# Dropped HDD on the floor.



## Navis (Sep 10, 2018)

FML

I am currently using internal Seagate Barracuda 2TB 2.5 inch as my external HDD as I have all of my data on it. I have it connected to my laptop via USB since my main laptop is atm broken ergo the reason for this setup. As I was walking upstairs I dropped the disk on the floor. The floor is made from tiles so there is basically no sponginess in it what so ever. I had the disk off and it was not reading/writing anything as it was on top of the laptop that I was carrying.

I connected the disk back to PC and checked it for errors using Crystal Disk Info. It reported 0 problems. Then I checked it using Windows 10 build in error checking which is chkdsk in cmd basically and it said it found some errors. I restarted laptop and let it fix the errors and they were fixed.

I tested the files on my disk from the very new ones to really old ones that were on for few years now and they all seem to work. The disk is not constantly in use, there is no weird usage, noise or anything of the similar.

What are the chances the disk is actually on the brink of getting all of the data lost? Considering what I just said, everything is ...fine?

Can anyone shed any light on this? I might sound paranoid but there is no way in hell am I losing this data but then again if its not necessary to buy a new one why would I? 

Thank you.


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## Ahhzz (Sep 10, 2018)

I have had an older drive shatter after being dropped (sounded like it was filled with rice when you shook it), but these days they're a little sturdier. I would say that if the head wasn't over the platters when it dropped, it's _probably_ ok. I would keep an eye on it with your drive monitoring tool of choice (I'm partial to HD Sentinel) so if it does show signs of early deterioration (continued/increased number of bad sectors), you can go for a warranty RMA early, and save your data. 
I guess it doesn't help your paranoia much, but I doubt you'll get a much better answer: if all you got was a few bad sectors, you're probably ok for a while.


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## seagate_surfer (Sep 10, 2018)

FML,  make a back up now. Drives do not take kindly to drops and vibrations. This drive may fail at any minuet and count your lucky starts you can still access it. As a precaution, run SeaTools to check on the health of the drive.


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## dorsetknob (Sep 10, 2018)

Back up what you can to Cloud/Optical Drive as a Precaution


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## Toothless (Sep 10, 2018)

When the Seagate guy comes in, you know it's bad.


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## Batou1986 (Sep 10, 2018)

I somehow fixed an 120gb WD IDE drive by throwing it at a wall a long time ago, guess the heads where stuck and I unstuck them.
On your drive the heads would have been parked because its off, I use old HDD platters for air rifle targets and they don't break so shattering platters is quite hard with modern drives.
I say it should be fine.


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## thebluebumblebee (Sep 10, 2018)

IIRC, today's HDD's are good for 1000 G's when they're off.  That's a 6 foot drop to concrete.


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## nickk122 (Sep 10, 2018)

I dropped my 1tb seagate goflex 2 years ago from approx. 5 feet. Still works fine, no bad sectors, but calibration retry count parameter has been going up since. The drive reads fine for about 5 minutes and then it stops responding for a few seconds and starts reading normally again. I think that the head is sticking to the platter because the gap between two heads had narrowed (we're talking micrometers) after the drop. If bad sectors start appearing that means that there is physical damage to the platter surface. If you try reading the damaged area enough times heads will get severely damaged, rendering your data unrecoverable (without a head stack replacement)


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## Navis (Sep 10, 2018)

Yeah, we"ll see I guess. So far so good. No errors, bad sectors or anything out of ordinary. Hard to make a backup with 2TB worth of data though.


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## qubit (Sep 10, 2018)

seagate_surfer said:


> FML,  make a back up now. Drives do not take kindly to drops and vibrations. This drive may fail at any minute and count your lucky starts you can still access it. As a precaution, run SeaTools to check on the health of the drive.


@Navis  ^^^What he said, with extra emphasis, especially as the drive could now fail completely and unexpectedly and you'd lose everything. You should back up your data as a matter of routine anyway, because if you don't, it's only a matter of time until you lose it in one of a myriad of ways, not just dropping hard discs. Just buy another HDD of equal or greater capacity to back up to and run Karen's Replicator, a simple and free backup utility.

@nickk122 That drive is seriously on its way out, man. You're certain to lose data on it at some point. Get yourself a new drive for daily use and use that as a spare for testing, or better still, just chuck it. Same backup advice applies to you too. To everyone really, hey.


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## nickk122 (Sep 11, 2018)

I know, I don't use that drive anymore.


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## Mussels (Sep 11, 2018)

if you drop them while in use, they're more likely to die... i just wouldnt trust it from here on


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## Navis (Sep 11, 2018)

Mussels said:


> if you drop them while in use, they're more likely to die... i just wouldnt trust it from here on



It was completely off as I said


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## Mussels (Sep 11, 2018)

when off, they're less likely to be damaged since the heads are parked. doesnt mean things arent going to go badly for you soon.


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## Frick (Sep 11, 2018)

Navis said:


> Can anyone shed any light on this? I might sound paranoid but there is no way in hell am I losing this data but then again if its not necessary to buy a new one why would I?



This makes it sound like you have no backups. Even if you have a brand new enterprise hdd with a five year warranty you should treat it as if it'll randomly die aat any point. Backups and backups.


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## biffzinker (Sep 11, 2018)

Backup of the Backup of the Backups

Never trust one drive with important data otherwise sooner than later.

Guess it depends on how valuable the data on the drive is. If you don't care at all then carry on.


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## cornemuse (Sep 12, 2018)

I dropped a 3 T drive, it was definitely dead, , , , , 
That was one _heavy drive_.


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 12, 2018)

Navis said:


> I connected the disk back to PC and checked it for errors using Crystal Disk Info. It reported 0 problems. Then I checked it using Windows 10 build in error checking which is chkdsk in cmd basically and it said it found some errors. I restarted laptop and let it fix the errors and they were fixed.


If you checked the S.M.A.R.T. and it shows everything is ok, the drive is likely fine. While HDD drives do not take drops well, they are very robust by design. However..


dorsetknob said:


> Back up what you can to Cloud/Optical Drive as a Precaution


This is a thing. I personally have an M-Disc Bluray Recorder drive and actively backup all of my critical data to BDR disc's, this is on top of the dual 10TB drives that serve as backup storage.

There is a cost, but how much is your data worth to you? If you can't afford to loose it, spend the time and money to make backups.


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## John Naylor (Sep 13, 2018)

The 2.5's are pretty light, so don't build up a smuch momentum... and not in use so that is a plus.  As SeagateGuy said, test it with the manufacturer's utility.


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