A drop, a knock or a fall can drive the heads into the platters — and every power-on after that risks scratching them further. Our engineers open the drive, replace what the impact broke from a 10,000-strong parts store, and recover the data in-house.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sda → Device: Seagate ST1000LM048 (1 TB, 2.5") → Status: DROPPED — head crash / heads not reading → Client: confidential · Jesmond NE1 3DY $ bdr engineer-working → Donor heads matched: from stock · 0 days wait → Head-stack swap: complete → Imaging: 0.81 TB / 1.00 TB (81%) $ bdr verify → ✓ photos — 58,210 files → ✓ university_work — 3,940 files → ✓ everything reachable — recovered
A dropped drive that clicks, grinds or works only now and then has damaged heads. Every spin gives those heads another chance to scratch the platters and destroy data that’s still recoverable today. Don’t reach for recovery software and don’t keep retrying it — switch it off and talk to us.
Hard drives run to fine tolerances, so even a short fall can do real mechanical harm. These are the failures we see — and reverse — most often.
We’ve recovered dropped and damaged 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 dropped or damaged drive back starts with a physical repair. We replace whatever the fall broke, then read your data off — gently, and in the right sequence.
Drop the drive off or post it in. We assess the head, platter and motor damage and send a written quote — usually inside 48 hours.
Our engineers open the drive in-house to study the heads and platters under magnification and confirm exactly what the fall has broken.
We take matched heads, motors or parts from our store — no weeks spent waiting on a donor drive.
The crashed head stack — the usual impact casualty — is carefully swapped out, along with any other failed parts.
We clone the repaired drive sector by sector onto stable storage, working patiently around any scratched or weak areas.
Your files are rebuilt from that image, checked against a file listing, and returned 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.
With matching heads, motors and parts already on the shelf, most dropped and damaged drives go straight into repair — no weeks lost while a donor drive is chased 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 dropped and damaged jobs, handled in-house. Identifying details removed, every result verified.
A textbook head crash from the fall. We matched a donor head stack from stock, carried out the swap in-house, and imaged the drive on the second pass.
The impact had damaged the heads and the motor. We replaced both from inventory, realigned the assembly, and recovered the full volume.
Crashed heads after the fall. We fitted a matched donor head stack, imaged the drive, and returned nearly every file.
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 dropped and physically damaged drives.
A fall can slam the read/write heads down onto the platters and damage both. The clicking is the heads failing to read and resetting again and again. It’s a physical fault that needs the drive opened and the heads replaced — not something software can put right.
No — this matters more than anything else. Every time a dropped drive with damaged heads spins up, it can score the platters further and turn a recoverable job into permanent loss. Switch it off straight away and leave it alone until we’ve seen it.
In most cases, yes. We open the drive in-house, replace the crashed heads and any damaged parts from our store, then image the drive and rebuild your files. Severity varies, but dropped and knocked drives are everyday work here.
No. Intermittent access after a drop means the heads are already on their way out. Each attempt risks more platter damage, so carrying on using it is the fastest way to lose everything. Power it down and get in touch.
Our standard price for a dropped or damaged hard drive is £300 + VAT. You get a free written diagnostic first, and on most jobs it’s no fix, no fee. Severe physical damage such as scratched platters can need a higher critical-recovery quote, which we always confirm in writing before any work begins.
Most dropped-drive recoveries are finished within 3 to 4 working days once you approve 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 form factors.
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.