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// case files

Recovery case files.

In-depth write-ups of real recoveries and investigations — the diagnosis, the tools and exactly how each job was brought back. Most drives are imaged on our PC3000 and DeepSpar systems before any recovery begins. For shorter summaries, see our case studies.

Hard drive5 case files

RAID / NASData recovered

An Acer laptop drive with a failed head.

A clicking Acer Aspire laptop drive - donor heads fitted, then a head-by-head image on DeepSpar saved a dissertation.

RAID / NASData recovered

An Asus NVMe that vanished overnight.

An Asus ZenBook whose NVMe disappeared from the BIOS - controller revived in technical mode and the translator rebuilt.

RAID / NASData recovered

A BitLocker drive with no recovery key, opened.

A locked Dell laptop with no recovery key — opened by pulling the Volume Master Key out of its hibernation file with Passware.

RAID / NASData recovered

CCTV footage recovered from a failed DVR.

A CCTV DVR whose drive failed before footage could be exported - drive recovered and the proprietary recordings rebuilt.

RAID / NASData recovered

An old Compaq's IDE drive read one last time.

An ageing Compaq desktop drive with worn heads - imaged carefully on DeepSpar to recover an old photo archive.

RAID / NASData recovered

An emergency RAID 6 rebuild against the clock.

A business-critical RAID 6 server down with multiple failed disks - imaged and reconstructed on an emergency, expedited basis.

RAID / NASData recovered

A clicking Dell desktop drive brought back.

A clicking Dell desktop drive with a crashed head - donor heads fitted, then a head-by-head image on DeepSpar.

RAID / NASData recovered

A portable SSD that went dark.

A Samsung T7 portable SSD that stopped being recognised - controller revived and its translator rebuilt to read the flash.

RAID / NASData recovered

Did a departing employee take company data?

Establishing, to an evidential standard, whether a departing salesperson copied the client database.

RAID / NASData recovered

A Fujitsu Lifebook drive on its last legs.

An ageing Fujitsu Lifebook drive failing with bad sectors - imaged in passes on DeepSpar to recover case files.

RAID / NASData recovered

A Gateway desktop drive with a seized motor.

A Gateway desktop drive whose motor had seized - platters transplanted into a donor and imaged on DeepSpar. Free 48-hour diagnostic at the l

RAID / NASData recovered

A Hitachi that wouldn't spin up, freed and imaged.

A Hitachi Deskstar that buzzed but never span - heads freed in the clean area, then imaged on DeepSpar. Free 48-hour diagnostic at the lab.

RAID / NASPartial recovery

LockBit, an HP Omen, and no backup.

Every file encrypted, the boot record rewritten, the shadow copies deleted, and a ransom note. This is the case file where we explain what w

RAID / NASPartial recovery

RAID 5 with two bad disks is not a RAID 5 any more.

An eight-drive HP ProLiant array that had quietly been running on borrowed time. One degraded disk is what RAID 5 is designed for. Two is wh

RAID / NASPartial recovery

The iMac that would not come back from an update.

Stuck at the Apple logo, looping. Recovery Mode crashing. Disk Utility unable to repair it. A failed macOS update is rarely a dead drive - i

RAID / NASData recovered

An iMac Fusion Drive pulled back together.

An iMac Fusion Drive broken when its HDD half failed - the failed disk imaged, then the logical volume reconstructed.

RAID / NASData recovered

A knocked Iomega with a seized motor.

A dropped Iomega external whose motor had seized - platter stack freed in the clean area, then imaged on DeepSpar.

RAID / NASData recovered

The USB stick that snapped off

while it was still plugged in. The connector sheared, the board cracked, and the machine stopped seeing it entirely. The memory chip, which

RAID / NASData recovered

A healthy LaCie behind a dead bridge.

A LaCie d2 that vanished from every PC - disk healthy, the encrypting bridge dead; identified the scheme and imaged the bare drive.

RAID / NASData recovered

A laptop that wouldn't power, data fully intact.

A laptop that wouldn't power on - the board had failed but the drive was fine, removed and imaged externally. Free 48-hour diagnostic at the

RAID / NASData recovered

A Lenovo desktop SSD that dropped offline.

A Lenovo desktop SSD that disappeared from the BIOS after a power cut - controller cleared and the data imaged.

RAID / NASNot recoverable

A dead-board MacBook Pro we could not recover — and the honest reason why.

A dead-board MacBook with soldered flash: why board-level soldered-Mac recovery is not possible for anyone, and what to do instead.

RAID / NASData recovered

An ageing Maxtor read sector by sector.

An old Maxtor with worn heads and bad sectors throughout - imaged slowly on DeepSpar to recover the maximum. Free 48-hour diagnostic at the

RAID / NASData recovered

A Maxtor IDE drive pulled out of a burnt-out laptop.

The laptop was destroyed. The circuit board on the drive was burnt through. And the platters - where the data actually lives - had barely be

RAID / NASData recovered

A Netgear ReadyNAS that wouldn't mount.

A Netgear ReadyNAS volume that wouldn't mount after a disk failed - members imaged, then the X-RAID/btrfs volume rebuilt.

RAID / NASData recovered

A PC that lost its partition, not its data.

A PC whose drive suddenly showed as empty - a corrupt partition table rebuilt from an image, with no hardware fault.

RAID / NASData recovered

Six disks, no redundancy, one dead drive.

A six-bay QNAP striped as RAID 0. One disk failed and the entire volume went with it - because RAID 0 has no parity, no mirror, and nothing

RAID / NASData recovered

A RAID 0 with no safety net and a dead disk.

A two-disk RAID 0 brought down by a single failed drive - the dead member recovered, then the stripe reassembled.

RAID / NASData recovered

A RAID 1 mirror with both disks failing.

A RAID 1 where both mirror disks were failing - good sectors merged from each to reconstruct one complete image.

RAID / NASData recovered

A RAID 5 server that died mid-rebuild.

A four-disk RAID 5 that failed during a rebuild — every member disk imaged, then the array reconstructed virtually from the copies.

RAID / NASPartial recovery

The RAID card forgot what it was holding.

A four-disk RAID 5 that the operating system stopped seeing entirely. The disks were fine. The array was fine. The controller was the thing

RAID / NASPartial recovery

A Samsung NVMe that cooked its own controller.

Seven years of an architectural practice's CAD work on a single M.2 stick that had been running too hot for months - and then produced a bur

RAID / NASData recovered

A Samsung that reported itself as gibberish.

A Samsung SpinPoint that span up but identified as garbage - service-area modules rebuilt on the PC3000. Free 48-hour diagnostic at the lab.

RAID / NASNot recoverable

Formatted the wrong card.

Twenty years of teaching material, gone in one click of a dialogue box - and still, physically, entirely there. A quick format does not eras

RAID / NASData recovered

A clicking Seagate and fifteen years of family photos.

A clicking 2 TB Barracuda with a crashed head — donor heads fitted, then a careful head-by-head image on DeepSpar.

RAID / NASData recovered

A dropped Sony VAIO with a jammed motor.

A dropped Sony VAIO laptop drive with a seized motor and damaged heads - rebuilt in the clean area, imaged on DeepSpar.

RAID / NASData recovered

A Synology volume lost after a power event.

A Synology SHR volume that crashed after a disk failure and power cut - members imaged, then the SHR/btrfs volume rebuilt.

RAID / NASNot recoverable

Twelve disks, initialised by mistake.

During routine maintenance the array was initialised. The RAID metadata was overwritten and DiskStation Manager stopped recognising twelve d

RAID / NASData recovered

A Toshiba laptop drive bricked by a firmware fault.

A Toshiba laptop drive that span but identified as garbage - service-area modules rebuilt on the PC3000. Free 48-hour diagnostic at the lab.

RAID / NASData recovered

A USB stick that kept asking to be formatted.

A USB stick that powered on but demanded formatting - NAND read directly and the data rebuilt from the raw dump.

RAID / NASData recovered

Two identical copies of everything,

and the client could not read either one. A WD My Book Duo mirrors every file onto two disks. One disk died. The survivor held a complete, p

RAID / NASNot recoverable

Why you cannot just take the drive out of a My Passport.

A WD My Passport showing as RAW on a Mac. The file system was corrupt - but the reason the usual tricks all failed is that the drive was enc

RAID / NASData recovered

A dead Western Digital brought back at board level.

A WD Blue left silent by a surge - PCB repaired and its adaptive ROM transferred, then a clean image. Free 48-hour diagnostic at the lab.

USB & Flash2 case files

External drive2 case files

Laptop6 case files

Mac & MacBook2 case files

PC5 case files

NAS2 case files

RAID / Server4 case files

CCTV / DVR1 case file

BitLocker / Encryption1 case file

Forensic investigation1 case file

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