Hard drives store information on a thin layer of magnetic material that covers one or more platters and serves as a data storage medium. The information is read by the actuator heads without ever coming into contact with the platters. It is possible that the magnetic material on the platters can in fact be removed if the heads come into contact with them, and as a result of this, data recovery engineers will be unable to recover the data. They may, however, be able to read data from areas surrounding the damaged areas.
Additionally, when files are securely deleted — which means that the magnetic charges are completely overwritten — or when malicious software encrypts files with newer encryption algorithms, permanent data loss can occur.
Having said that, the vast majority of hard drive data recovery cases are successful. Recovery chances vary depending on the model and failure scenario, but we consistently achieve industry-leading success rates for all major hard drive brands, including Samsung, Western Digital and Seagate.