A Fusion Drive is an SSD and a hard disk presented as one volume. The flash half was flawless. The mechanical half was scraping — and unlike almost every other fault, that one removes data permanently while you decide what to do.
A MacBook had become slow, then unreliable, then noisy — a scraping sound that came and went and was eventually constant. It had been used through all of it, because it still mostly worked. By the time it arrived the machine would not boot and the noise was unmistakable.
The distinction that mattered here is the one people find least intuitive: a Fusion Drive is not one device. It is a flash drive and a hard disk that macOS presents as a single volume, distributing files across both according to how often they are used. Recovering one and not the other returns fragments of everything and the whole of nothing.
The flash half was in perfect condition — no wear of consequence, no controller trouble. The mechanical half had a failed head assembly and, more seriously, visible circular scoring on the platter surfaces beneath it.
Scraping is the worst noise a drive makes. Clicking means the heads cannot find their servo data; scraping means they are in contact with the surface, removing the magnetic coating a fraction at a time. Where that coating has gone there is no data to read, at any price and by any technique. That damage had been accumulating for as long as the machine had been used with the noise present, and it set the ceiling for this recovery before anything was opened.
The hard disk went to the clean-air bench first: a matched donor head assembly fitted, the internal filter replaced to catch the debris a crash generates, and then imaging in short controlled passes that worked around the scored bands rather than repeatedly attacking them. A scored region does not improve with retries; it sheds more material.
The SSD imaged in minutes. Both images were then used together to rebuild the CoreStorage logical volume — reconstructing the map that describes which blocks live on which device — and the APFS file system rebuilt from the volume that resulted.
Documents and photographs were opened and rendered rather than counted. Because files had been distributed across both devices, some had part of their content in the scored region and part on healthy media — those open and fail partway, which is worse than failing outright, so each was identified and reported by name rather than returned quietly.
About 88%. Everything held on the flash half came back intact, along with the majority of what sat on the hard disk. The missing portion mapped directly onto the scored bands.
Worth saying plainly, because it is the whole lesson of this one: the loss was caused by continued use after the noise started, not by anything that happened afterwards. A Fusion Drive that begins scraping is losing data every minute it runs, and no amount of care at the bench recovers a surface that is no longer there.
A Fusion Drive is two devices presented as one volume, with files spread across both — so both must come in or you get fragments. And scraping is not a warning that something might fail; it is the sound of data being removed. A machine that grinds should be shut down immediately, not used until it stops working. Fusion Drive recovery is £550 +VAT flat, reflecting two devices, with a 50% deposit where clean-air work is needed.
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Getting your data back begins with getting the device to us. Pack it up safely, pop your contact details inside, and send it over — once we’ve run the free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work starts.
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Because macOS distributes files across the SSD and the hard disk according to use, presenting them as one volume through CoreStorage. Recovering one alone returns fragments of files rather than whole ones, so both are imaged and the logical volume rebuilt from the pair.
Immediately urgent. Scraping means the heads are in contact with the platter and removing the magnetic coating. Unlike most faults it destroys data continuously while the machine runs, and none of that is recoverable afterwards.
The mechanical one, almost always. The hard disk accumulates wear, bad sectors and eventually head problems while the flash half typically remains healthy — which is why the machine gets slower and noisier before it stops.
Not the scored areas. Where the magnetic coating has been removed there is nothing left to read by any technique. Undamaged regions of the same platter usually image normally, so the outcome is a partial recovery with the missing files named.
£550 plus VAT flat, because two devices are recovered and recombined into one volume. Clean-air and donor-part work carries a 50% deposit, with the balance payable only on success.
Start with an instant online quote, or call and talk it through with us first. You'll have a clear, fixed price before any work begins.