AI Summary

External hard drives contain delicate moving parts—read/write heads and platters that operate only nanometers apart—making them far more fragile than solid‑state drives. A fall or other impact can disturb this tiny clearance, even though the stored data may remain intact immediately after the hit. Plugging the drive in right away after such damage greatly raises the chance of permanent data loss, so it should be left unplugged until properly assessed. This caution underscores the need for careful handling of HDDs after any impact.

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