A single knock locked the spindle and dropped the heads onto the platters. Both faults had to be reversed before the drive would read anything at all.
An Iomega external drive slid off a desk and thereafter, on power, only buzzed briefly before going quiet. That one fall had inflicted two distinct injuries together: it seized the spindle motor solid and let the heads settle onto the platter surfaces. Few states are more precarious for a drive, and each second of power makes it worse, so cutting the power at once and bringing it straight over — which the owner did — was precisely right.
Since the fault was clearly mechanical, the enclosure’s USB side didn’t matter, so we lifted the bare drive from its casing and opened it in the clean-air environment. What we found fit the symptoms: the platter stack wouldn’t spin freely, and the heads carried impact marks. Neither the seizure nor the head damage could be side-stepped — both needed repair before one sector would read.
In the clean area we worked the seized platter stack loose, then installed a donor head set matched to the drive so the new heads would track the surfaces accurately. A mechanism reassembled after a seizure is delicate and unpredictable, so imaging ran on the DeepSpar, letting us keep the strain low, hold back power and timeouts, and lock down the soundest surfaces before approaching the areas the fall had scarred; the PC3000 was on hand for firmware the whole time.
Working from the image, we reassembled the file system and confirmed the photos, documents and music all opened properly before writing them out to fresh media.
About 95% of the drive imaged and the bulk of the files went back to the owner, seven working days later. The lesson a dropped drive drives home is unforgiving: if it buzzes or won’t spin, don’t keep powering it up in hope — every try does more damage. Powered off and brought in straight away, as this one was, gives the best odds going.
DeepSpar DDI · PC3000 — spindle released, donor heads fitted, then imaged and rebuilt on our own bench. We take a copy first and never write to the original.
Get the device to us for a free diagnostic and a quick note on what went wrong — an engineer looks it over and puts your exact quote in writing before anything is started.
The route to your data starts with the device reaching us. Box it up securely, tuck your contact details inside, and send it across — after the free diagnostic, we put your exact price in writing before a single step is taken.
Sending it by post? Go with a tracked, insured service. Prefer to bring it round? Our door is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just pack the device as described above beforehand.
Prefer to get a sense of things first? Complete the form with a bit more about the fault and an engineer will look it over and send back a tailored quote.
We’ll get back to you soon. Anything pressing, call 01483 901310.
Often, yes — though one fall can trigger several faults together. We remove the bare drive from its enclosure and, in the clean-air environment, free a seized spindle and fit donor heads where needed before imaging on the DeepSpar. Impact damage may cost a little, but most typically comes back.
£300 plus VAT upward, most work no fix, no fee, with a fixed quote agreed first.
No — a dropped drive that buzzes or won’t turn is mechanically hurt, and each power-up risks more loss. Turn it off and bring it in instead of trying again.
Kick off with an instant online quote, or ring us and talk it through first. Either way you’ll know a clear, fixed price before any work starts.