive became dead, it?s time to apply data recovery methods to retrieve data from a long-lost hard drive. Before you proceed with any of the methods mentioned in this part of the blog, make sure your operating system properly recognizes the drive. Let?s start with the easiest method first and check which workaround helps you best. 

Method 01: Recover Formatted Files from Backup

In case you have established any backup of the deleted files earlier, you might use it to retrieve your data after deletion. Windows in-built File History backup utility tool is the best option to back up your data. All you need is to enable the File History option on your Windows device. Go through the below-mentioned steps to recover your deleted files with the help of the File History option:

• Go to the folder where your deleted files were earlier stored, and click History located in the Home tab.

• Now, select all the files that you want to restore and click the green Restore button.

Once you tap the Restore button, the selected files will appear back in the original folder. To restore your file to any new location, right-tap the Restore button and select the Restore option.

Method 02: Use Tools of Data Recovery to Recover Files Deleted From a Dead Hard Drive

While some of you must not have created any backup before deletion, you can optimize professional data recovery software to restore your deleted files. Among several such tools, we recommend you use the Stellar data recovery expert tool, as it allows you to recover your deleted data in a few minutes. Some outstanding features that make the Stellar data recovery best for the recovery of your deleted files are:

• Support recovery of data from both Windows and Mac devices.
• It allows you to recover your deleted files from all internal or external drives, including SD cards, hard disks, SSDs, etc.
• Retrieve deleted files of multiple types, such as photos, videos, documents, and audio files.
• Recover files deleted due to accidental deletion, formatting, partition loss, virus/malware attacks, and other causes.
• The data recovery methods recover data deleted from formatted, corrupted, damaged, and dead hard drives.

To Recover Formatted Files from a Dead Hard Drive Using ?Stellar Data Recovery Professional? Tool:

• Download and install the ?Stellar Data Recovery Professional? tool on your PC.
• Launch this software along with, select the file type that you have to restore, and click the ?Next? button.
• Choose the location where you wish to recover that file and click the ?Scan? button.

• After the scanning procedure gets completed, select and preview the recoverable files and tap the ?Recover? button and save them at the location you want.

Tips to Prevent Hard Drive From Getting Corrupted/Damaged/Dead

The above-mentioned steps to recover files using professional data-retrieving software or backups are easy to implement. But it is crucial to prevent the hard drive from such corruption or a dead state. Some tips that you should keep in your mind to prevent such issues include:

• Make sure you have multiple backups of the important files and data stored on the hard drive. You can create backups on external hard drives or cloud storage devices to create regular backups.
• Sudden power failure is also the main cause of damaging the internal components of your computer?s hard drive. It is significant to connect your computer and hard drive to proper power sources to protect them from sudden voltage spikes.
• Use reliable anti-virus software programs to scan your device for viruses or malware on a regular basis. 
• Keep your device’s operating system and all the installed applications up-to-date. Software updates can fix bugs and improve your system performance.

Conclusion:

If you are facing problems with the hard drive, it doesn?t mean you will be unable to recover files from it. Losing access to your files due to a dead or corrupted hard drive can be troublesome. If the hard drive becomes dead or inaccessible, go to the aforementioned methods/tips to get your files back from a dead hard drive. 

Even if you fail to restore your deleted data, replace the HDD with a new drive in order to avoid further problems. Also, make a habit of creating backups or use professional software for data recovery, like an outstanding Data Recovery Professional, to restore your formatted files in just a few simple clicks.

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