A head crash had knocked the drive offline, with no backup behind it. Here's exactly how it came back.
A 2 TB Seagate Barracuda that had clicked for a day and then disappeared from Windows — a textbook head crash, with years of photographs riding on it.
On the bench the diagnosis was quickly confirmed: the drive had taken a head crash, one head in the stack down and the platter surface beneath it showing the first signs of damage. A drive in that state can't simply be imaged — the failed heads have to be replaced first, or they read nothing and risk scoring the platters further. All of that work happens in our in-house clean-air environment, where the platters can be exposed without dust settling on the surfaces and causing fresh damage.
We sourced a matched donor drive and transplanted a compatible head stack, pairing it by firmware revision and preamplifier type so the new heads read the platters correctly. With the mechanics stabilised, imaging went onto a DeepSpar Disk Imager — the first tool we reach for on any head-damaged drive. Instead of reading the disk straight through, it works head by head, charts the weak and unstable zones and comes back to them in later passes, and keeps a tight grip on spin-up, power and command timeouts so a fragile drive is never driven to the point of total failure. We deliberately saved the damaged surface for last, capturing every healthy head in full before asking the weakest one to do any work. Where we needed to reach the drive's firmware and service area, the PC3000 handled it.
Once the image was as complete as the media allowed, we rebuilt the file system from the copy — never the original — and checked it by opening a representative spread of the recovered photos and video to confirm they were whole and not corrupt. The recovered data was then written to a fresh drive, ready to plug in and use.
We imaged a little over 99% of the drive and returned effectively every photo, scan and video the family cared about, six working days after it arrived. The one lesson we passed on: a clicking drive is failing mechanically, so the safest thing you can do is power it down and bring it in — and once it's recovered, keep a second copy somewhere, because a hard drive only ever fails once.
DeepSpar DDI · PC3000 — imaging and recovery carried out in-house. Every job is imaged before any recovery work begins, and the original media is never written to.
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.
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Yes — clicking, dropped, dead and firmware-fault drives are our most common job. We replace failed heads in our clean-air environment and image on a DeepSpar alongside the PC3000, always working from a copy.
Hard drive recovery starts at £300 plus VAT, with no fix, no fee on most jobs. You get a fixed written quote before any work starts.
No. Every power-on of a clicking or failing drive risks fresh damage. Switch it off and bring it in, or post it to us.
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.