A Seagate external drive dropped while in use. The impact caused a read/write head crash and left visible scoring on the platter surfaces. A new head assembly was fitted and 96% of the data extracted.
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The drive was dropped and immediately became inaccessible. On arrival the assessment found what the symptom suggested: the read/write heads had contacted the platter surfaces during the fall.
This is the failure mode that separates a drop while running from a drop while parked. Modern drives park their heads off the platter when idle, and a drive dropped in that state frequently survives with nothing worse than a stuck head stack. A drive dropped while spinning has its heads flying microns above a surface moving at several thousand revolutions per minute.
Head crash confirmed, with scratching present on the platter surfaces caused by the fall. That distinction matters because it sets the ceiling on what can be recovered.
Replacing the heads restores the drive's ability to read. It does nothing about magnetic coating that has been physically removed from the platter, and no technique recovers data from a scored track — the material carrying it is gone.
Ninety-six per cent of the data was extracted. The missing four per cent corresponds to the scored regions of the platter, where the magnetic coating was physically removed by the head contact during the fall.
We report that figure as sectors rather than files, because the two do not map neatly. Files entirely outside the damaged tracks came back complete; files crossing them came back with gaps.
A drive dropped while powered off usually recovers completely. One dropped mid-write may carry permanent surface damage from the moment of impact.
Fitting new heads restores the ability to read. Where coating has been removed there is nothing left to read, and that portion is genuinely unrecoverable.
A 96% sector recovery does not mean 96% of files. Most files come back whole; those crossing the damage come back with gaps.