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Hard disk diagnosis

Hard Disk Error Diagnosis.

When a drive has been sent to us for recovery because of a physical failure, it is absolutely vital that a correct diagnosis of the problem is made. Some companies will try one thing and if that fails try another until they either get to the problem or give up as a lost cause. We do not recommend this type of ad hoc analysis as in some cases it can make a problem worse. For example, a write-head fault can easily be mis-diagnosed as a firmware problem and attempts to 'repair' firmware can result in it becoming completely unreadable making the problem worse, because now not only do heads need changing but the drive also needs firmware repairs being made.

There are set stages in the diagnosis stage and these follow a pattern. Once a problem is found it is not always considered the only problem so diagnosis will continue. In some cases this may involve ordering spare parts to complete a diagnosis, but in most cases we will not charge for these.

Depending on the reported fault by the customer the tools used to daignose involve.

  • Electronics testing equipment
  • Internal visual examination in a cleanroon
  • Microscopial head examination
  • Disk drive analyser/Oscilloscope analysis
  • Bus protocol analysis
  • Firmware analysis

 Our website covers this in more detail Hard disk fault analysis

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