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HDR / The work we take on / Toshiba Satellite

Toshiba Satellite · C, L and Pro

Toshiba Satellite recovery, Hull. The laptop has no life; the disk inside almost always does.

Toshiba has been out of laptops for many years so all Satellites currently in use are older machines working hard all day. We get four types of job from Hull and the East Riding as the disk or card on its own: a clam shell laptop with no light in it, an MQ01 or MQ04 laboriously trying to read its own sectors, a relatively new one where the M.2 card has stopped being recognised by the BIOS, and a Satellite Pro that has had BitLocker applied and is now locked because the key was left behind at a company that has since moved on. The free diagnosis will tell you which one you have.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs Free to look at, then one fixed price Parcels come in from Beverley, Grimsby and Skegness

An engineer will take the details
0800 6890668

Toshiba Satellite: putting a name to the symptom.

Nothing similar? Go to the triage →
What you seeWhat the fault isWhat to try
No light anywhere on this machine.Either the power circuitry, screen or ribbons have failed but the disk is fine.Do not press the power button
Recent laptop, no drive listed in BIOS.The M.2 card's controller no longer responds, therefore there is no boot device available.Get a quote first, then send the card alone in antistatic packaging.
It is taking one minute to open this folder.Heads on your MQ01 are losing strength, therefore sectors under them are fading.Shut it down now! Don't try to save anything else off this disk.
The hinge has broken off the top of the caseThe casing flexed and the hard disk received the shockThe hard disk is to be left off until an engineer can assess the condition of the disk.
There is a Satellite Pro wanting a 48-digit key.BitLocker is enabled. Keys belong to the owner of the computer.Ask IT for the encryption keys prior to posting.
Stuck Satellite in boot/repair mode.Damaged file table. Files indexed in the file table remain.Shut down and break the loop.
Send it to us: get a quote first, either over the telephone or via our online quote form. Then carefully package it to prevent damage in transit, insure it for its full value and post the package using a trackable service to the Leeds intake laboratory; alternatively you may drop it off there (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed). For laptops, PCs, Macs and recorders, we require only the drive unit itself (storage soldered to the board is not taken on; if you're not sure which kind you have, ring us first); for RAID arrays and servers, we just need the individual disks, labelled by their respective bays; for a NAS, send the drives if you can remove them, but if not, please include the entire NAS device. A single external drive goes whole, with its cable and power adapter. We pay for return postage. If you would like an engineer to inspect the packaging prior to taping the box closed, please give us a call first. Further information is available on our sending page.

Four Satellite builds, and what fails on each.

SatelliteConsumer model. Most commonly dies. Has a single bottom plate (underneath). 2.5" SATA drive @ 5400 RPM inside. Frequently uses Toshiba mechanicals. Lid breaks, charging board breaks or hinge breaks. None of these components store data.
Satellite ProWork build model. Purchased in bulk. Set up by IT departments. These machines come with encryption enabled. BitLocker tied to company account logon credentials. There is a TPM chip soldered into the motherboard and there is a hard drive which appears as "static" until the correct decryption key is entered.
The big 17in bodiesP series/Qosmio enclosures. Will accommodate 2 drives. Heavily weighted. Ran extremely warm. Many were run on carpets. When we receive the drive, it has been running excessively hot for a long time and has dropped many sectors.
The final builds, on M.2Late model Satellites had their 2.5 inch bays changed to a short M.2 card: SATA early models, NVMe later models. Both cards look identical when installed into the system. Provide the model number of your laptop. If an M.2 card disappears from the BIOS, it is due to controller failure, not due to deletion of your data.

From the box arriving to the files going back.

01

A case number first, then a free diagnosis Free

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.

The diagnosis is freeOne price, put in writingNothing to pay yet
02

The disk is read, not the laptop

We don't keep pushing the button on a dead Satellite waiting for a glimmer of life. The disk (sent without the Satellite) is attached to a test station and within minutes we'll know if it's either the Satellite itself, or its internal storage that failed.

Which half has failedKnown before we quote
03

Toshiba mechanisms, and locked volumes

If the disk still spins, an MQ01 or MQ04 is opened. All donors are chosen based upon batch and family. Weak head disks need to be read slowly. A BitLocker volume has to wait, as nothing readable comes off it until the key does. We let you know about this instead of charging you for waiting.

Model-matched donor drivesLocked volumes sit until the key
04

Short runs, not one long pass

An old 2.5 inch disk can be read in bursts with an interval between bursts, and the hard to access locations are set aside for later (once all easy locations have been copied). M.2 cards receive the exact same treatment as the disks. Jobs such as these may take multiple days to complete.

Whatever the disk gives upFolders kept in their order
05

You sign it off, then it comes back

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.

You approve the listing firstCopied onto new mediaReturn postage at our cost

What turns up most often

  • Generally, the disk was blameless: most Satellites whose drives were sent to us had already died on the desk; however the disk itself would work immediately upon being removed from the case. Power connectors, charging boards, and displays wear out considerably faster than the storage.
  • Send the disk, not the laptop: get a price quote before posting. A boxed computer costs much more to post than just a 2.5 inch disk (or a short M.2 card) and will likely arrive with additional scratches on it. Even if the top of your Satellite broke off from the bottom, we simply want the disk or the M.2 card, in a padded envelope.
  • M.2 SATA and M.2 NVMe are not the same: later models of Satellites use either type in the same socket. Please provide us with your Satellite model number prior to posting so we can provide you with a quote; or get a quote first, then send us your M.2 card and let us figure out which version it is.
  • You should not attempt factory restore; it will not help: the Toshiba factory restore tool (or "wizard") will completely reset your system back to store condition, erasing all data. Additionally, the bundled health tool will only report on what went wrong but does nothing to repair issues. Do not run either of these tools on your drive.

What we cannot do: break any true encryption such as that used by BitLocker. Without having access to the recovery keys associated with the account to which the machine belongs we are unable to decrypt/enable access to volumes. There are physical limits as well. Once a failed head cuts into the surface of the platter the magnetic material there (and therefore those files) has been compromised. You will receive the file listing before we send you a bill.

One case from the casebook.

HU · HUL-2026-0834LOGGED ✓

The Satellite with the hinge pulled off the lid

The hinged side of this laptop's top was ripped off due to being carried in a rucksack for eight years. At that point, the laptop stopped working altogether. It arrived boxed and complete. There was an M.2 SATA card located in the M.2 slot. The Toshiba MQ01ABD100 disk drive that had come out of it when she upgraded was taped inside the box. We cloned each individually, the old disk with short cloning sessions performed over two days. The card came back whole, and the disk almost did as well.

98% recoveredBoth imaged singly

Before you box it up.

Do these first

  • Shut it down and walk away.
  • Explain what happens: no lights. Beep. Loop.
  • Get a quote first. Then send only the disk (any repair shop will pull it).
  • Send the model number on the bottom of the laptop.

What not to do

  • Tapping it. Trying to freeze it.
  • Another twenty taps of the power button.
  • Running chkdsk or letting startup repair run.
  • Writing whatever saved data back to it.

Asked most weeks, answered here.

The Satellite is completely dead. Does that mean the disk is too?

Usually not. Almost every time that something fails internally (and we mean ahead of the disk drive), it is not going to be visible from outside the case. Most failures are on the power board, or on a charging socket that has been loose for months, or on the screen itself (or the ribbon cable behind the screen). So the disk comes to us alone, not attached to a laptop, and attaches to our bench port. Within a couple of minutes, it either responds, or remains silent. That tells us which section of the laptop is failing. If the disk responds, that indicates a simple copy. And copies cost less than recovery. That is established right away by the free diagnosis. The price is established later.

Do you need the whole laptop, or only the disk from it?

Just the disk, never the entire laptop. Most Satellite models have one screw-down panel under the laptop with a 2.5 inch disk in a caddy behind it, while newer models contain a short M.2 card. Remove the disk and write down which slot it came from. Wrap the disk and obtain a quote first by either calling us or filling in our quote request form. Then post the wrapped disk, tracked and insured, to our Leeds intake lab, or bring it to the lab yourself (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed). If the top of your laptop has separated from the bottom, if there is liquid present inside the laptop, or you do not want to open your laptop yourself, any local repair shop will be able to remove the disk in a few minutes. Also, posting laptops is expensive due to weight and packaging, and they tend to arrive with fresh scuffs on them.

BitLocker is asking for a key and nobody here has it.

Windows 11 uses BitLocker which is actual encryption. Also, when someone sets up their Windows 11 laptop using their Microsoft account, Windows 11 enables device encryption automatically without asking for permission. Therefore many users first see it as a box requesting 48 digits. Fortunately, this encryption key is recoverable more frequently than expected. Home computers have this key stored in the user's Microsoft account associated with their setup. Computers issued at work will have the encryption key stored by the team that set up the unit(s) for their organisation. Thus, track down your key before posting the disk. We can create an image copy of the encrypted hard drive while it is locked and store the copy securely. However, all data stored on the copy will appear as "noise" unless the correct encryption key is entered.

Toshiba has left the laptop market. Can you still find parts?

Yes. Although Toshiba has discontinued production of laptops they produced millions of 2.5in hard drives and the same type of mechanism is available today. As long as we have the same type of mechanism, from a batch as close to yours as we can get, a head swap can occur. This is true regardless if Toshiba continues to produce products or not. To determine the availability of a compatible mechanism send us the model number located on the bottom of your computer along with any information printed on the disk label and we will provide you with details regarding what may be available in our inventory.

What people read after this.

Drives that plug in → Not seen by the PC → The noise it makes → Everything we take in →

A drive left switched off loses nothing more.

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.

0800 6890668

Have it looked at How to post it to us