Dropped Hard Drive Data Recovery

A dropped hard drive, external drive, or laptop can have damage you can't see, from knocked or stuck heads to a damaged motor or shifted platters. If it now clicks, beeps, or won't show up, power it off. We recover dropped drives in a cleanroom for one flat $1,200, and you pay nothing if we can't recover your data.

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$1,200 flat · pay on success

✓Free prepaid shipping

✓Cleanroom recovery by engineers

✓No diagnostic fee

✓$0 if we can’t recover your data

Signs of dropped hard drive

•Clicking, beeping, or grinding after the fall
•Spins up but isn't detected
•Laptop won't boot or reports no boot device
•Works intermittently or keeps disconnecting
•Very slow, or freezes when opening files
•Bent USB connector or cracked enclosure

What’s actually happening

What a drop does depends a lot on whether the drive was running. When a hard drive is off, its heads are parked on a ramp away from the platters, so it tends to survive a fall better, though a hard enough impact can still knock the heads off the ramp, damage the motor, or shift the platters. When it's running, the heads are flying just above the spinning surface, and a jolt can slam them into the platters, which is how many head crashes start.

Portable 2.5-inch drives and laptops are the most often dropped, and they're frequently running when it happens: a drive pulled off a desk by its cable, or a laptop falling mid-use. Common results are damaged or stuck heads, a damaged spindle motor bearing, and a broken USB connector or board.

SSDs have no moving parts, so they're much more tolerant of drops, though a hard impact can still crack the board or break a connector. If your laptop has an SSD and won't start after a fall, the memory chips holding your data are often fine.

What not to do

✕Don't keep plugging it in to see if it works — if the heads were damaged, every power-on risks scratching the platters.
✕Don't shake it to listen for rattles — loose internal parts can cause more damage as they move around.
✕Don't run disk checks or recovery software if it's clicking or slow — they force heavy reading through heads that may be damaged.
✕Don't open the hard drive itself to look inside — a drive should only be opened in a cleanroom.
✕Don't force, glue, or solder a broken USB connector — on many portable drives the connector is part of the drive's own board, and a botched repair can make recovery harder.

How we recover it

Assess the impact damage

Engineers check the board and connector first, then inspect the heads, platters, and motor in a cleanroom to see what the fall actually affected.

Repair what broke

Damaged heads are replaced with a matched donor set, stuck heads are freed, and boards and connectors are repaired. If the motor or platters were affected, the platters can be moved to a donor chassis with their alignment preserved.

Controlled imaging

The drive is copied with professional hardware imagers that limit retries, skip weak areas and return to them later, and read healthy heads first, so recovery works from a copy rather than the fragile original.

Rebuild and verify

The file system is reconstructed from the image, and your files are checked to confirm they open before they're returned on a secure return drive.

Can the data be recovered?

Dropped drives are often recoverable, especially those that were powered off when they fell or were unplugged soon after symptoms appeared. Drives that were running at impact are more likely to have platter damage, and drives that were repeatedly powered on afterward while clicking or grinding are harder still. If the fall caused a severe head crash, some or all of the data may not be recoverable. We'll know after cleanroom inspection, and if we can't recover your data, you pay nothing.

Recovery by device

Related guides

Dropped Hard Drive — common questions

My drive still works after the drop. Should I worry?+

Possibly. Shock damage doesn't always show up right away, and weakened heads can fail days or weeks later. Copy your important files to another drive now, watch for new noises or slowdowns, and stop using it if anything changes.

Does it matter whether the drive was on when it fell?+

Yes. A running drive's heads are flying over the platters, so a drop can push them into the surface. A powered-off drive has its heads parked, so it usually withstands a fall better, although a hard impact can still cause damage.

My laptop fell and won't start. Is the data gone?+

Not necessarily. The fault may be in the laptop rather than its storage, or the drive may need lab work. Many newer laptops, including recent MacBooks, have storage soldered to the main board, which needs a different approach than a removable drive, so send the whole laptop.

The USB connector on my portable drive broke. Is that serious?+

It's usually a repair problem rather than a data problem, and the platters are often fine. On many portable drives the connector is built into the drive's own board, so it should be repaired carefully rather than forced or glued back in place.

How much does dropped hard drive recovery cost?+

One flat $1,200 for a single device, quoted before you ship — no diagnostic fee, and $0 if we can't recover your data.

Other failures we recover from

Recover from dropped hard drive — pay only if it works.

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