How it failed · dropped or damaged
The same knock can be trivial or terminal depending on one thing: whether the drive was running. Switched off, drives shrug off surprising abuse; spinning, the heads are flying nanometres above your data with nowhere to go. Either way, the drive gets one chance — and it isn't a test power-up.
Talk it through with an engineer
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| What you see | What it means | First move |
|---|---|---|
| Clicking after a drop | The impact damaged or misaligned the heads — the retry loop has begun | Power off and keep it off |
| Beeping after a drop | Heads stuck to the platter or a seized spindle — the motor stalls audibly | Don't shake it free |
| Not detected after a knock | Head crash, motor damage, or a cracked board or connector | Assessment before any power |
| Fine after the fall, failing days later | Marginal damage progressing with use — the slow-motion version | Stop while it still reads |
| Dropped SSD or stick, now dead | No moving parts to crash — the failure is a cracked board, connector or solder joint | Electronic repair territory |
Your device is logged with its own case reference the moment it arrives. An engineer assesses the fault, confirms what's actually recoverable, and you get a fixed price in writing — no diagnosis fee, no obligation, and no paid work until you say go.
A dropped drive is inspected before it's ever powered — because the first spin after an impact is when damaged heads meet platters. Power-on happens once, under control, monitored.
Damaged heads are replaced with matched donors, seized spindles freed, stuck heads lifted from the surface, cracked boards and connectors rebuilt.
The drive is imaged with damaged regions deferred to the end — securing the healthy majority first, then negotiating with the wounds.
Before you pay the recovery fee you approve a full listing of what came back. Your data returns on new media with free return postage, and the case only closes once you've confirmed everything opens on your side.
The datasheet fact that changes behaviour: laptop-class hard drives are typically rated ~300G operating versus ~650G non-operating — and some 3.5" desktop drives as low as ~30G while running. If a machine is about to be moved, the single cheapest data-protection measure in existence is shutting it down first.
A portable drive holding three years of client shoots, dropped at a wedding load-out and clicking by the time it was plugged in to check. One donor head assembly and a two-day image later, every gallery was back — including the one from that morning.
The drive itself usually isn't worth fixing — but the data very often is. Head replacement and careful imaging bring back most post-drop drives, provided they aren't repeatedly powered up first.
That's the worst case: operating shock tolerance is a fraction of powered-off tolerance, and the flying heads can strike the platters. Power off now and treat it as urgent.
Usually — solid state has nothing mechanical to crash, so impact failures are cracked boards, connectors or solder joints, all of which are electronic repairs with the NAND intact.
Almost certainly. Marginal head or bearing damage progresses with use — the drop wrote the ending, use just turned the pages.
Every restart of a damaged device costs data. Open a case first — the diagnosis is free either way.