Headcrash

- Sebastian Evers

A head crash, also called "Click of Death", means the immediate contact of one or more read/write heads with the ferromagnetic platter surface(s) of a hard drive. This results in permanent physical damage of the magnetic storage layer. Further operation bears the risk of a so-called fatal head crash causing data loss. If you hear beeping, grinding, scratching, clicking or clacking noises you shouldn't power on your data medium anymore in order to prevent subsequent damages.

Mechanical Damage:

• Impact damage
• Scratches
• Defective, torn-off or adherent read/write heads

Contaminations:

• Abrasion particles on the read/write heads
• Abrasion particles on the data medium surface