Not showing up, dropped, clicking or asking to be formatted? We recover external drives of every make — WD, Seagate, Toshiba, LaCie and more, portable and desktop. Often it’s only the USB enclosure that’s failed and the drive inside is fine.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: WD My Passport (2 TB, USB) → Status: NOT DETECTED — USB board failed → Client: confidential · Wallsend NE1 3DY $ bdr engineer-working → USB board: repaired · drive healthy → Encryption: key preserved · unlocked → Imaging: 1.9 TB / 2 TB · 1sectors mapped $ bdr verify → ✓ photos — 24,800 files → ✓ documents — 11,200 files → ✓ drive recovered — data back
If your external drive is clicking, beeping or no longer showing up, stop plugging it in. After a drop those sounds mean the heads are touching the platters, and every power-on scrapes away more of your data. Don’t format it, don’t run repair tools, and don’t shuck a WD drive out of its case — the data is encrypted at the board. Keep the whole drive, enclosure and cable together and send it in.
From an enclosure that’s died to a drive dropped and clicking, these are the external drive failures we recover from most — bridge, mechanical, encrypted and logical.
We take on every make of external drive — portable and desktop, USB and USB-C, new and old. Rarely does the make decide whether your files can be saved — though WD’s encrypted drives call for a bit more care.
WD My Passport, My Book, Elements, Easystore and G-Drive · Seagate Expansion, Backup Plus and One Touch · Toshiba Canvio · LaCie Rugged · 2.5 inch portable and 3.5 inch desktop · USB 2.0, 3.0 and USB-C. Always send the full enclosure and cable, especially with WD — the USB board holds the encryption key.
External drive recovery starts by working out whether the fault’s in the enclosure or the drive inside. We rule out the USB board first, then reach the drive — repairing it or removing it — and image it read-only before rebuilding your files.
Tell us what happened — not detected, dropped, clicking, asks to format. We work out whether it’s the enclosure or the drive and send a written quote, usually inside 48 hours.
We test the USB board first — often the drive inside is fine and only the bridge has failed. Where the drive needs opening or mechanical repair, that work needs 50% of the fee upfront.
We repair or bypass the USB board, swap failed heads or free stuck ones in our clean bench, or rebuild the drive’s electronics — keeping any encryption key intact.
We take a read-only image of the drive on specialist hardware, reading weak or damaged areas gently so a failing drive is never stressed.
Where the drive is WD-encrypted or BitLocker-protected and you have the key, we apply it, then rebuild the file system from the image. Without the BitLocker recovery key, the volume can’t be unlocked — the encryption is built that way, and not even we can get past it.
We recover your files and folders and check they actually open and are complete before any of it comes back to you.
We return your data on a fresh drive, or you can download it free for recoveries up to 75GB.
Every make of external drive — WD, Seagate, Toshiba, LaCie and the others — portable and desktop, recovered by repairing either the enclosure or the drive and reading the platters wherever the data can be reached.
Tell us what happened and we’ll get back to you, usually within a working day.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 0191 406 1051.
One fixed price to recover a single external drive — with a free diagnostic and a quote in writing before any work starts.
A handful of recent external drive recoveries across bridge failures, dropped drives, encryption and corruption. Identifying details removed, every result verified.
The USB board had failed and the drive’s encrypted. We repaired the board, kept the encryption key and recovered everything.
The heads had failed in the fall. We fitted matched donor heads and imaged the platters to recover the data.
The file system was corrupt after an unsafe unplug. We imaged it read-only and rebuilt it, recovering all the files.
The heads were stuck to the platters. We freed them in the clean bench and recovered the data before any damage spread.
The board and bridge were both fried. We rebuilt the electronics, transferred the firmware and recovered the lot.
The drive was healthy and the data still on the platters. We imaged it and recovered the deleted folders straight away.
Real client stories from our two-decade testimonial archive.
We had a portable Western Digital Passport hard drive that was dead and would not connect to PC. I would like to say that the Recovery service was perfect from start to end, they managed to recover most of the data that we needed which was great.
Nine times in ten, the hunt for a repair is really a hunt for the files.
Some external-drive faults genuinely are repairs, and fast ones at that — a wobbly USB socket, a dead bridge board in the case, a power connector that’s given out. We fix those routinely, since getting the disk readable is where every recovery begins; and where the drive inside is sound, the whole job can be over quickly.
A mechanically failing drive is a different story. We repair it only as far as it needs to read — donor heads, electronics work — not so it can go back into daily service; what comes back to you is a verified copy of your files on fresh media. When the files are what matter, recovery is the honest word for it — and either route opens with the same free diagnostic.
However you phrased the search — external HDD data recovery, external drive data recovery, or data recovery from an external hard drive — it’s the same job on the bench, and it always begins with that same free diagnostic.
Send the device in for its free diagnostic and tell us briefly what happened; an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before anything starts.
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 0191 406 1051.
The things people most often ask us about recovering an external hard drive.
Often not. On most external drives the USB board in the enclosure fails more often than the drive itself, so a drive that won’t show up usually just needs the board repaired or bypassed. We test the enclosure first and, where the drive inside is healthy, recover your data straight from it.
Usually, yes. Clicking after a drop normally means the read/write heads have been damaged, while the platters holding your data are still intact. We fit matched donor heads in our clean bench and image the drive before the heads can do more harm. Stop powering it on — every spin-up risks the platters.
Usually, yes. WD My Passport and My Book drives encrypt everything at the USB board, even if you never set a password, so you can’t just take the drive out and read it elsewhere. We recover through the original board and encryption key.
No — don’t format it. That message usually means the file system is corrupt, often after the drive was unplugged without ejecting, but your files are still there. Formatting or initialising would make recovery much harder. Bring it to us and we’ll image it read-only and rebuild it.
Recovering a single external drive is a flat £300 + VAT, and we begin with a free diagnostic and a written quote. If the drive has a mechanical or electronic fault and needs opening or board work, we take 50% of the fee upfront — so most jobs stay no fix, no fee.
On most jobs, yes. For mechanical or electronic work we take a 50% deposit upfront and the rest is only due if we recover your data — so if we can’t, you’re not left with the full bill.
Every make — WD, Seagate, Toshiba, LaCie, Buffalo, Samsung, Maxtor and the rest, portable and desktop, USB and USB-C. The brand rarely changes whether the data is recoverable, though encrypted WD drives need a little more care.
We’d advise against it. On many drives — WD especially — the data is encrypted at the USB board, so the bare drive reads as gibberish and Windows will offer to format it, which destroys the data. Some enclosures also clip the board to the drive in ways that are easy to damage. Bring us the whole thing and we’ll do it safely.
Beeping usually points to stuck heads — they’ve settled onto the platters and the motor can’t break them loose — or a motor that’s seized. Either way it’s a mechanical fault that has to be opened in the clean bench. Switch it off and leave it be; every attempt to run it deepens the damage.
Most recoveries are done within 2 to 3 working days. Drives that need head work, motor repair or board-level work usually take a little longer — 3 to 4 working days — depending on parts. The free diagnostic is normally finished within 48 hours, and urgent cases can often be prioritised.
Drop it off at our Newcastle location Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, or post it to us fully insured. Send the whole drive with its enclosure, USB cable and power adapter — especially for WD drives, where the board holds the encryption key — and include your name, address, phone number and email so we can book it in and quote before any work begins.
A free diagnostic, a fixed £300 + VAT per drive, and no fix no fee on most jobs — every make of external hard drive recovered, portable and desktop, enclosure and all. Begin your recovery today.