• Home

DataMole
Data Recovery Resource

Laptop Drive Data Recovery

Although laptop hard drives use the same technologies as desktop PC hard drives, specialist data recovery can be more difficult due to the size of the components. Some specialist companies are equipped with custom equipment to enable the replacement of the read/write heads and electronic circuits found in laptop hard drives.

Some typical signs that may indicate a laptop hard drive failure are:

• Ticking or clicking noises when trying to access files or powering up
• Operating system not booting, with or without error messages
• Inability to read files which are apparently on the disk

If the drive is not spinning, or if there are unusual noises during booting or drive access, and the data is important, you should contact a data recovery specialist. Attempting to recover data in these situations may only make things worse.

If the hardware seems functional though, the most important thing to remember is to not write anything to the affected drive. The reason for this is that hard drives do not actually erase the data when a file is deleted, but only mark the directory entry as unused. However, when the system needs to store more data on the drive, it may overwrite files marked as deleted.

When a hard disk has one bootable partition which is gone, or the operating system files are corrupt or missing, the computer obviously won't boot normally. With desktop PC hard drives, the best option in this situation is to install the drive in another computer which recognises the file-system. Removal can be much more difficult with laptop hard disks however, and another laptop of the same model will be required as the recipient system. Much more useful in this situation is the wide range of software available which will help with data recovery by booting from floppy or CD-ROM.