Recover HD after one of the platters scratched

[Vozone]

I had dropped my WD My Passport 2TB drive and when I tried to turn it on, it wouldn't start spinning. So I've gone through the process of requesting a Return (still in warranty), and they've actually allowed me to try and recover the data myself.
I went online, found a decent tutorial video and managed to unstuck the head.

Now this is when my brain switches off.
When screing the cover back on, I put it on the wrong way, and tried to screw one of the screws into the top platter. (Giant facepalm).
Now it spins, but is really noisy and doesn't come up on the explorer. Chances were that it would have worked fine if I hadn't snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

My question is: is the data on the other platters salvageable?
It is only one of the 5 platters/heads that is torched, but the other 4 should be fine, right?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Opening the drive outside the confines of a clean room was your first, and fatal to the drive, mistake. At this point there is virtually no chance of data recovery short of sending it to a recovery service and paying a large sum of money.

 

[puttynene]

You could have returned the HD, it was best option for you. Now you have tampered the hd, I dont think the data is recoverable now. Seek expert advice for this problem of yours..

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, Vozone!

As the guys before me already said, you shouldn't have opened the WD My Passport's enclosure, not to mention cracking the HDD itself open. 🙁
This voids the warranty and since this external HDD's model incorporates a hardware encryption, once the drive is out of the enclosure it would be impossible to access the data on it. What our customer support most probably had in mind when they gave you the green light for retrieving your files from the drive, was attempting recovery using third-party software utilities. However, I'm not sure if you will be able to proceed with your RMA.
I'd recommend you to get in touch with our tech support again: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=WMjxQE
And here's a link to our warranty policy, which you should go definitely through: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Z7DCft

Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Vozone]

Hi SuperSoph_WD,

If I would have known about the encryption issue, I really wouldn't have bothered trying to open the HDD as it sounds that even if I hadn't screwed up, I wouldn't be able to recover the data.

I had no opportunity to use recovery software without opening as the head was stuck, and so the platter would not spin.

That being said, I was give permission by and employee of WD to open it without that necessarily meaning that it would impact the return, so I am going to hold WD to that commitment.

By the words of the employee:

>so far if the data recovery software doesn't work and if you want to try doing data recovery yourself, you can go ahead and try, we don't support such a procedure but we can make an exception for the RMA, once you are finished you need to let us know so we can place our notes on the RMA case and have them allow the drive even if it has been opened.

Thank you for your comment in any event.

 

[Vozone]

And guys, notice that I didn't ask whether I should or shouldn't open the enclosure without a clean box, etc. My question was whether it was still possible to recover data from the other 4 undamaged platters, so thanks for not answering the only question I had.

 

[McHenryB]

There's a big difference between opening the external enclosure and opening the drive itself. The latter is guaranteed to destroy the drive. I can believe that WD might have said you could try opening the enclosure but they would have been crazy to authorise you to open the drive itself.

It's highly unlikely that you can now recover any data from the drive.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, Vozone!

I'm entirely sure that opening the HDD itself is exactly what my WD colleague meant. As it was already mentioned opening the drive itself without the technical knowledge and the extremely clean environment (Special dust-free lab room), basically causes more harm than good. Even if the damage was on one of the HDD heads, exposing the four to the outside environment as well most probably corrupted them too. 🙁

I do hope everything works out for you, though! However, it's best to keep in touch with our support!
Sorry we couldn't be more helpful.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[McHenryB]

Just to expand a little (I was posting on my tablet before) on why I think it is unlikely that any data can be recovered from the disk:

1. Using the disk when the platters had been exposed to an unclean environment has likely damaged them and/or the read/write heads.

2. It is quite likely that the drive will refuse to read from any of the platters if one is missing.

3. Even if the platters and heads are intact, the way that data is stored on a disk mitigates against you. A file of any size will be spread across all platters rather than being confined to just one. This is to minimize the number of head movements required to read the data. Thus all files of any size will have missing segments.

4. Some disks record positioning information on one side of one platter. If that platter is the one you have damaged then the other platters cannot be reliably read.

As to the warranty and your chance of RMAing the drive, the problem here is that you have physically damaged the disk. The warranty obviously doesn't cover the eventuality that you try to screw something in to one of the platters. To make an analogy, suppose that your car's engine has seized; the manufacturer should cover this under warranty. A representative may even tell you that you can take reasonable steps to try and free the engine without voiding the warranty. You then remove the cylinder head and smash one of the pistons with a sledge hammer; the result is that you free the engine, but make a hole in the piston. Is it now reasonable to ask the manufacturer to repair the engine under warranty? I would say no - the problem now is damage that you have inflicted on the engine, not a manufacturing defect.

You have nothing to lose by making a warranty claim; I just think that you will be very lucky if it is successful.

 

[Vozone]

Just to expand a little (I was posting on my tablet before) on why I think it is unlikely that any data can be recovered from the disk:

1. Using the disk when the platters had been exposed to an unclean environment has likely damaged them and/or the read/write heads.

2. It is quite likely that the drive will refuse to read from any of the platters if one is missing.

3. Even if the platters and heads are intact, the way that data is stored on a disk mitigates against you. A file of any size will be spread across all platters rather than being confined to just one. This is to minimize the number of head movements required to read the data. Thus all files of any size will have missing segments.

4. Some disks record positioning information on one side of one platter. If that platter is the one you have damaged then the other platters cannot be reliably read.

As to the warranty and your chance of RMAing the drive, the problem here is that you have physically damaged the disk. The warranty obviously doesn't cover the eventuality that you try to screw something in to one of the platters. To make an analogy, suppose that your car's engine has seized; the manufacturer should cover this under warranty. A representative may even tell you that you can take reasonable steps to try and free the engine without voiding the warranty. You then remove the cylinder head and smash one of the pistons with a sledge hammer; the result is that you free the engine, but make a hole in the piston. Is it now reasonable to ask the manufacturer to repair the engine under warranty? I would say no - the problem now is damage that you have inflicted on the engine, not a manufacturing defect.

You have nothing to lose by making a warranty claim; I just think that you will be very lucky if it is successful.

Thanks for the tip.

I now have a new HD drive from WD. As I stated before, I only did it with authorisation from WD, which they rightly honoured. When I opened the drive, it was with the full understanding that I might not be able to retrieve the data, but it was an informed decision. I had read a fair few articles and posts of people saying they had been able to retrieve their data like this.

But alas, it's all for naught, because I decided to try and drive a screw through the platter.

Thank you everyone for their responses, even those who are responing to questions I didn't ask, and who clearly didn't read the whole post before responding.