Hard drive data recovery
Clicking, not spinning up, no longer detected, or simply empty: a hard drive fails in a handful of typical ways. Each of them needs a different approach.
Mon–Fri 8 am–6 pm · emergencies and pick-up by arrangement
Free initial assessment
Tell us what happened – we will tell you what is technically possible and what it will cost.
- Guide price: from 299 € incl. VAT
- Analysis free of charge and without obligation
- Binding fixed price before work starts
- No data, no invoice
Clicking, not spinning up, no longer detected, or simply empty: a hard drive fails in a handful of typical ways. Each of them needs a different approach.
Mechanical damage
A head crash, a seized spindle or a drive damaged by a fall cannot be solved by software. The drive is opened under clean-room conditions, the head assembly is replaced with one from a matching donor drive, and the platters are read out sector by sector afterwards.
The decisive factor is how long the drive was left running. A drive that was switched off immediately usually comes back almost complete. One that was restarted a dozen times may have lost the surface where the data sat.
Electronics and firmware
A burnt-out board, a controller in safe mode or corrupted service areas make the drive invisible to the system although the platters are untouched. Modern drives store individual calibration values on the board, so swapping the electronics only works when the original ROM content is transferred with it.
Firmware faults are repaired on a technical level below the normal interface, using the maintenance mode of the drive family in question.
Logical damage
Deleted files, a formatted volume, a damaged file system or a failed partition change leave the data physically in place. What is missing is the index that points to it.
In these cases the drive is imaged first and the reconstruction is carried out on that copy, never on the original. If the drive is making unusual noises, stop any recovery software immediately – it will keep the mechanics working exactly where they are already damaged.
What recovery costs
For this service the guide price is from 299 € including 19 % VAT. The binding price is fixed after the analysis – nothing is charged before that.
Analysis free of charge
We examine the medium and establish what work is needed. There is no charge for that.
Fixed price in advance
You receive a binding quote with a list of the files found. Only then do you decide.
No data, no invoice
If the agreed data cannot be recovered, you pay only the agreed return shipping.
Frequently asked questions
The drive clicks. Can I still copy my files off it?
Please do not try. Copying puts the heaviest load on the mechanics precisely where they are damaged. Switch the drive off and leave it off; a drive that is not running does not get worse.
Does opening the drive destroy it?
Not when it is opened in a clean environment with the right tools. What destroys drives is opening them on a desk, or running them for hours with a damaged head.
Do you work on drives another lab has already opened?
Yes, although the outlook depends on what was done. Tell us what happened before – it saves time and avoids repeating a step that has already failed.
More services
SSD recovery
Controller failure, firmware, drives not detected
RAID recovery
Reconstructing order, block size and parity
NAS recovery
QNAP, Synology, Btrfs and ext4
Server recovery
Databases, virtual machines, shared folders
USB flash drive recovery
Broken connector, stick not detected
Memory card recovery
SD, microSD and CF after formatting or damage
Lost data? Every further start-up attempt can do harm.
Call us or describe the case briefly in the form. The initial assessment is free of charge.