A drive that spins normally but never appears usually has a firmware or board fault, and the data behind it is untouched. A drive that is still detected but slowing, stalling and throwing errors is a different situation entirely — you have a window, and how you use it decides how much comes back.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sda → Device: Seagate ST2000DM006 · 2 TB → Status: NOT DETECTED — service area / firmware corruption → Client: confidential · Oxford, Oxfordshire $ bdr engineer-working → Service area: firmware repaired → Drive: re-initialised · detected → Imaging: 1.82 TB / 2.00 TB (91%) $ bdr verify → ✓ documents — 64,820 files → ✓ photos — 51,300 files → ✓ drive visible again — recovered
That combination — healthy sound, no detection — usually points at firmware or the board rather than the mechanism, and the data is generally untouched. What does damage is repeatedly power-cycling it while troubleshooting.
When the mechanism sounds fine but nothing appears, there are four realistic explanations.
The other half of this page is the drive that is detected and deteriorating — where you still have options and a limited time to use them.
Growing slowness, transfers stalling at the same point, files that fail to open, CRC errors, freezes tied to disk activity, and SMART warnings all describe a drive with bad sectors accumulating. The data is still there and still readable, and that is the window.
Use it properly: copy the irreplaceable material to different media first, in order of value rather than alphabetically, and accept that some files will fail. Do not run a full surface scan first — that reads every sector on a disk already struggling with the ones it needs. And once the copy is done, replace the drive; a disk that has started retiring sectors will continue to.
The route differs by fault, but the destination is the same — a clone.
Firmware, board, sectors or bridge. This is what the free diagnostic establishes, and it determines everything that follows.
Firmware modules are repaired or substituted through the drive’s diagnostic interface until it enumerates at its true capacity.
Where the electronics have failed, the board is repaired or a donor fitted with the original adaptives transferred across.
The drive is cloned on hardware built for failing media, with retries limited and unreadable sectors logged rather than allowed to stall the process.
File system repair and extraction run against the clone. Files are opened to verify rather than counted, and anything unreadable is reported by name.
One price, set after the diagnostic and before any work.
A single hard drive, whether internal, external or from a laptop, is from £300 +VAT. Where the drive forms part of a RAID, NAS or server, that work starts from £500 +VAT. Every job opens with a free 48-hour diagnostic and a written quote, and most are no fix, no fee — drive-level physical work carries a 50% deposit with the balance due only on success.
Send the bare drive rather than the machine where you can; externals should come complete with their enclosure. Full write-ups: a failing Fujitsu Lifebook imaged in passes and a Toshiba bricked by its own firmware.
Send us your device for a free diagnostic, and tell us a little about what happened — an engineer will review it and confirm your exact quote in writing before any work begins.
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.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is what we’d recommend. Rather drop it in? You’re welcome Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just package the device up as above first.
Want a bit more detail first? Fill in the form with more about your issue and an engineer will review it and send you a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. For anything urgent, call 01865 593000.
What we get asked most about drives the computer won’t detect or recognise.
Usually a firmware or board fault rather than a mechanical one. Drives load their operating firmware from a reserved area on the platters, and if a module is unreadable the drive cannot describe itself — so it reports no capacity or a blank model while sounding perfectly healthy. The data is generally untouched.
That is a classic service-area symptom — the drive’s translator or capacity modules have become inconsistent, so it cannot describe itself correctly. Stop power-cycling it, as each start is another chance to overwrite what remains of those modules.
Yes, immediately, if it is quiet. Copy the irreplaceable material to different media first, in order of value, and accept that some files will fail. Don’t run a full surface scan first. If the drive makes any noise, stop instead — that is a different situation.
Often not. On externals the USB bridge board fails at least as often as the disk, and on WD units the encryption key lives on that bridge — so the disk is unreadable outside its own enclosure even when perfectly healthy. Send the unit complete.
Not repairing, no. A drive that has started retiring sectors will keep doing so, so the sensible response is to recover what matters and replace it. Repair tools produce a consistent file system rather than preserving your files.
From £300 plus VAT for a single drive, and from £500 plus VAT where it forms part of a RAID, NAS or server — fixed in a written quote after a free 48-hour diagnostic, with most jobs no fix, no fee.
Behind every repair sits a 10,000-part inventory, a free written diagnostic to open, and no fix no fee on most jobs. Begin your recovery today.