A hard drive that clicks or grinds has failed mechanically, and every restart is another chance to lose what’s still readable. Our engineers open the drive, fit replacement parts from a 10,000-strong stock of heads, motors and boards, and recover the data in-house.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sda → Device: Seagate ST2000DM008 (2 TB) → Status: CLICKING — head stack failure → Client: confidential · Jesmond NE1 3DY $ bdr engineer-working → Donor heads matched: from stock · 0 days wait → Head-stack swap: complete → Imaging: 1.78 TB / 1.81 TB $ bdr verify → ✓ wedding_photos — 142,318 files → ✓ tax_records — 4,201 files → ✓ everything else — back home
A drive that clicks or grinds is in mechanical trouble. Every power-on gives the heads another chance to scrape the platters and wipe out data that’s still recoverable right now. Don’t reach for recovery software, don’t put it in the freezer, and don’t keep rebooting it — switch it off and talk to us.
That clicking or grinding is the sound of a drive’s mechanics coming apart. These are the failures that reach us most weeks — and the ones we bring back.
We’ve been recovering clicking and grinding drives from every major brand since 2002. If it keeps its data on spinning platters, the odds are we can help.
Internal and external · 3.5" desktop and 2.5" laptop · SATA, SAS, IDE/PATA and SCSI · from 40 GB legacy drives to the latest 24 TB helium models.
Bringing a clicking or grinding drive back is a physical repair job. We open it up, replace whatever has failed, and only then read your data off — gently, and in the right sequence.
Drop the drive off or post it in. We work out what has failed and send a written, no-obligation quote — usually inside 48 hours.
Our engineers open the drive to look over the heads, platters and motor, and pin down exactly what has gone.
We take matched heads, motors or boards from our 10,000-part store — no weeks spent waiting on a donor drive.
The failed components — most often the head stack — are carefully swapped out so the drive can read its platters again.
We clone the repaired drive sector by sector onto stable storage, working patiently around any areas that are still weak.
Your files are rebuilt from that image, checked against a file listing, and returned to you on fresh media.
We copy your data onto an external drive and post it back, or hand it over by free download for anything up to 75GB.
Because the matching heads, motors and boards are already on the shelf, most clicking and grinding drives go straight into repair — no weeks lost while a donor drive is tracked down.
Tell us about your drive and we’ll come back to you, usually within half an hour during the working day.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 0191 406 1051.
No hidden charges and no hard sell — just a free diagnostic and a quote in writing before any work begins.
A handful of recent clicking and grinding jobs, handled in-house. Identifying details removed, every result verified.
A textbook head-stack failure after a knock. We fitted a donor head assembly from stock, carried out the swap in-house, and imaged the drive on the second pass.
The diagnosis was a seized spindle motor. We moved the platter pack onto a matched donor base, realigned the heads, and pulled the whole volume back intact.
Heads stuck fast after a drop. We freed and replaced the head stack from inventory, imaged the drive, and had every file back before the deadline.
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. If it’s urgent, call 0191 406 1051.
The things people most often ask us about clicking and grinding hard drive recovery.
A clicking or grinding noise nearly always signals a mechanical fault — usually failed or crashed read/write heads, or a spindle motor beginning to seize. The drive keeps trying to reset itself, and that’s the repetitive ‘click of death’ you can hear. It needs opening and repairing, not simply plugging into a different computer.
No. Each time a drive with failed heads is powered up, it risks scoring the platters and turning a recoverable job into a permanent loss. Switch it off, leave it be, and get in touch before any data goes for good.
In most cases, yes. We open the drive in-house, replace the failed parts — usually the head stack or the motor — from our own parts store, then image the drive and rebuild your files. Drives that other firms send away are everyday work here.
Our standard price for a clicking or grinding hard drive is £300 + VAT. You get a free written diagnostic first, so you know exactly where you stand; on most jobs it’s no fix, no fee, though we charge a parts-and-labour fee on drives that have been dropped, have platter scratches, or were opened before they reached us.
Most clicking-drive recoveries are finished within 2 working days of you approving the quote, and the diagnostic itself is usually done inside 48 hours. Urgent cases can often be pushed to the front — just say so.
Every major manufacturer — Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, Samsung, HGST, Hitachi, Maxtor, Fujitsu, IBM, Quantum, SanDisk, LaCie, G-Technology, Buffalo, Verbatim, ADATA, Transcend, Silicon Power, Iomega, UnionSine, ModusTech and Intenso — in 3.5-inch desktop and 2.5-inch laptop and external sizes, across SATA, SAS, IDE and SCSI interfaces.
Drop it at our Newcastle location Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, or post it to us fully insured. Package and seal the drive, and put your full contact details inside — name, address, phone number and email — so we can book it in properly. Once it’s with us we run the free diagnostic and send a written quote before any work begins.
A free written diagnostic, no fix no fee on most jobs, and a 10,000-part store behind every repair. Begin your recovery today.