I have an old laptop hard drive (IDE 2.5″, 2GB) the laptop is approximately 23 years old and has been in storage for the last 3 years – it worked when it was last powered up (about 3 years ago).
The hard drive spins up but doesn’t become idle.
The ADATA SSD hard drive was previously bootable within the laptop, has an instance of WIndows 98 installed, and is full of nostalgia. I’m hoping to (at the very least) recover the data or preferably fix the drive or migrate to another disk so that I’m able to continue using the laptop.
Device Details:
Toshiba Tecra 520CDT.
Drive: 2.02 GB PA1246U-T2A

Recover files from ADATA SSD
I have a defective ADATA SX8200PNP-512GT-S NVMe SSD which I would like to recover and put back to life. I passed the device to my local recovery specialists and they were not able to sort out the problem so I decided to contact other companies.
The diagnostic about the problem which I received from them was:
“The device passes ALL power tests, but is completely inaccessible in the normal way.
Upon closer inspection, It would appear that the hardware encryption keys (held in the Firmware) are corrupt, and whilst we can get complete ‘native’ access to the data, we cannot remove the encryption placed on it by the main controller.”

The external drive was dropped on the floor, causing the outside protective casing to fall off.
When plugging into laptop the drive isn’t mounting and data isn’t reachable. However, my Mac does detect that 2.3tb has been used on the drive, which I assume means it might be salvageable. I’ve bought a new hard drive in the meantime to transfer this data across asap when possible.

This is an old 3tb Seagate hard drive used for time machine backups up until about 2017 that I just tried to look through to find some videos and music to add to the NAS I’ve just setup. But I couldn’t get anything on my Mac to recognise it (not the finder, not disk utility, not disk drill, not terminal). It also won’t show on PC, except when going into Driver management, where the model does show up (ST3000DM001) and claims the drivers are up to date. I can’t find
any way to get it to show on PC though, but am limited from it being my work laptop – no admin
rights 🙂
I have good triple back-up routines on all my home videos and photos, so don’t need any of that
back, just the video and music folders if it’s possible. I suspect it’s probably more trouble
than it’s worth though? Is there anyway to recover this time machine backup?

I have e seagate external hard drive that is making a clicking sound and wont open. it is less than 1 year old and has not been dropped but I use it for backing up my data with Time Machine. Seagate have offered to replace it but not recover the data. so I may look at just keeping it and refuse a new one from them if I get the data back, depending on costs. Do you have a fixed price

Of all the companies in the UK providing data recovery services, the staff at Data Clinic are the experts that I’ve been most impressed by. I’ve written about my experiences below about Data Clinic’s excellent data recovery services involving a 512 mSATA hard drive and an SD card

512GB MSATA SSD RECOVERY
It’s a micron m-Sata 512Gb SSD from a Dell laptop. M550, Model: MTFDDAT512MAY
Was placed in external caddy after laptop issues (seems like motherboard). Worked fine till the new laptop decided a windows update was necessary that included bios and flash updates to the motherboard, new laptop wouldnt boot, so stupidly unplugged the caddy rather than forced a power off.
Since then the drive is sometimes recognized but not accessible. Once a windows error mentioned a deleted or inaccessible table (can’t remember if MBR or what the errors actually said).

Phone SD card recovery
I’m not sure if this would be recovery from the phone or the SD card. I stupidly agreed for my phone to move my photos and videos onto my SD card, and the videos transferred fine but the photos now seem to be corrupted (the files are there but no images showing). The only images I can see are ones I’ve previously messaged to other people. I’m absolutely desperate to get these back as it’s the last 15 months of my son growing up, including his first and second birthdays. I’ve tried downloading everything to a laptop and using different apps to open the files.

In both these examples, Data Clinic were able to retrieve the data for me. The files were returned on an external hard drive that I plugged into my computer and were able to access immediately.

The well respected cryptocurrency recovery experts Recover My Crypto Wallet (https://www.recovermycryptowallet.com/) have recently shared two examples of their work with us:

Cryptocurrency wallet on Samsung phone
Can you retrieve my Metamask cryptocurrency wallet from my phone? This last week my Samsung a70 has not been charging and I am not able to get the phone to power up..I’ve tried numerous chargers /leads and even a power bank but all that happens is when I plug a charger into the device a white circle appears in the centre of the screen with a small charging symbol at the top of that circle.. However no matter how long I leave it charging it will not charge up .
I have items on there I do not want to lose so I’m turning to your company to hopefully offer a solution..Even if you can get the phone to charge up then I could use the smart switch app to transfer my information to my new Samsung phone..can you please advise ?

Memory stick Bitcoin wallet recovery
I’m looking for rough quote and idea if it will be possible to recover wallet.dat data from my 32gb Sandisk memory stick. Almost all of my files on my card started showing up as a grey box with white exclamation mark inside. The image files could no longer be deleted, moved or sent via bluetooth. I have tried it in another computer and shows “Unsupported” message. Have also tried to open on my Macbook but doesn’t open – however this is the same with my other USB sticks that have been formatted inside mobile phone and still working fine so I might just need to update Mac or the format setting they get within the phones just isn’t compatible. Therefore it’s possible it may still open on a device, and if not I believe it will need to be formatted and then needs data recovery. Not sure if any files have been corrupted. A long time ago I saved a Bitcoin wallet.dat file to this memory stick which is now worth quite a lot of money. I’d love to be able to recover the Bitcoin.

Here are some of the latest data recovery enquiries from people with lost data in Edinburgh, Manchester and Southampton. These data recovery enquiries were submitted to Data Clinic Ltd, the UK hard drive recovery specialists.

RAID LVM Data Recovery
2 disk raid 1. Part of a 6 disk lvm (3 x 2 disk raid 1’s. 2 are h/w raid 1’s which are fine. The fault is on the s/w raid). After a power outage the h/w raids came back but not the s/w raid. Edinburgh

Dropped laptop
I dropped my laptop and I now get a ‘DST’ error message (both long and short if that makes a difference). Although I have backed up virtually all the files, I’d just finished editing a video of my daughter (a c.50min) video. Although I have the original files, it took me about 6weeks to edit so hope it can be recovered. Located in Edinburgh.

Hard drive data recovery in Manchester
I have 2 HDs that need repair. Firstly, a Seagate Backup 8TB which is not being recognised by Windows and has no no clicking sound and so cannot access data. The light comes on for 30s only but i did access data once so believe it is recoverable. Also I have a Seagate Desktop HDD 3000 GB, which is preventing the PC from loading into windows when connected and I believe is also faulty. Can you let me know your prices for repair / data transfer and if you can help. I’m based in Salford, Manchester and would require a collection.

2.5 external hard drive stopped working Southampton
I have a 2.5 external hard drive that stopped to work suddenly when I was copying some files. The hard disk drive is located in Southampton. When I plug the hard disk it blinks for a while and then it’s steady. Disk management shows it as a raw partition at the beginning, but after a few seconds it become not initialised and when I try to initialised it says ‘Disk not ready’. I tried to do the some with the command prompt and I get the same results. There isn’t any clicking sound or anything out of the ordinary. I tried to use software like stellar, or seagate recovery suite but they are not able to find any files. I removed the hard disk from the case and plugged it into a SATA connector but I have the same issue. Is it possible to recover my data? If so, what’s the cost of the service? It’s my personal data (photos, videos, etc).

iPhone screen gone blank
Last saturday my iphone’s screen went blank with the apple logo, and I could neither turn it on nor turn it off.
I took it to an authorized apple center to be reviewed.
They told me that when that happens there were two options: update the system or restore the cell phone but that I would lose the information.
I told them to just try updating that because I didn’t want to lose the information.
When I returned for my cell phone they told me they had bad and good news, good that the cell phone already works and bad that there was no information at all.They told me they did not restore it, they just updated the system. That the phone itself had erased the information, they think that was either due to memory damage, file management
damage or an application that won’t work properly.
That when the phone started it started without asking for apple id or passwords. This help? I really hope so. The photos and videos are the only memories I have of my mom.
I have been using my phone since that day, I do not know if that is something bad also.
Please I hope you can help, I am in México. My iphone is 128 GB and obviously I did not backup. My phone was almost full of capacity.

A device which does not exist was specified
“A device which does not exist was specified” error – HDD does not show up in disk management at all, volume shown as not being initialised.

Loose connection on hard drive
Hard-drive stopped working suddenly. The hard-drive hasn’t been dropped but the connection for the Sata usb is completely loose. I would need the data recovered from the hard-drive please as at the moment I can’t connect it.

Samsung 850 SSD Data recovery
Samsung 850 bios ssd not functioning, regular desktop hard drive and was functioning fine and turned on as normal then pc wouldn’t boot. primary windows drive, drive shows up in windows explorer but no capacity available. Won’t allow through windows partition manager. Tried samsung magician will see the drive, but show it as RAW, file corruption? attempted to power cycling it over night but still no go.

Data Clinic Ltd, the UK data recovery company have recently opened a new data recovery centre in Southampton, located at the Basepoint Centre on Anderson’s Road SO14 5FE. Here are some of the examples of work that they undertake.

Phone dipped in water
My phone wasnt directly dipped in water but it got just wet while being plugged into external battery, it stopped working and when i went to repair shop in Southampton – they said its quite damaged and quite rusty from the salt water ( sea water) . I gave up on looking more shops willing to extract my pictures and videos i stupidly didn’t backed up.
I came over your site and Im wondering if you could help me out.

External hard drive recovery in Southampton
My external WD 2T Passport has recently stopped connecting to my laptop, showing as ‘not mounted’ under the disk utility on my MacBook.
I’ve tried the first aid check which just gives an error message and and EaseUS deep scan with no luck. It had been connecting less well before – needing to be held in a certain position or the laptop turned on and off. I’ve also tried a different cable so my thoughts are it’s either a hardware issue with the connection inside the hard drive or some sort of corruption.
Do you think this is something you would be able to recover? I notice and what would the cost be?

Recover Seagate Expansion drive in Southampton
i was wondering if you could help me with my hard drive. It is a seagate expansion drive and I can access it. I work in Portsmouth but can travel into your data recovery lab at the Basepoint in Southampton every week.
About six months ago I was adding some photos to my hard drive when I accidently duplicated a large already existing file on my hard drive. This caused my computer to slow down so I decided to leave it until the next morning. However when I want to open my laptop the hard drive was not in my files.
After a while I worked out that my drive was unresponsive.
The fan in the drive still spins and the light still flashes. I can still view it in the control panel however I cannot access the files.
I was wondering if you could give me an idea of what the issue may be and how much it could potentially cost to fix it.

Lacie Rugged External Thunderbolt / USB-Type C. Was connected to laptop via USB Type C and worked ok, no drops or accidental removal of cable, and then after copy-paste operation from one folder to another folder with file replacement just returned an error message “The request failed due to a fatal device hardware error”. Disk was still responsible, although became very slow in depicting folder content. I have disconnected and connected again with the same error message, yet was correctly returning its name Lacie and size. Suddenly I have activated Windows Built-In diagnosis (without fix option) and then cancelled it due to long running time with no progress. The laptop also got frozen, so had to hot reboot, after that disk appears without Lacie name and does not anymore show its content and gets frozen, nor Properties display its size. Also repeating clicking sounds all the time now.

The request failed due to a fatal device hardware error
I had 4 1TB (Seagate Barracuda?) disks in a Buffalo Linkstation NAS device. It was in a RAID config that allowed one disk to fail. Unfortunately 2 disks failed the same evening & I have not been able to access it since. The faults to each disk are different, as I think one is not even spinning. I have attempted to run spinrite on them, and neither could be repaired, the one could not even be read. I do not even know what is on this as it was over a year ago since the fault. I am only after photo’s as I have been unable to locate some so assume my backup was on this.

I have an external hard drive ‘WD Elements’, that has stopped registering when I plug it into my Mac.
• it takes a while but it eventually shows up in disk utility – however I can’t access anything from there and it doesn’t always eject from there.
• I was 99% sure that the hard-drive was formatted to be used on an Apple Mac, however in disk utility the option to ‘Mount’ comes up – after some research this allows it to be readable on Mac ? Which makes me think maybe it isn’t formatted for Mac… Can you clarify this? I haven’t clicked mount incase it deleted everything on there.
I did take it to an Electronics shop, who said they think the actual disk inside is starting to breakdown as it’s spinning but ‘jumping’ or ‘stoping’ kind of thing (hope that makes some sense).
I contacted another electronic technician who feel’s it’s a specialist job.
I have been able to use the hard drive and upload loads of photos onto it in the past and don’t want to have already ruined them by plugging it into my computer and not ejecting it properly because even on disk utility I clicked eject and it didn’t always do it.. and don’t want them to be lost if the hard drive is completely broken, which I know can happen.

Data Recovery in Northampton
Seagate 3TB Drive runs and then stops – some slight clicking noise. Visible in device manager and disk management but latter only highlights 3.8 gb and say initialise. Not showing in explorer.

External USB HD which contains word, excel, visio, jpegs and avi files is failing to read any data so i cant see or open anything. It has alot of baby photos of my son on as well as all my archived work portfolio which isnt backed up to anything else. Id like to see if you can recover all of these please in Northampton?
Not fussed on the films that are on there but i know theres work files and a folder i would like to save.

I spoke to someone on the phone a couple of weeks ago about a hard drive recovery but didn’t have the hard drive in my possession at the time.
The hard drive (according to another examination/quote I’ve received) is a mechanical failure – seriously degraded head nodes and needs a transplant with donor drive.
The drive is a 500GB Toshiba HDD (can provide serial no. etc if needed) from a 2011 MacBook Pro so OS is Mac OS X (~ OS X Mavericks, the HDD hasn’t been used in over 5 years). I’m looking for a data recovery service in Northampton.

I received a quote on the phone for if the above info re: mechanical failure is correct, please could I confirm what the amount would be including VAT?
I’d also like to confirm if it would be possible for you to order a specific HDD (e.g. from Amazon) for me to put the data onto and add the cost of this on to the invoice?

iPhone recovery in Northampton
iPhone 6 stuck on start screen with Apple logo. All conventional recovery techniques have failed. I suspect either motherboard failure or software glitch. I would like to pay someone simply for data recovery – no need to completely restore the phone, only enough for data recovery to work (this one has been repaired numerous times and after 5 years I’m happy for it to go to heaven). As flash drive and motherboard are welded onto another, I honestly can’t be bothered to do this myself. I live in Kettering but and happy to drive to Northampton if it helps. Please could you provide information as to how long it would take and how much it will cost? Happy to wait a bit longer if that makes it cheaper.

Hard drive is almost dead and has suffered mechanical failure. It opens but soon disconnects, is slow, makes a noise and I am unable to transfer my files over to my laptop. I need to know if you are able to recover all files (not just a few) before it completely dies as some of my pictures are on there that I don’t have a backup for. Also it is still under warranty until Mid november so ideally need it done asap before that so I can then return it to get a new one. But I won’t send it back with my files still on it. Do you provide a data recovery service that rescues files from a WD drive that disconnects?

WD My Passport external hard drive – this has stopped working in that when I plug it into my laptop it doesn’t let me look at anything saved on the drive- it just disconnects and doesn’t even show the folders or that there is anything on it. I would hugely appreciate some help with this but don’t have a car. I see that you do collection from some areas – I live in Chorlton in South Manchester, do you collect from here?

Troubleshoot disconnecting hard drives
Hard drives that disconnect intermittently usually have some sort of internal problem. It is not a software or filesystem issue.
First of all, change the data cable and see if that makes a difference. If your drive has a separate power connector you might want to check that too for the sake completeness but be careful not to use an power adapter that has different voltage settings or you’ll blow the hard drive electronics.
A disconnecting hard drive may also have a firmware problem. Firmware is the programming that runs the hard drive and this can sometimes become corrupted. Reprogramming the firmware will usually work but this is not something you can do yourself, neither can the likes of PC World, you will need to get this done by a professional data recovery company. See my earlier blog post https://harddriveman.com/2020/09/10/phone-data-recovery-in-leicester/