The Full Gamut of Hard Drive Data Recovery Services
Having a problem with your computer’s hard disk drive (HDD)? You’ve come to the right place. Unlike some of our competitors, Disc Depot has the experienced staff and facilities to ensure that you stand a much higher chance of getting your valuable data back.
Our hard drive data retrieval services run the range from basic “logical” data corruption (i.e. corrupt files, filesystem, MBR, etc.) to a full, clean room-based data recovery service for physically-damaged drives. (See this case study for a look at one such recovery, which also explains data recovery issues in general).
Repair Process
Typically, we will go through several stages in diagnosing and attempting to recover your data.
- Sector Scanner Diagnostics – This is the most basic level of repair, and suited to problems caused purely by software-based data corruption
- Firmware and Service Area Diagnostics
- PCB Testing and Repair – This solves hardware-based problems relating to the controller circuit board (PCB)
- Cleanrooom service – If it becomes clear that the problem is one which requires physical access to the hard drive heads or platters, this must be done in a cleanroom environment
If parts are required for a cleanroom repair, we will contact you in advance to agree a quote on these parts. And we’ll always let you know if there’s going to be a charge for a particular service before confirming that you want to go ahead with it.
Cleanroom-Based Advanced HDD Data Recovery
Sometimes the only way to recover data from a hard drive is to partially disassemble it. If this requires exposing the drive head and platters themselves, it can only be carried out in a cleanroom environment.
A cleanroom facility is particularly important when it comes to hard disk drives because they’re based around spinning, magnetically-coated platters- and the tiny head that reads and writes data off them flies just two-millionths of an inch(!) above the disc surface on thin film of moving air. These discs have to be kept incredibly clean- even a tiny particle of dust or dirt can be catastrophically huge at such scale, causing the head to crash into the drive surface. This will lead to massive data loss (on top of any that was already gone) and the loss of the drive platter. Worse, the dust from the wrecked coating can then get onto the other platters, causing their heads to fail in a chain reaction.
In short, this is why any repair that requires exposing the hard drive platters must take place in a clean room environment- and it’s why Disc Depot is able to carry out far more advanced hard drive data recovery than most of our competitors.