Data Rescue

We are your local data recovery specialists. When your drive has a problem, stop what you’re doing and call a professional immediately. Many times, the more that you do, the more that the drive will become damaged. If you need to speak with someone, please give us a call – we give free advice over the phone all the time.

We also understand that your data is priceless, but you don’t want to have to spend an arm and a leg to get it back. Depending on the type of damage/malfunction that your drive is experiencing, the costs can vary between $75 and $100′s – our diagnostic will give you an accurate estimate of the repair costs before we do them. Please contact us to learn more.

Types of Hard Drive Malfunction

As we always explain to our clients there are several different types of damage that can occur to your hard drive:

  • Logical Errors

    This is probably the most common type of malfunction and the easiest one to repair. Logical damage can occur when a drive is reformatted, or if the has a corrupted directory structure/boot sector from an improper shutdown, or if a process fails when you try to run Chkdisk, Disk Utility, similar free disk checking tools.

  • Mechanical Failure

    Mechanical hard disk failures are those which involve the internal components of the hard disk itself. Your hard drive is spinning for years at 75 miles per hour (SATA and IDE – not SSD) over the years heat and movement can cause these internal components to misalign or break. Often as soon as an internal component goes faulty the data on the hard disk will become inaccessible. Common symptoms include regular ticking or clicking sound coming from the drive when it is powered on.

  • Electronic Failure

    Electronic failure normally relates to problems on the logic board of the actual hard disk. This board can be damaged by a power surge or short, making it undetectable to the computer. A common symptom is when the hard drive will power on without making unusual noises, but the computer will not recognize it when it is plugged in.

  • Firmware Corruption

    Hard disk firmware is the software code that controls, and is embedded in, the physical hard drive hardware. If the firmware of a hard disk becomes corrupted or unreadable the computer is often unable to correctly interact with the hard disk. Frequently the data on the disk is fully recoverable once the drive has been repaired and reprogrammed. A common symptom is when the hard drive will power on without making unusual noises, and either the computer will not detect the drive at all or it will only temporarily recognize the drive.

    For more information or to schedule an appointment please contact us.