Whether a failed hard drive comes back is based on what broke and then on what sequence of events follows. Every time you turn on a failed hard drive you spend some of its limited remaining life. Done in the right sequence, most drives arriving with us in Glasgow, with their clicking, silence or invisibility, will leave here with their data. But, if you do things out of sequence, you may find an easy job becomes an impossible job.
First, the drive goes behind a hardware write blocker before being powered on, so that nobody (including us, or Windows or whatever other helpfully inclined software might exist) can change a single sector. The only spin-up happens when we listen to the drive and then turn it right off again. Most times this one listen (plus any internal logging information from the drive) will tell us into which of our three "failure" groups we fall; and each group has its own set of plans.
The main difference between a computer repair shop and a recovery company is that the shop will continue to reboot the system in an attempt to see if it boots successfully again. Each time you try to boot the system again (reboot), you are moving the bad heads back across your files on the hard drive.
Mechanical failures (i.e., those that create an audible noise) include rhythmic clicks produced by faulty heads and a flat buzzing caused when a spindle fails to rotate; these require the donor part(s) for your specific model, followed by a single low-impact image transfer using the DeepSpar before the transplanted components wear out. On the other hand, electronic failures (those which produce no audible noise) include surges and/or completely dead boards. In order to repair the board, we replace it with a donor PCB. However, first we have to migrate the original ROM and move it to the replacement board since this contains drive-specific calibration data.
Firmware errors are the worst kind of liar. They cause your hard drive to appear to be working normally (the disk spinning), with normal (healthy) noises from the drive, yet report a "capacity" of 0 GB, an incorrect model number, or simply report that there is no disk present. This type of problem is fixed within the drive's service area that is available through the PC-3000, an area that no consumer software has access to.
The goal of recovery software (i.e. recovering a file from an erased location) is to help you recover lost data when one of your drives is healthy but some of your files have been deleted. When working with a physical failure in a drive, recovery software will do just the opposite of what it's supposed to do: force long streams of constant read operations on a failing component that is killing itself, and it operates on the original because it cannot operate anywhere else. We image the drive first at hardware level, reading the weak areas last and gently, and then do every repair on the copy. The original is powered on as few times as possible.
If you hear the click or see the missing volume and a scan is already running on your failing hard disk, stop that process now. The free diagnostic will explain exactly what your failing hard disk needs to recover data.
A single drive (either internal, external, laptop or desktop) will cost a fixed £300 + VAT, whatever the fault turns out to be. A chip-level exception would occur very rarely and will always be quoted in writing first. All jobs start with a free diagnostic. On all jobs you get what we quote: the price that you were told at the beginning of the process remains the price you pay. That price goes in writing before a single sector is read, and on most jobs there is nothing to pay unless your data comes back. There are no hourly rates applied and no "evaluation fee" as a surprise addition. We do not charge based on the value of the data.
The rhythmic or repetitive clicks you hear from your computer occur because of the failure of the read/write head to locate its reference track and repeatedly seek back for it. As such, the read/write head is damaged, and each attempt to do this also risks damaging your data which resides on the platter. If you can’t avoid turning off your PC (to prevent further damage), unplug it at the wall, but stop powering it up. We recover many clicking hard drives regularly, as long as they arrive rested rather than worn out by frequent startups.
It almost never happens that way. When a spinning-but-not-visible drive occurs, in most cases, there is either corrupted firmware (the software within the drive) or a dying board (the hardware within the drive); the data is still intact on each individual platter. The drive just has stopped being able to properly identify itself. This is a service area recovery with the PC-3000 followed up by a standard image. It is one of the most recoverable faults we see.
The "freezer trick" never works, in addition to its likely creation of additional problems. It is based on an old piece of lore about freezing a hard drive. When you freeze a modern drive, condensation will be created on the spinning disks which means we get both the original problem along with a new one related to moisture. The best way to help your damaged drive, if possible, would be at room temperature while being turned off and then wrapped very well for protection.
A typical one-disk job will typically take three to five working days from receipt at Bath Street (including image time). In cases where a suitable donor unit needs to be identified for a physical failure, this may extend further; also if the client really cannot afford to wait, then an emergency track service is available. Please ask when you call and we will provide an honest view on what can realistically be achieved.
Before posting or dropping off your item please obtain a quote using either the form on this site or by calling us. There are then two genuine options. No vans will be used. To hand over your item, go to Tay House, 300 Bath Street (only two minutes from the M8) at Charing Cross, Monday to Friday, 9am–5:30pm. We do not require appointments. Or wrap your item securely and send it to us by insured, tracked post from Paisley, Ayrshire, the Highlands or anywhere else in the UK. Either way, the work is done in-house by our own engineers, with a documented chain of custody, and your data never leaves the UK.
And Glasgow is the counter, not the boundary. As part of our data recovery UK service, the same conditions apply for postage (insured) from all areas of the country: free diagnostic, set price quotation in writing, and no fee applies to most jobs except when data returns to you.
If the hard drive is located inside a working or non-working desktop or laptop computer, remove it before sending: we only require the hard disk, and many local computer shops will be able to remove it from your machine within minutes if you do not wish to. Your computer should remain at your premises.
Barracuda to Expansion: the failure modes we commonly observe by brand. Read it →
Turn off your hard disk power supply; refrain from testing it again (or checking it one final time); obtain a quote, then let us have it as is convenient: either over-the-counter at Charing Cross or by insured post from anywhere else in Scotland. If you are searching hard drive recovery Glasgow with the hope of getting a straight answer without parting with a single pound sterling: the purpose of this free assessment is exactly that.