Most hard disks do not die immediately; they gradually fail along a timeline, and how far you have progressed through the timeline determines all: the odds, the urgency and even the cost of delaying action. This section honestly follows the timeline, from the very first odd afternoon to the moment your hard disk no longer works, allowing you to position yourself on that timeline and react appropriately.
It begins to happen subtly. Folders take a little bit longer than usual to open. Copies stall at 97% completion. Your computer freezes occasionally but always recovers after a reboot. You may have had one file that opened corrupted while other files behaved normally. Each individual incident could easily be explained, which is exactly why people waste their time during this initial phase: the drive is creating weak sectors and quietly attempting to read data again (and every attempt at reading that sector wears down remaining time).
When your drive is caught in this initial stage, there is a simple, inexpensive option: copy your irreplaceable items to another drive now using a calm single session, not a full clone that grinds the drive for hours. Begin by copying your most valuable items first.
After running a SMART check, people often feel relieved if they get a good report. Do not. A SMART check merely indicates what the drive claims about itself, and hard drives are optimistic: threshold levels are established to be liberal; silent accumulation occurs with regard to reallocated sectors; and actual physical wear does not register until it is substantial. It is possible for a failing drive to still indicate that it passes a SMART check on the exact day it fails to mount.
Symptoms are always superior to what is reported on a scorecard. Noise, slowing down or losing functionality always beats a good report card.
The timeline is terminated by one of three possible end states: a clicking sound which indicates the heads are bad, a spinning hard drive that never appears to the computer, or one that simply does not turn on. From here on out the rules for recovery are inverted. Every time you power up your drive you lose some amount of life from the platters. Recovery software can be very damaging when used to attempt a recovery of data from a drive. This occurs because recovery software has to read the failing mechanical components for hours. There is no safe place to put anything when using recovery software.
The correct amount of additional testing is none. Switch off completely from the mains and allow us to perform the next read with our imager, gently, once.
The timeline of events for fixing an unsuccessful drive occurs backwards on the workbench. The drive is then write-blocked. The drive will be checked once and fixed to a state where data can be read from it. This may include adding donor heads, finding a matching donor board and transferring the original ROM over, or rebuilding the firmware in the service area using the PC-3000. Next, we create a single image on the DeepSpar. It is created by first creating images of the areas that are most healthy, followed by areas that have some weakness (and therefore take longer). All future actions occur on the image rather than the drive itself. Your drive's last job is to perform one successful read operation. Our job is to make sure your drive does not need to perform that read operation again.
If one single drive is affected it costs a fixed £300 + VAT regardless of the type or extent of failure. The rare chip-level exception is quoted in writing first. We offer a free diagnostic before any work begins and quote all costs in writing before proceeding. Most jobs will cost nothing if your files don't come back. There are no hourly rates, evaluation fees, or percentages of file value charged.
It’s more urgent than you think: a "slow and freeze" (retries) indicates failing sectors are being retried, and the decline will be accelerated by multiple retries. The irreplaceable information should be copied to an external backup today in one smooth operation, most important files first. If your hard disk clicks or vanishes while copying your data, stop immediately and consider it dead.
This is partially correct. SMART can detect certain types of failures but ignore other types, so drives will often pass tests (SMART) while mechanically failing. Behavioural symptoms give a better indication than the scorecard: if a drive is slowing down, making noise, or intermittently working then it's already indicating failure beyond what the SMART test has reported. Trust the behaviour.
No. This is a classic example of an "own goal". CHKDSK performs repairs to your disk as it forces long reads through faulty hardware: in an otherwise good drive it will repair file system damage, in a failing drive it will finish off the job. Don't let CHKDSK or anything else write to or scan any suspect drives.
A fixed cost of £300 + VAT for the drive regardless of whether it was head, board or firmware that failed. There will also be a complimentary diagnostic before we begin work on your drive. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. The only way you'll incur further costs is when you've attempted to do it yourself.
Before you drop your device off or post it, please get a quote from us by phone or using the form first. Then there are two honest routes for dropping off and delivery. No vans. Hand in the device at Tay House, 300 Bath Street (right at Charing Cross, two minutes off the M8) Monday to Friday, 9am–5:30pm, without need of an appointment. Or wrap the device well and send by insured, tracked post from anywhere in the UK. All work is done in-house by our own engineers. We have documentation of the complete chain of custody and your data never leaves the UK.
It does not matter how far along you are (first signs of failure or complete failure): the safest next read will take place here. Hard drive failure recovery for Glasgow: free diagnostic either in person at our Charing Cross location or via insured post once you have a quote, and a straight answer regarding where your drive currently sits.