Appreciation post: The day every hard drive failure was actually recoverable

Last Thursday I had three clients call in with dying drives. One was a spilled coffee on a laptop, another was a clicking external drive, and the third was a server that wouldn't boot. Usually I expect at least one of these to be a total loss, especially with the clicking one. But every single drive came back with full data recovery using basic tools and some patience. The coffee damage just needed a clean and a new caddy. The server drive had a loose SATA cable, not a failure. Has anyone else had a lucky streak like that where everything just worked out?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa_rivera8h ago

Hey man when was the last time you had a streak that good? I've had days like that where everything just lines up. Had a client drop off a laptop that took a swim in a pool last summer. Pulled the drive, let it dry out for a week, and it booted right up like nothing happened. Another one had a NAS that was clicking like crazy, but it turned out some dust was stuck in the fan making noise not the drive itself. It's wild how sometimes the stuff you think is toast just works out.

logan2634h ago

Oh man yeah that pool laptop thing is wild. I had one that got dropped in a puddle once and I just pulled the battery and buried it in rice for like three days and it came back to life. Felt like a magician or something