We publish articles from our in-house engineering team that are designed as easy-to-understand guides regarding how to identify and avoid damaging failed drives and lost data, in addition to steps you can take before contacting us, so you don’t further damage your data.
The one best action you can take when a drive begins to fail (clicks) is to immediately cease use of the drive and contact us. Typically powering-on a failing drive results in recoverable information becoming permanently unrecoverable.
Clicking, disappearing, failing, or dead: these are some of the most common ways people describe their drives, and what you should do if they exhibit these behaviours.
Before you begin comparing different Mac recovery tools, determine where the missing files were located: internal SSD/HD, external HD, or card.
Dead SSD, invisible SSD, read-only SSD. Why your SSD has failed and how we recover your data from the chip level down.
What does your hard drive problem mean? The common symptoms: clicking, not detected, won’t power on, corrupted or RAW, d
Your SD card is corrupt? How almost all cases are caused by just one of these: interrupted writes, device-hopping, fake
Should you attempt to use recovery software yourself or hire a specialist? When do DIY tools assist and when do they cr
Professional review of Disk Drill by a recovery lab: what the paid version can do better than the free edition, what’s included in each tier.
Apple can repair Macs but does not provide file recovery for failed drives. What you receive at the Genius Bar, what is
Does a factory reset delete all data? On a hard drive, no. On an SSD, usually yes. Why this distinction is important whe
The four-question test to tell you if free data recovery software is safe to use on your lost files, which tools really
Your hard drive isn’t visible in Windows or on a Mac. Common causes (loose cables, drive failure) and how to safely reco
Hitachi Deskstar, Travelstar and Ultrastar drives are recovered in Newcastle. No charge to diagnose, and in most cases y
In less than 5 minutes the full analysis of hard drive condition by listening for sixty seconds and reviewing the SMART
Find out the health of your SSD with free software in minutes: the four readouts, and the unexpected controller failure
Recovering deleted files? The recovery path: undo and recycle bin, the versions nobody ever uses, free and safe recovery
Safe recovery of data from external hard drives: what is safe to try yourself, what will destroy data, and whether it’s
LaCie data recovery (Rugged, Porsche Design, d2, 2big): the orange bumper protects the enclosure, not the heads. Nice bo
NAS won’t mount or shares missing? Don’t rebuild. Degraded arrays are recoverable; failed rebuilds require forensic wor
The no bootable device error splits at one question: does your BIOS still see the drive? The sixty-second fork and both
RAID 10 for new owners and for those whose RAID has just lost a drive: how RAID 10’s mirrored pairs work and whether to go with RAID 10 over RAID 5.
Stuck or dead during a RAID rebuild? Why your rebuild fails before completion, and which three controller buttons will kill off a degraded array.
Not spinning, not detected, no life at all? Follow the four-branch tree: power, enclosure, electronics, and mechanical issues.
Photos deleted from a card, drive or phone? A minute-by-minute rescue plan: freeze the media source, raid every cloud bi
Samsung SSD dead or vanished? Signature of sudden failure, limits set by Magician, history of firmware worth knowing.
Failed SanDisk card, stick or Extreme SSD. Real failure patterns, counterfeit epidemic, documented Extreme SSD failure.
Your Seagate hard drive has died. The typical failures of Seagate drives, what Seagate Rescue includes, and some important information about SMR and firmware.
What are the signs of an impending death (hard drive failure)? The seven warning signs: sounds, freezes, files disappearing, SMART counters.
Toshiba drive failed? Why Toshiba drives are in most laptops with many different brands, damage from dropping, bridge fa
Dead or corrupted USB drive containing important documents? Our three-step rescue ladder: no cost assessment to chip-lev
Your Western Digital drive failed; hardware encryption and the “My Passport” twist; recovering from WD’s colour-coded drives.
A Data Recovery Agent is a certificate issued beforehand to allow organisations to decrypt their encrypted data with BitLocker or EFS.
How do Ledger and Trezor hardware wallets protect your crypto keys; and what does your seed phrase really mean?
Click of death explained: sound is mechanical, power-on causes damage each time, freezer myth and board swap myth.
When can you safely do this yourself versus calling a pro? DIY file retrieval: how to get back deleted files without worsening things.
Simple explanations of higher-risk recoveries: failed SSDs and RAID arrays.
The five manufacturers that are most commonly seen (and what to do when they fail): Seagate, WD, Toshiba, Samsung, SanDisk.
While reading is informative, the best way to understand what is going to happen, if your hard drive has died, is to send us some information about the failure, or better yet, just call. We will provide you an honest assessment along with a complimentary diagnostic, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data.