We can recover all storage device interfaces:
We can recover from all failed operating systems:
We can recover all partition types:
We can recover all form factors:
We can recover from almost all data storage devices:
We can swap heads and platters on hard drives if our customer is willing to pay for the cost of a donor drive (or supply the donor drive). Though, sometimes, the cost of donor parts is too expensive for our customers to afford.
…BUT THERE IS STILL HOPE! Even if your drive has a bad head and you can’t afford the donor parts, we can often still recover the majority of your data. We just won’t be able to recover 100%.
Although it depends on your exact hard drive model, we’re often able to disable the bad head (we do this “non-destructively” by manipulating the drive’s firmware) and recover most of your data. For example, if your drive has 10 heads and 1 is bad, we may be able to recover around 90% of your files.
Watch some of our head swap videos below and find more on our Youtube channel.
If your drive’s platters are extremely damaged (most often, they are scratched), then the data is not recoverable. We are able to recover from drives with minor platter damage.
Scratched platters often occur when software data recovery tools have been run on hard drives with damage (especially if the drive was previously dropped). These software tools will exacerbate the problem areas on the drive by running for hours or days and can end up completely destroying all the data.
Extreme platter damage; Instead of a “mirror finish” on the platters, they are completely see-through, and all data has been completely destroyed.
We cannot currently perform “platter swaps” or “head swaps” for helium-filled drives. We cannot perform invasive repairs on these drives because they have welded covers, are filled with helium, and the firmware on these drives has not yet been “cracked.” These drives are very rare (as of Feb. 2020), and at this time, we cannot help if the spindle is bent, the heads are bad, or the motor is bad. This is an EXTREMELY rare situation.
We CAN perform platters swaps for other 2.5″ hard drives and 3.5″ hard drives. For example, this Seagate hard drive was in a fire, and the outer housing was completely burned and melted. We had to perform a platter swap in this case, and we recovered 99.9999% of the data on the drive!
Can we recover your failed hard drive, SSD, flash drive, or RAID?