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HDR / Faults and failures / Water or fire damage

Wet, sooty, or both

Water and fire damage, Hull. Both reach the board and the pins; the platters stay sealed inside.

In the box is a sealed chamber. Water doesn't go into it; most home fires don't have the heat to disturb it. The only things that do get wet or dirty are parts: the board, connector and contacts. The parts can be cleaned or replaced. What can't be reversed is turning on the thing when it's still damp, or putting it in a drawer for two weeks where salt dries onto the pins. Off, wet, bagged: get a quote first, by phone or with our quote form, then post it today from anywhere within Hull, tracked and insured, to our Leeds intake laboratory, or drop it off there (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed).

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

Putting a name to the symptom.

Nothing similar? Go to the triage →
The symptomsWhat the fault isWhat to try
Has been dead since getting wet.The circuit board has failed. However, because they are sealed off behind the board, the disc(s) will generally read exactly as they have always done.Still wet: seal it in a bag.
Either trips the socket, or blows the power supply.Shorted board. Each time you try to run the device again, it sends another spike to the head pre-amp.Just leave it alone.
White or green crust on contactsIt's begun corroding, and nothing will keep it from continuing.Do not leave it standing
Thermal damage. Casing still closed.Alloy body held. A bad circuit board is something we can purchase as a replacement.Keep it shut. Carry it flat.
Soot was worked into the breather filter and the pinsAbrasive and acidic. It will scratch itself on first spinJust leave soot alone
Saltwater got to itChloride passes beyond the board to the magnetic coating. No water is worseSeal it wet; get a price quote first, then post it
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.

Where water and fire damage stops.

What water actually reachesPlatters are rarely damaged. They're protected by a seal and usually read fine after that. Damage lands elsewhere: board, connectors, contact strips. All can be cleaned or replaced.
What heat destroysThe board, first and most of all. Platters go through the heat that has ruined the plastic and solder. The board is removed and a donor board is put in its place. Your ROM chip is transferred to the new board.
Clean water, dirty water, saltA split mains pipe represents the mild case. Dirtier water coming off a floor is much worse: silt along with everything else that came up the drain with it. The bad one is salt because chloride won't stop at the board; it attacks the coating. All three travel wet, in a sealed bag.
Soot does the second lotRound two begins as it goes back down. When cooling smoke leaves an acidic and abrasive film in all seams and vents, spinning the drive will drag that debris across its own surfaces. Cleaning first, and powering on again a long way after.

From the box arriving to the files going back.

Jobs we have logged →
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

It arrives still wet

Drive arrives in a bag. It's still wet when opened, and that's what we're looking for. Dry it en route and whatever waterborne contaminants were present on the contacts remain there as crystals. Fire jobs arrive "as found", soot and all.

Still wet on arrivalSealed until opened here
03

Deposits off, new board on

Contaminants can be removed. Contact strip returns to original metal finish. Matched donor board is installed, along with the ROM chip taken from your original board.

Deposits taken offYour own ROM chip moved over
04

Imaged the same day

Cleaning simply allows us additional time; the corrosive process begins anew. Thus, we image immediately. Once we have a complete sector-by-sector duplicate of the drive, it can be put away and we'll work out of the copy.

Imaged before it corrodes againThe original is set aside
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

  • Weekends are not holiday time: corrosion occurs during both Saturday and Sunday. If a drive sits on a worktop from Friday through to Monday, it has experienced three full days of corrosion. Get a quote first, then send it to us (wet) as soon as possible.
  • One hopeful power-up will double your cost: the short will finish the board, and anything that passes through will reach the pre-amplifier located at the head. A cleaning process and/or replacement of the board will turn into taking apart the drive and replacing the heads.
  • Water comes in different grades: the mains water from a split pipe is considered to be of "mild" quality. Water coming down from a dirty floor will contain silt (and whatever else may have come up through the drains). Salt is what causes damage to the coating. Get a quote first; all three should be posted wet.
  • Heat affects things in an orderly way: plastics and soldering materials deteriorate much sooner than the alloy bodies do. Therefore the job is to replace the items that can be replaced, while maintaining the integrity of the item(s) that cannot be replaced.

The majority of these jobs depend upon two factors: a) Whether someone had tried powering it on prior to posting. And b) How long the hard drive had been allowed to wait prior to being posted. Neither of these determinations occur at our bench. Both of these decisions have already occurred by the time we receive the item. Not a lot of dramatic action occurs in relation to the arrival of most of these items. The majority of items received fall into categories such as a broken pipe behind a kitchen appliance, a washing machine that drained its contents during the middle of the night, a leaky flat roof that failed due to excessive rain, and/or a caravan park office building where something ruptured/failed over the winter months. Routine jobs. They are sent back as routine jobs provided no one had attempted to dry out the hard drive or plug it in.

One case from the casebook.

HU · HUL-2026-0652LOGGED ✓

A leak through a home-office ceiling, and nobody tried to power the drive up

You would have thought that someone would have wanted to switch it on at least to check if it was working. Then, you may be surprised to find that no one had even attempted to dry it out either. This is what left something to work with. Still wet and sealed inside a bag, it was sent via the postal service the very same afternoon. At our facility, we removed any debris from the pad area, took the ROM and placed it onto a replacement board and made a complete copy of all data a few days later. 20 years of family photos were saved.

100% recovered4 days after it landed

Before you box it up.

Do these first

  • Turn off the wall socket and leave the plug out: laptop, desktop or NAS.
  • Place it in a sealed bag while it is still moist (only the drive from a laptop or desktop; the disks, labelled by bay, from a NAS, or the entire NAS unit itself if they won't come out)
  • Inform us which type of water came in contact with your device: mains water, dirty water or sea-salt water.
  • Obtain a price before you post it today. Corrosion will continue to occur for as long as the device sits in the bag.

What not to do

  • Grains of rice do not have access to the area where moisture exists and each additional day your item remains in the rice will create one more day of damage due to corrosion.
  • A hair dryer, a radiator, an airing cupboard, and a low temperature oven
  • Using a power socket for testing
  • Washing the item, cleaning off dirt/soot, and taking apart the housing

Asked most weeks, answered here.

Is anything left on a drive that has been soaked?

Mostly, yes, provided two things occurred correctly: 1.) No person turned it on while it was damp, and 2.) It arrived here as soon as possible. Water destroys the electronic circuit board. However, the data storage surfaces remain sealed away from the water. Boards are also replaceable components.

Is a bag of rice worth trying?

No. The harmful effects of the water exist in isolation within the case of your device, and this is where grains of rice have little opportunity to affect anything. Grains of rice pose their own set of issues: starchy powder, and debris accumulating on electrical connectors. In addition, for each day it remains in the rice, the internal components of your device will corrode.

Is a fire-damaged drive still worth sending in?

Yes, often. The main function of the alloy frame is to house the disks, and we can replace damaged electronic components. The bad cases are when metal deforms, or when soot particles have entered through the breather filter. First, get a quote either via phone or using our quote request form. Then send your drive to the Leeds intake laboratory by post, tracked and insured, or deliver it there personally (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed). Your item should arrive at our facility in exactly the condition that it departed: closed, not cleaned, not plugged in.

Do I need to dry it first?

No. It goes against your natural instincts. All foreign substances collected from the water will become trapped in all gaps between connectors and throughout all areas of your device's casing when it dries out. Seal it while it is damp. When an engineer cuts open the plastic bag, it should still contain moisture.

What people read after this.

Built-in drives → NAS volumes → When it has been dropped → 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