Home › Guides › Lost files and dead drives: what not to do, and when to call a specialist
Lost files or a computer that will not start are emergencies that can feel like panic. But the actions you take in the first few hours often determine whether your data can be recovered. One wrong move can turn a recoverable problem into permanent data loss.
Signs your drive is failing
Immediate danger signs—power off now:
- Clicking, ticking, grinding, or beeping sounds from inside the computer
- A burning smell or visible damage to the drive
- The computer freezes during start-up or file access
- Files vanishing or becoming unreadable without warning
Warning signs that need attention:
- Files failing to open, or error messages about corrupted data
- Transfers stalling halfway through
- Frequent crashes or freezes clustered around disk activity
- Slow performance that has suddenly worsened
- SMART warnings from your operating system about drive health
If you hear mechanical noises, stop using the computer immediately. Every minute it runs damages the drive further.
What NOT to do
Do not run repair tools on a failing drive. Windows’ CHKDSK tool and macOS’ Disk Utility Repair will write data to the drive, potentially overwriting the very files you are trying to save. If the drive has mechanical failure, repair tools can cause the drive to fail completely.
Do not restart the computer repeatedly. If the drive fails during start-up, rebooting over and over will cause more damage. A single power-off followed by professional help is much better than five restart attempts.
Do not try to open the drive yourself. Opening a hard drive outside a clean-room environment introduces dust particles that can destroy the drive permanently. Even if you replace the circuit board (the PCB) with a matching board from eBay, the replacement will not solve most drive failures, and opening the drive destroys any chance of professional recovery.
Do not install recovery software directly on the failing drive. If you have accidentally deleted files, running recovery software on the same drive will overwrite deleted data that the recovery program was meant to find. If possible, use recovery software on another computer with the failing drive connected as an external drive.
Do not try to fix a clicking drive with a freezer. This is a common myth. Freezing a drive is useless and can introduce condensation that causes corrosion and permanent damage.
What to do if you suspect drive failure
Step 1: Power off immediately if you hear clicking, grinding, or burning smells. Do not restart or investigate further.
Step 2: Do not use the computer. Even if the computer seems to work intermittently, every use increases damage.
Step 3: Take it to a professional. If the drive is making mechanical noises or will not start, you need a specialist data recovery service. Do not attempt repair tools or software recovery yourself. Professional recovery services have laboratory equipment to access physically damaged drives, and they understand when a drive can be safely recovered. However, recovery is more likely to succeed if the drive is handled carefully from the start—every failed restart attempt, every opening of the case, and every incorrect tool used makes recovery harder.
Step 4: For accidental deletion (no mechanical failure), stop using the computer immediately and connect the drive as an external drive to another machine. Only then should you run recovery software. Most recovery tools, such as Windows File Recovery (available from Microsoft Support) or standard file recovery applications, can restore deleted files if the drive is still working. If the drive is still recognized by another computer and is responding normally, software recovery usually succeeds because the file data often still exists until it is overwritten by new data.
If you have lost a drive containing personal data
If the lost or failed drive contains personal information—customer records, employee details, financial information, or client data—you may have a legal obligation to report it. Under UK GDPR, if you process personal data and experience a breach (such as loss of a device containing that data), you must notify the Information Commissioner’s Office within 72 hours if the breach is likely to risk people’s rights and freedoms. This includes loss of a laptop, external drive, or hard drive.
Report breaches to the ICO at ico.org.uk/report-a-breach. Have a clear record of: what data was on the drive, how many people it affects, and when you discovered the loss. Even if you later recover the data or find that the drive was recovered intact, you should still notify the ICO because the loss itself is the breach.
Protecting yourself going forward
The best protection against data loss is not recovery—it is backup. Keep regular backups on an external drive or cloud storage. For important files, a 3-2-1 backup approach is ideal: three copies of your data (original plus two backups), on two different types of media (e.g. hard drive and cloud storage), with one copy in a separate location.
For businesses or organisations handling personal data, backups are not just about avoiding data loss—they are a legal requirement under UK GDPR. The National Cyber Security Centre recommends offline backups (drives that are not connected to your network all the time) to protect against ransomware. A backup that sits permanently connected to your computer offers no protection if ransomware encrypts both your main drive and your backup simultaneously.
When to call a specialist
Data recovery specialists in the UK can recover files from drives with mechanical failure, electrical failure, or files accidentally deleted. However, professional recovery is a specialist lab service and can be costly, particularly for physically damaged drives, so it is worth getting a quote and weighing it against how valuable the lost data actually is. Call a specialist if:
- The drive makes mechanical noises
- The drive is not recognised by your computer at all
- You have critical files (business documents, family photos) that have no backup
- You have attempted recovery software and it failed
Do not call if the drive is working fine but you simply deleted files—recovery software can handle that.
Key points
- Clicking, grinding, or burning smells mean mechanical failure; power off immediately
- Running repair tools on a failing drive makes recovery impossible
- Do not open the drive yourself or reboot repeatedly
- For accidental deletion with a working drive, recovery software on another computer is often successful
- For mechanical failure, only a professional data recovery lab has the equipment to help
- The best protection is regular backups, not emergency recovery
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