Data Recovery Case Study - October 2018 Second Chance Recovery

Manufacturer: Western Digital

Model: WD5000LPVX-22V0TT0

Failure: Mechanical

Number of Heads: 2
Heads Failed: 2
Firmware: 01.01A01

Client's hard drive has failed after a 3 feet drop while in use. Client's case description included continuous 5 step sequential clicking noise resulted in power-down. The client has taken the drive to BestBuy technicians that sent it out to an undisclosed data recovery center that rendered the drive unrecoverable.

After the drive was received in our laboratory and went through a thorough inspection we have determined that the platter had no signs of physical damage. Both heads had failed and required a swap from a donor drive. Donor drive was located in stock and replacement commenced. The parts did not band together, as the drive kept on making continuous clicks.

Second donor drive was located in stock and another attempt of head replacement commenced. The replacement was a success with 240GB of data imaged from the drive.

240GB of data recovered