• Dropped my laptop, can I trust the drive still?
    4 replies, posted
Long story short laptop fell and I "lost" all my files, apparently the master file table and it's backup both corrupted. Was able to grab my important files using testdisk but can I still trust the drive? Already bought a new drive(500gb 7200rpm to replace the 500gb 5400rpm) and it'd be nice to use it to replace my 250gb external. [editline]6th October 2011[/editline] Drive also stops showing up in bios a few times now. Also rather slow but not sure if it's just because the mft is missing.
If the drive was running when it was dropped, it likely had a head strike and irreversibly damaged the platters, and possibly the R/W heads. I would not use the drive, other than to attempt data recovery of existing data. You can look at the S.M.A.R.T. data on the drive, and if you see a ridiculous number of "Reallocated Sectors" (like over 100) then it probably had a head strike. Some laptops have "freefall sensors" that will park the heads in the drive off the platter when a freefall event is detected. Unfortunately, the time it takes for the laptop to detect a freefall condition, and then send the park command over the ATA/SATA bus takes several seconds; In which time the laptop may have already hit the ground.
You may want to replace that drive just to be sure since it doesn't even always see the thing.
[QUOTE=bassie12;32665238]You may want to replace that drive just to be sure since it doesn't even always see the thing.[/QUOTE] Drive always shows when I hook it up to my external's controller(I think). Anyways I replaced the drive days ago, just wondering if maybe it's up to the task of being a new external for me if I format. Of course I won't be sticking important files on it if I do.
Only thing it's good for is tearing apart and getting the neodymium magnets.
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