Disk after flood - recovery

[arvika]

Have somebody recover disk after flood?
How you solved the problem. Or not?

Any curious case?

[zebong]

Post some pictures.

[arvika]

I don't have such case. I'm just curious

[CK]

We had a large number of water damaged drives this year as a result of some bad flooding in our country. We successfully recovered approx 60% of them. We used a number of methods, some more successful than others. I was surprised at the volume of water that had ingressed into the drive, even on drives that were not submerged.

Also, we've handled a number of drives from CCTV DVR systems that were physically damaged and subsequently thrown into a river by criminals trying to destroy evidence. Got most of the footage off them, which was a nice result. Hopefully someone is sitting behind bars now

[arvika]

Ok, one photo

Attachments

[msurgeon]

A good deal depends upon how long the water has been inside the drive. Oxidation begins rapidly and can cause permanent damage in short time.

[crecomp]

interesting how successful was the recovery of this drive how did you clean the other platters
would love to know more

[arvika]

No success unfortunately. Heads are gone, massive platter destruction.

[guru]

sometimes it "May" be better to keep the drive damp before you do any cleaning.

Saying that I have only done one in my life time lol

[hddguy]

I think the main problem is not the water, but the rough conditions associated with flooding.

I agree with CK, about 60% or so seems reasonable recovery percentage for water damaged Hard Disks

[disktech]

water damaged drives successful ratio more then 70 to 80% depends on expereince..
Mostly easily fix

[BlackST]

Well, the drive on the picture was a Quantum, so if heads were gone even if media was recovered to acceptable conditions, THIS was the biggest problem.

[arvika]

Well, the drive on the picture was a Quantum, so if heads were gone even if media was recovered to acceptable conditions, THIS was the biggest problem.

BlackST has right.

When is clean water it is "quite easy" to recover data, but what about slime?