Full data recovery can never be guaranteed, but there are some things that can be done to give it a better chance to do its work. It is not a good idea to continue powering up a drive that is believed to be damaged. Drives that have been exposed to water, fire, lightning or smoke are expected to suffer from some form of damage; such is also the case when a drive has been through a great deal of force.

Removing the cover from the hard drive or shaking it will only cause further damage. It would require an air and static controlled class 100 room facilities as well as data recovery professionals. Simple recovering of data may be performed with commonly available software utility programs. Never fail to package the drive properly when it is sent to a professional and highly experienced data recovery company.