A drive which spins correctly but doesn’t show up (usually) means the drive’s firmware/board is bad. In this case the data on the drive is probably good. But if the drive shows up in BIOS/disk management but starts to stall/slow down and throw errors, then you’re in a different boat altogether. This gives you an opportunity, but what you do with that opportunity will determine how much of your data is recoverable.
The majority of the time when you have a healthy sound but no detection, that means there’s a pretty good chance it was something in the firmware or the mainboard as opposed to the mechanical parts themselves, and the data itself has probably been left intact. Where you do start messing things up is by repeatedly turning off/on the drive while trying to troubleshoot the issue.
When you hear the mechanics of a drive spinning around okay but don’t see anything showing up, there are four possibilities.
The other half of this page addresses the drive that is detected but deteriorating, where you do still have alternatives and a short window to take advantage of them.
All of these symptoms (slowing down over time, a transfer hangs at the same point, you can’t open a file, CRC errors occur, your system freezes when working with your hard drive and SMART alerts are warning you) are caused by a growing number of “bad” sectors which are becoming unusable. But your data is still there and accessible during this process. That’s your opportunity.
Properly use it: First, copy your most valuable items to other media as quickly as possible. Don’t worry about organising them alphabetically or by category. Just remember that some of those files won’t be copied. And don’t do a full surface scan until after you have completed the copy operation. If you start scanning the entire surface before copying from a disk that is already having trouble reading its own bad areas, you may never get finished. Once you’ve made the copies, replace the original disk because if it’s starting to write off areas of itself, it will continue to.
While the path will vary depending on which failure you’re dealing with, the end result of the path is always the same: a clone.
The free diagnostic tells you whether firmware, board, sector or bridge has failed. All other diagnosis and repair decisions depend upon this.
Through the diagnostics interface of your drive, firmware modules are either fixed or replaced in order to allow your drive to enumerate at its true capacity.
When your electronic components fail, we repair the board or fit an existing donor board (with all original adaptives copied over).
We then clone the drive on hardware specifically designed for failing drives, set retry limits and log all unreadable sectors encountered as they may cause stalls during cloning.
The file system repair and recovery will be performed using the copy (clone). This allows files to be opened and verified as readable and not just counted. Any files that cannot be read will be identified by name.
There is one cost which will be set once the initial diagnostic has been completed, prior to any actual work being carried out.
Prices start from £300 +VAT for one single hard drive (either an internal drive or an external drive), whether it was removed from a desktop computer or a laptop. If the hard drive that requires work is part of a larger configuration such as a RAID, NAS or server then prices for that level of service start at £500 +VAT. In all cases every job commences with a complimentary 48 hour diagnostic where upon completion of the diagnostic a written quotation will be provided. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Drive-level physical services carry a 50% deposit prior to commencement of work with the balance only required upon successful completion of said work.
When shipping your hard disk drive (HDD), please send just the HDD where you can, not the entire computer. External cases should be included at the time of shipment. Links: a failing Fujitsu Lifebook imaged in passes and a Toshiba bricked by its own firmware.
We will perform a free diagnosis of your device upon receipt, and ask some questions as to what may have occurred, after which one of our engineers will then provide you with an exact written quotation prior to performing any work.
Before dropping off or posting your device please request a quotation either by telephone or using our quotation form. The first step to recover your data is to get the device to us. Please ensure that you pack the device securely, include your contact information and then forward it to us. Once we have completed the free diagnostic of your device we will provide you with your exact price in writing prior to commencing any further work.
Posting it? We would suggest using a tracked and insured delivery method. Want to drop it off? That’s okay too. Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5:30pm is good; no appointment necessary: simply prepare the item as described above.
If you want a few more details first, fill out this form and let an engineer go through it and send you back a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. For anything urgent, call 01865 593000.
We are often contacted regarding computer hard disks that do not show up in the computer’s list of recognised drives.
Usually this is caused by some type of failure in either the firmware or the logic board of the drive. Firmware is loaded into memory from a section of the platter designated for reserve space. If the firmware module is corrupt or unreadable, the drive will be unable to identify itself. As such, the drive will report zero bytes or a blank model while sounding normal. Your files are typically intact.
This is a classic service area problem. It means that the translators or capacity modules that allow the drive to communicate its size to the host system have become inconsistent, thus preventing the drive from being identified properly. Please stop turning it off and back on again, because every time you turn it on there is a possibility of overwriting what little remains of these modules.
Absolutely, right away, if it is quiet. But copy all the most important information onto other storage mediums (in priority) before you attempt recovery. It’s likely that some of your files will fail to copy. Do not do an entire surface scan first. Stop the process immediately if the drive starts making unusual noises; this could be a sign of something entirely separate from the failure that prompted you to want to recover the data.
Often not. For external drives the failure rate of the USB bridge board is as high or higher than the failure rate of the hard disk itself. For Western Digital drives, the encryption key resides on that same bridge board; therefore, the drive is completely inaccessible without its original enclosure even though the drive may be perfectly healthy. Ship the drive whole.
No. Repair software does not preserve your files. Once a drive begins writing off bad sectors, it will continue to write them off. Therefore, the best course of action is to recover anything that is possible and get rid of the problem drive.
From £300 + VAT for a single disk and from £500 + VAT where it’s part of a RAID, NAS or server, all are included within a fixed price as per a written quotation produced after a free 48-hour diagnostic, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
Behind every repair there is an inventory of 10,000 parts, a free written diagnostic to open the case and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Start recovering now.