Hard Drive Data Recovery
We specialise in recovering from failed drives and disk arrays.
Hard Disk Drive Recovery
Data Retriever specialises in hard drive data recovery. If you have a failed HDD, we can help.
Since the introduction of longitudinal recording, hard disk drive reliability has arguably dropped somewhat, despite speed and capacity continuing to improve. Various HDD families and models have common points of failure but all mechanical drives are susceptible to damage from physical trauma (drops, impacts, vibration) and all have the same basic requirements for clean lab repair for data recovery.
Laptop Hard Drive Data Recovery
Hard disk drives from laptop computers are another common type of storage media we see frequently.
Like their larger desktop sized cousins, laptop HDDs are getting faster and larger. Despite being slightly more resilient to physical impact trauma, such as drops, impacts and vibration, 2.5″ hard drives are generally more prone to such damage given their wide application in laptop computers and portable hard drive enclosures. Both laptops and portable drives are often physically moved whilst running, which can have disastrous results if one isn’t careful!
Also, just like 3.5″ hard drives (the ‘desktop’ size), these smaller 2.5″ drives are known to have points of failure specific to various models. Lastly, all mechanical hard drives in this size have the same basic requirements for clean lab repair for data recovery.
External and Portable Hard Drive Data Recovery
Rounding out the common types of storage media we’re sent on a regular basis is external and portable hard drives.
While prices drop and capacity and speed continue to increase, these mechanical drives top the charts as the most ‘at risk’ group of drives for physical damage. The situation is worsened by space-saving designs that see desktop external drives standing on a thinner side rather than sitting flat on the desk – should a desktop HDD be knocked over whilst running, platter and head damage is a common result.
Even more than laptop drives, portable and desktop external drives are highly susceptible to damage from physical trauma (drops, impacts, vibration), as these are often moved whilst running. Because all have the same basic requirements for clean lab repair for hard drive data recovery, we’re intimately familiar with the process and equipment required to do it safely and efficiently.
- Mechanical (clicking, squealing, screeching, otherwise noisy drives)
- Firmware (failing to detect correctly or at all, abnormal behaviour)
- Electrical (failing to spin up, burning smell or even smoke emission)
- Logical (deleted or missing files, broken file systems, malicious attacks)
We recover from all current HDD manufacturers and many older, uncommon makes, including:
- Western Digital (WD) / Hitachi / IBM
- Seagate / Samsung / Maxtor
- Toshiba
- Fujitsu
We’re competent with recovery from many file systems & environments including:
- Windows (3.x, 95/98/ME, 2000/NT, 2003/2008, Vista/7/8, 10) – FAT32; NTFS
- Mac (legacy, 7/8/9, OS X) – HFS/HFS+; APFS
- Linux (Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, Red Hat, SuSE, Ubuntu) – EXT2/3/4
- Unix (AIX, BSD, HP-UX, SCO, Solaris, UnixWare) – EXT; UFS/FFS; ZFS
- DOS – FAT; FAT16
- Netware – NWFS
- OS/2 – FAT12/16; HPFS
Top-Notch Service
We never charge for our evaluation of your failed hard disk drive. As always, we strive to provide you with relevant and clear information in a pressure-free manner, helping you to make an informed decision about how to proceed from that point. We’re available for contact at any point before, during and after your recovery – please call or email any time for friendly and professional assistance and advice, or if you’re ready to send your drive in for a free inspection and quote, you may review our process and prices before making a booking.