The fault · impact damage
One question settles most of it: were the platters turning at the time? A drive that is parked and powered down will take a knock that surprises people. Spinning, the gap between head and data is a few nanometres, and nothing in there has anywhere to move. Either way there is a single best attempt at getting the files off, and 'I'll just check it still works' is how that attempt gets used up.
Run the problem past an engineer
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| On screen | What's behind it | First move |
|---|---|---|
| It has clicked since the drop | The knock has thrown the heads off line and the drive can only keep retrying | Power off, permanently |
| Beeping after the fall | The motor is stalled: stiction has the heads pinned to the platter, or a bearing has locked | No knocking it loose |
| Invisible since the impact | Might be crashed heads, a failed motor, or a split board or connector | Examine it, don't run it |
| Worked at first, getting worse | Borderline damage that builds each hour it stays on | Act while it still answers |
| An SSD or a USB stick that died in a fall | Nothing mechanical to break; the fault is a cracked joint, socket or board | One for board-level repair |
Every item gets its own case number on the day it lands here. An engineer traces the fault, gives you a plain assessment of what is realistically recoverable, and puts one fixed price in writing. The diagnosis is free, you are under no obligation, and chargeable work starts only when you say go.
Not one volt goes near a dropped drive until it has been looked at. The first spin after impact is precisely the moment bent heads touch the surface. If it runs at all, it runs once, watched.
Wrecked head assemblies come out in favour of matched donors, seized spindles are released, stuck heads eased off, and split boards or connectors repaired.
Everything reading cleanly is captured first. With that safely stored, we return to coax out the sectors the impact damaged.
You get the full list of recovered files first, and nothing is charged until you approve it. Data goes back on fresh media, return postage paid, and the job stays open on our side until you confirm every file opens at your end.
Worth keeping in mind from the spec sheets: a laptop drive commonly copes with about ~300G while running and ~650G when off, yet certain 3.5" desktop models list figures as low as ~30G in operation. The cheapest protection your data will ever get is powering the machine down before you pick it up.
Three years of client shoots sat on one portable drive. It hit a hard floor during a wedding pack-down and was clicking by the first test. A donor head stack, two days on the imager, and every gallery came back — that morning's included.
Repairing the drive is rarely worth the effort; getting your files off it almost always is. New heads and patient, unhurried imaging recover most dropped drives, as long as nobody powers it up again first.
That is the worst case. A drive knocked while spinning fares far worse than a parked one: heads in flight can gouge the platters. Cut the power now and treat it as urgent.
Usually it is. There are no moving parts to crash, so a drop on an SSD shows up as a cracked board, a broken connector or dry solder — electronic faults, all of them, with the NAND left intact.
Almost certainly. Small head or bearing damage worsens with every spin-up. The fall set the outcome; powering it on just brings it forward.
Switch a failing device on again and you lose a little more. Open a case before you do — the diagnosis is free, whatever it finds.