water damage to a hard drive.

Water damage to a hard drive can occur from a variety of situations:

- flooding, storms, hurricanes

- accidental dropping into water or pool

- extinguishing fire with water

- accidental fluid spills over laptops

- external hard drives accidentally being put into washing machines

Water and electronics don’t mix and hard drives are no exception. In most cases when you experience water damage, you would be throwing ruined electronics out. 

But what about the water damaged drive from your desktop computer, laptop, or server which contains critical business data, research or your invaluable, irreplaceable memories?

While you can go to the store and buy a new hard drive, there’s nowhere you can go to buy all of the data you didn’t back up.

how to handle a water damaged hard drive.

It is very important to keep a level head. 

act quickly.

Time is important and acting fast is critical. If you have a water damaged hard drive, it’s crucial to understand that media damage will become more extensive over time. Hard drives have a number of electronic components that degrade and corrode when exposed to contamination, and because water is rarely sterile, hard drive damage quickly worsens in the days and weeks following the initial water damage.

cut the power.
Immediately cut the power to your water damaged drive, laptop or PC. This will prevent short circuits that could cause additional damage to the drive. If the damaged device is a laptop, remove the battery.

don't attempt to plug in the hard drive.

In case of water damage, it’s strongly advised not to turn on your laptop, PC, external hard disk, or the server.

It sure feels tempting to plug in and turn it on to see if your hard drive still works. However, plugging in a water damaged hard drive could cause further damage to the drive.  

If a water damaged hard drive is turned on, the water on the platters could cause the heads of the disks to rip off, leaving you without the ability to read the information stored on the drive and your data might be lost forever.

If there is still moisture in the circuit board, you could cause a short circuit. 

Plugging a shorted hard drive into your computer can also cause further damage to other parts of the computer, such as the motherboard or power supply unit.

don't try to dry out the hard drive.

• Don't leave the hard drive to air-dry out on its own. Time is not on your side. The more you let your water-damaged drive sit, the more you risk both internal and external corrosion.

• Also, don't dry out the wet hard drive with a hair dryer or any method involving heat - excessive heat can damage the drive even further.

• Leave it as is. If the water is contaminated with any particles, they could adhere to the drive's platters and heads. If you dry the water out, this could leave behind residue which makes data recovery more difficult or even impossible.

• Data recovery experts know the techniques of carefully cleaning and drying the platters.

don't clean the hard drive.

Remove your drive from the water and dry it off with a clean towel. However, don’t attempt to rinse or clean the hard drive if it is dirty, as doing so without the proper tools almost always makes the situation worse.

don't open the hard drive.

It might seem reasonable to open your hard drive to remove the water inside the hard drive. Don’t do this, because you can expose it to airborne contaminants, dust and particles that can then stick to the platters. This can significantly reduce the chances of a successful data recovery. 

pack the hard drive in a sealed bag.

Pack the drive in a moisture-free environment; a plastic sandwich bag or a Ziplock bag are ideal. Try to remove as much air as possible from the bag so that there is less oxygen to react with the hard drive -the presence of oxygen can cause corrosion. 

don't try to fix it yourself. 

When you see your hard drive wet, you might start to panic. What if you lose your valuable data? How much will it cost to fix this? 

You might be tempted to try to fix it yourself to save money or to get it done faster. Or maybe you have a friend or cousin who is handy with computers.

Unless you have professional training, experience, and equipment for dealing with water damaged hard drives, you risk causing more harm than good. First attempt at data recovery is critical. If you make the problem worse, it could take more time, cost more money, or even cause the data to become unrecoverable.

check for backups.

If you have your data stored on other external hard drives, USB drives, or through a data backup service, try accessing any backed up versions of your files to see if and what exactly you have stored. 

give the drive to a data recovery specialist.

You should do a little research before you submit your water damaged drive to data recovery. Not every computer repair store has the equipment and knowledge to handle data recovery, let alone the knowledge and skills to perform data recovery from water damaged drives. For optimal results, bring a water damaged drive to a professional data recovery specialist.

check with your insurance company.

If you have data recovery coverage in your small business or homeowner’s policies, this could save you quite a bit of money.

can data be recovered from a water damaged drive.

Most likely yes, if you act fast and follow the above instructions for handling a water damaged drive.

Water often causes extensive damage to both the mechanical and electronic components of hard drives.
When a hard drive gets wet, water can damage a hard drive’s electronics and potentially cause a short circuit. While water can damage a hard drive’s electronics, the data itself is stored magnetically on the platters and will remain there which is why professionals can still recover information from a water damaged hard drive. However, due to damage to mechanical parts of the hard drive, the data may become more difficult or perhaps impossible to recover. This is because the disks of hard drives have tiny, fine heads that read the information stored on the platters. When the water dries, it can leave a film or residue over the platters’ heads. In addition, platters begin to degrade over time due to corrosion, making it much harder to recover data.

Therefore, if you want to get your data back, you should immediately take a water damaged hard drive to a professional data recovery specialist - if possible, within 24 hours. A professional data recovery company will have the tools and facilities to ensure the best chance of a successful data recovery. 

how to protect yourself from losing data because of water damage.

Hard drive water damage is a problem that can easily become a nightmare.

Even if you are careful to never eat or drink around your computer, there’s always a chance you’ll get caught in the rain with your laptop or your home/office will flood. There’s no guaranteed way to avoid ever damaging your hard drive. 

But there is a way to protect yourself from data loss. Regularly back up your data, both at home and at work - physically, such as on an external hard drive, or digitally in the cloud.

Don’t wait until an accident happens and it is too late. Find a data backup method that works for you and start a daily routine for backing up your data. 

If you have a water-damaged hard drive or any other storage device, Kotar Data Recovery can help you get your valuable data back. In order to perform successful data recovery from devices that have suffered severe water damage, we utilize special knowledge and techniques along with extensive experience in the field.