This problem is a result of shocks and drops, sometimes – power surges and outages. Both heads and surfaces are super finely polished so when they accidentally come into a contact (normally heads are flying over the surface on a thin layer of air) they are getting stuck together by force of molecular attraction. Drive affected by head stiction problem is not registered in computer’s OS and not visible in the BIOS. Typically, this issue affects laptop models (1.8 and 2.5 inches, all manufacturers). Desktop models of hard drives have much more powerful motors so head stiction is less common. The symptom of head stiction is faint humming sound on drive’s power-up.

Data recovery from drives affected by head stiction problem is usually performed by proper unsticking heads from surfaces with the help of special tools, sometimes head assembly replacement is needed. Our success rate for such recovery jobs is at least 99%. Clean room required.