On the bench · hard drive repair
Just about every call starts with the same question: "Can this be repaired?" To some extent, yes. Dead boards can be restored and firmware that's gone astray can too. However, heads and motors will be sourced as replacement parts, and they'll only last through the first reading. Most drives are sent to us from places like Hull, Beverley, Bridlington and other areas of the East Riding, or even further away such as Grimsby and Scunthorpe on the opposite side of the Humber. After a quote via phone or through the form, you can also drop off your drive at the Leeds intake lab (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed). Either way, we'll write your data onto brand-new media for you.
An engineer will take the details
0800 6890668
| What you see | What the fault is | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| It's making a clicking noise. Can that be fixed? | The head(s) have failed. The donor unit will just make it through one clean read before the drive is scrapped. | This is recovery, not a repair. |
| Totally silent. No sound at all. | Generally due to a faulty TVS diode or a bad board. That would actually be a repair to the electronics. | First fix the board then image it. |
| Reported as 0 GB, or claims to be a completely different drive. | Faulty translator or service area module. That would be an actual repair. | Fix the firmware then read it. |
| My portable drive's socket has broken off. | This is a real connector/bridge fix. In WD portable drives the encryption lives in the bridge chip also. | Get a price quote first, then post it whole, with everything included (case, cable and drive). |
| A repair shop claims that the unit now works again. | Ask the repair shop exactly what they did replace. An empty drive in place of yours may look like new but it won't help you. | You should not accept their statement of "it's fixed". |
| Isn't a donor board cheaper? | The ROM contains adaptive data that is specific to only one particular drive, so a donor board left alone will report back rubbish. | Your own ROM must be moved onto the donor board. |
Every piece of gear that shows up receives a case number on the very same day it arrives. An engineer examines it and determines what is really wrong with it and there is no charge for this. We give you straight language about which files we will be able to copy from the disk and which ones we won't be able to. Then we provide you with a single price quote, in writing, based upon these findings. We don't begin working on anything until you agree to the quoted price.
Hard drives fail in three areas: electronic failure, software/firmware issues and mechanical failure. There is only one term for all three categories of failures, which isn't very helpful. When you take advantage of the complimentary "free look" inspection process it gives you an idea of which category of failure you have and how much repair will entail.
Your ROM is transferred into a rebuilt board. The service area is repaired in module-by-module fashion. Your original drive mechanisms are replaced by donor ones wherever they have failed. This all works towards accomplishing one goal: reading the entire platter set in one unbroken pass (from first sector to last).
Any data retrieved from the drive will be verified, documented, and then recorded onto media purchased specifically for your project. Hard drives are simply containers for storing digital information. If we determine that the drive is suitable for occasional use we will let you know. If we conclude that the drive is no longer usable, we will let you know that as well.
You will not be charged while you think about this. First, you receive a list of everything that was recovered from the drive. Once you have seen the list and given us the go-ahead, the bill comes next. Files are returned to you on media purchased specifically for this job and we cover the return postage as well. Your job is kept open by us until you can view them on your personal computer.
Written down and held to: boards and firmware can be fixed; heads and motors are only patched to get through making one copy and not an hour more. A scored platter is unreadable in both our facility and every other lab, regardless of what an advertisement may claim. None of that has changed, and drives labelled IBM, HGST, Hitachi and Fujitsu continue to arrive from Hull, Beverley, Bridlington and Grimsby. If a company claims to return your failed drive fit for use, compare their claim to their fine print and see how much truth there is to it.
The shop returned the laptop fully functioning, with a brand-new disk fitted that was empty. The old disk, deemed unrepairable by the shop, sat clicking in a drawer in a Hull student flat. It received donor heads. Two days later, the essays and photos were copied onto the shop's new disk.
Some of it. The board and firmware actually fix: replaced PCB and fixed service area. Everything else (moving parts), however, is repaired using a temporary solution. The temporary solution is to install donor heads to read the platters once. Once done, the drive is junk and does not go back in the post. Files are saved on media that we purchase.
Repair is all about the physical components: the customer gets a functioning unit when they leave. Recovery is all about the contents of the hardware (the damaged or dead hardware is simply discarded). Therefore if an actual failure has occurred in the disk, then only the second option will be truthful. This is also why laptops often get fixed quickly and quietly at a computer shop without any of your files being returned to you.
Rarely ever, and never just by itself. There is a small read-only memory (ROM) chip attached to the circuit board which stores the adjustable parameters that were previously set based solely upon your drive's mechanism. Remove this chip and attach it to the replacement board, and the drive will start reading. Keep it on the old board and the heads return only noise. That is a soldering job that requires a good workbench, proper equipment, and the right tools.
Cheap drives are exactly why the comparison does not work. Nobody here is selling you a drive. You pay for what was on the one that stopped, handed back to you on hardware that works. Spend the same money keeping the failed disk alive and you would end up with a part you would not trust with anything.
Leave it off. There are only a few start attempts left in your failing drive and each attempt uses up a little more of what remains. Our complimentary diagnosis will determine what files are readable.