{"id":1407,"date":"2017-02-08T15:53:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T13:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.atola.com\/?p=1407"},"modified":"2017-02-08T18:06:05","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T16:06:05","slug":"imaging-damaged-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/imaging-damaged-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"Imaging Drives with Damaged Heads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hard drives with physical damage require a complex imaging approach. This guide will explain how to retrieve data with the minimal risk of data loss on a drive with a damaged head stack.<\/p>\n

If an Automatic Checkup report<\/strong><\/em> indicates that there is a problem with the heads, look at the status of each head.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If the status of a head or multiple heads is Degraded<\/strong><\/em> or Damaged<\/strong><\/em>, the drive will not be able to read all the data. What\u2019s worse, even more sectors may soon become unavailable due to incorrect functioning of the drive\u2019s hardware.<\/p>\n

We recommend that you start by imaging the heads, whose status is OK<\/strong><\/em>, as soon as possible. To do that:<\/p>\n

Step 1. Go to Imaging <\/em>category of the left-side menu, click on Create New Session <\/em>link and select the device or file to which the data will be imaged.
\nStep 2. In the Start new imaging session<\/em> page go to Heads<\/strong><\/em> line and click on Select heads to use<\/strong><\/em> link.
\nStep 3. Unselect the damaged head.
\nStep 4. Click on Start Imaging <\/em>button.<\/p>\n

\"2-1<\/p>\n

As a result, you get as much data from the drive\u2019s viable heads as possible before even beginning to work with the damaged head. This way the risk of losing data on the working part of the head stack is minimized.<\/p>\n

\"3-1<\/p>\n

Now that this data has been successfully retrieved, you have two options:<\/p>\n