Hard Drive Data Recovery

We recover data from 3.5-inch desktop and 2.5-inch laptop hard drives that have been deleted from, formatted, corrupted, dropped or have stopped working.

Signs you need recovery

• Clicking, ticking or beeping from the drive
• Not detected by the computer, or detected with the wrong size
• Very slow, or the computer freezes when you open a folder
• A message asking you to format the disk
• Files, folders or whole partitions missing

What not to do

• Do not keep switching on a drive that clicks or beeps. Each attempt risks more damage to the surface that holds the data.
• Do not run chkdsk, First Aid or other repair tools on a failing drive. They write to the disk.
• Do not open the drive, freeze it or tap it.
• Do not install recovery software onto the drive you want to recover.

How we recover it

Every recovery starts with a sector-by-sector image of the drive, and we work from the image, never the original. If the drive cannot be read reliably, the fault is dealt with first: firmware, electronics or, for clicking drives, the heads, which are replaced from a matching donor in a clean environment.

Worth knowing

• Many drives made since about 2016 use shingled recording. On these, deleted files can be cleared by the drive itself, so stop using it immediately.
• Swapping the circuit board from an identical drive rarely works on modern drives, because each board holds calibration data unique to its drive.
• Helium-filled drives of 8TB and above are sealed and need different handling from air-filled drives.

What it costs

From £99 + VAT. The price depends on what has gone wrong far more than on how much data there is. Use the data recovery calculator for an estimate. The initial consultation is free, and the price is confirmed before recovery starts.

Makes we recover

Questions