Retrieve and Recovery

I have a Western Digital 'My Passport' external hard-drive that is constantly clicking and is not being detected by my MacBook Pro anymore. I usually use this for Time Machine Backups, but there are also home movies and music files on there as I have no space left on my MacBook hard-drive. I checked the WD website and it is no longer under-warranty. The guidance on the website suggested that it may be that the USB cable is faulty; however, the attachment to the hard-drive is not a type that I have seen before and I cannot find anyone with this cable. Are you able to give guidance/support and a quote for repair please?

Harddisk was run over by a tractor ! Very little damage externally…opened files successfully twice since…now light comes on when you plug it in & it 'fires up' but it is not recognised / does not open on laptops.

I have a Transcend Storejet 1 TB hard drive. Been working perfectly but after removing it from PC yesterday and going out with it, it now fails to be recognised by PC. A window just comes up saying need to format the drive. Previously it was listed in the storage as Transcend, not it is just listed as drive J. How much would it cost to recover the data. I am based in Huddersfield

Do you have any physical office in London where I can bring my hard drive to recover deleted information? Thank you in advance.

Seagate back up plus 1TB. The devise registers when plugged in but no icon appears and unable to access data on it. Funny ticks and noises and feels very warm when plugged it. I have a load or word files for university that inneed to recover if possible.

My WD external drive has failed in typical way, light is blinking, clicking sound, disk doesn't appear.

Drive won't connect to PC, had a quick check up (no attempted data recovery yet, drive hasn't been opened) and was told it is probably an issue with the power?

Computer Issues

Here are some examples of computer problems that I regularly fix - please contact me if you would like me to solve your computer problem.

Slow Server 1TB USB Portable Hard drive, Drive was used on a server to store media(images&Video) when the drive died it caused the server to slow to a crawl also now makes a ticking noise. drive detected on PC briefly and then crashes.

Toshiba Canvio not powering up My Toshiba Canvio 3tb external hard drive won't power up. I've had it since October 2014 and it holds a lot of photos, videos and music on there.

Seagate Expansion not recognised Seagate Extension 5TB Drive is now not being recognised by my Mac. Making a short beeping sound and no light flashing as it normally would be. Drive is not showing on disk utility and also causing Mac to crash when plugging in on occasion.

WD with Failure Symptoms My HDD has most of the failure symptoms: clicking noise, beep, not recognised by the computer. It's a WD My Passport 1TB HDD, could you give me a call back starting July 13 (out of the country at the moment) or email back anytime, to discuss how much it will cost to repair and how long will it take?

I dropped my Samsung M3 1TB portable hard drive. It powers up when connected to a computer, but doesn't show up on it, and makes a beeping noise for approximately 10 seconds before stopping. Probably its USB connector port is broken. What are your prices for data recovery?

I recently had a free evaluation from Kroll for a 1TB Western Digital Passport External HD and it was found that it had an internal mechanical failure but a very good chance of data recovery (77% – 100%). Before I sent it, it had been suffering from the "click of death." However, the quote they gave me to recover was very, very expensive, so I was wondering that price range Data Clinic would charge to recover the data? I was recommended your service by a company in York.

Even more about phones

Iphone 6 is dead, won't charge or turn on. need to recover data that was not backed up on the cloud namely whatsapp messages, photos since 23/12/2016, notes, videos

Phone wont turn on need phone numbers and pictures - water damage/no longer works or even powers on. I just need to recover the photos

I lost my mobile phone and I need to retrieve phone numbers that are on the lost device

Samsung mobile: Sd card faulty or just disappeared. We were on holiday and and was looking at photos just taken, turned around to show them to my husband and they had disappeared! !! SD card not detected by mobile and my holiday photos gone.

My iPhone is stuck on the apple logo a lot. There is also signs of a red screen too. I tried to update the software but it said I need to restore it t factory settings. I haven't backed up my iphone so I will lose all my informations, photos, data, and so on. I really don't want my photos to disappear, so I really need help with this.

My phone is completely broke smashed and dead but would like to get the pictures off it as they mean a lot

Do you think you'll be able to recover photos from my iPhone 6 which crashed during an iOS upgrade? The phone is now stuck in Recovery Mode and it just shows error 56 whenever I try to upgrade it using my Macbook. I have sent it to Kroll On Track and they said: The software is severely damaged and has ‘cracked’. There is no way to bypass this to access the contents of the device. The data will not be recoverable. The only option would be a repair of the phone, if required. Do you have a different data retrieval method?

My Sony experia z5 was dropped in salt water accidentally after I had the screen repaired and it was not waterproof anymore. I have left the device in rice for 2 days but it won't turn on at all. Could you please advise the likelihood of recovering the data from my internal storage, how much this would cost and how long it will take roughly? Could you please respond via email as I have no phone at the moment!

From all these examples above - it's easy to see how much we value the data on our mobile phones! - Please back your data up!!

More about Phones...

Continuing on from a previous blog post of mine (http://techgeek.posthaven.com/phone-not-responsive-lost-data), I have been in touch with more people who are also having phone problems. Rather than bore you with the in's and out's of phone data recovery, I've listed their enquiries. I've not looked at the cases personally, but it should be possible to recover their information in all cases. By the way, if you're wondering what data recovery is all about, have a look at this site: http://www.recover-deleted-data.co.uk/

I would like a data extraction from my iphone 6,the screen is smashed,and I have forgot my pin number ,i did not unfortunately back up the pictures and important messages,contacts etc. How much will this cost to do ?

My son has broken his iphone 6 – screen broken and can not charge at all. He did not back it up at all. Is it possible to get the photos off the phone?

Unfortunately deleted a lot of pictures from my samsung s6 edge phone. Can provide pictures. Mobile snapped by ex. Would like as much data as possible retrieved. Texts, photos etc. Looking for price, timescales etc

Had trouble trasnferring data to SD card. Laptop loaded in windows but didnt detect the hard drive. Plugged in to another source – device ended up crashing. Plugged bag in to laptop – laptop no longer loads beyond black screen

Could you recover data (photos/videos) from an iPhone 6s? Had to have screen replaced and we were not told this would erase all data. Have connected to iTunes but no back up unfortunately. Its like a brand new phone

I have a Samsung S6 mobile phone that will not switch on at all. I accidentally dropped it a couple of months ago, which cracked the screen & the back of the phone. It did work up until yesterday. I have tried re-booting it & connecting it to a computer. The Blue indiactor light at the top of the phone is on / blinking. The phone screen is totally black & un-responsive. I wondered if you think you'd be able to recover the photos I have stored in the phones hard drive?

I have a water damaged iPhone 4s. The phone itself is worthless but I have over a thousand photos plus videos of my children on it I'm desperate to recover. The phone no longer even turns on. Do you think you could help? If so what would it cost all in, absolute total please?

Until next time, Barry.

Sound Familiar?

If any of the following instances sound familiar, you've got a broken hard drive. Come and see me if you want the data pulled from it.
  • Hard disk has crashed, it has been enclosed in a 2.5" external ide hard disk enclosure. When connected via usb to pc drive not accessible. Need all excel,word and pdf files. Also had two companies set up on sage software which had not been backed up in a while, need access to this information also
  • I have a Western Digital My Passport 500gb ext drive that is making a clicking sound after receiving a slight knock. Windows will not recognise the drive, and I receive a 'fatal' error when trying to access it via Disk Management. I need as many of the files as possible recovered from the drive.
  • MacBook Air, flash storage can't find the hard drive. Apple said SSD needs a firmware update but in order to do that it needs to erase all the data, so I need a backup first or I lose everything (and I don't have a backup)
  • The hard drive has been used for long time, when plugged up the light comes on, but there is no response, the drive does not move, usually you can hear it whine when running. The remote drive is a Freedom 500GB, would you please give me an price for extracting the data, I do not wish to have the drive repaired, I can supply a brand new remote drive for the data to be down loaded to.
  • My 4tb harddrive has stopped working. ATA /SATA password lost
  • Was working perfectly this morning and has completely stopped connecting to my laptop. Work IT guy says that it can be recovered but won't work when plugged in at the moment. I am a teacher and need this sorted immediately. Please let me know the timeline and cost.
  • I have a WD external hard disk and it is not getting detected on any computer that's why I can't access any of my data in it.
  • I have a 5tb Seagate Hard Drive which unfortunatelly fell from the desk on a carpet. When connected to the laptop it shows as a device (I can eject it) but it doesn't actually appear anywhere. I'm interested to know how much it would cost to get it either fixed or have the data recovered.
  • Device not getting detected. Recurring clicking sound, but the platter sounds like it is spinning. Possibly the heads are moving back and forth.

Opening hours are 9am-5pm, Monday to Saturday.

Phone not responsive, lost data

My iPhone restored to factory settings and I hadn't backed up my holiday photos – I'm desperate to get them recovered! My iphone6 was disabled and i had to erase all my data in order to use my phone again. I really want to retrieve all my photos and chat histories if it is possible.

i have a LG G3 which went completely dead a few months ago. Before it went dead there was a error message coming with regards to lack of memory space. Just wanted to know if you would be able to recover any pictures and videos on the phone. And what the charge will be. Also where are you based?

I accidentally deleted videos from what i recorded with the phone camera. It's a Vodafone smart 6. I tried software from the internet like Dr phone for Android and it can not find any videos. What I deleted is what I took in Spain as I did a backup before I went but unable to when I was in Spain. So the date range is from 3 April to Saturday 15 April. The phone in question is turn off and i'm using another phone. I'm enquiring if there is a chance of recovering the lost videos. If so let me know by Email please until tomorrow then you can ring me as I drive for a living.

When i plug my iPhone 6s to the computer, the only option i get was to restore the phone, which i am trying to avoid because I needed the pictures in the phone and they have not been backed up due to short of iCloud storage. I sent the phone to a company but had not been successful in retrieving the data. Hence I am trying to get another opinion on this matter.

Barry's comment: Phone file recovery (otherwise known as 'phone data recovery') includes retrieving information from any type of phone that is broken, unresponsive or no longer accessible. Don't meddle with the phone yourself you'll invalidate your warranty and loose the data you're trying to recover. Seek professional advice - even if you don't use it.

Kings Norton, Birmingham Data Recovery

We have a Dell all in one computer using Windows 10. As of today we can't use it. This is the fault code. C:WINDOWS\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SetTrail.txt Could you advise / quote please on the likelihood of recovery and/or repair. We are in Kings Norton. Birmingham B38 0AF THANKS

Harddrive is detected in bios but not in windows or Linux. Makes clicking sound. The laptop it was in wasn't dropped so hopefully it is a system board fault. Please email me as I am out of the country until next week.

My phone died yesterday and will not switch on, please can you recover all phone data I.e. SMS texts, photos, videos, whatsapp etc. The device is a HTC One M7.

I've used the services of Birmingham's Data Clinic several times in the past for the retrieval of file from both an unresponsive hard drive and several mobile phones.

We have a Seagate Laptop SSHD 1000GB from a Dell Inspiron 2350. The PC stopped recognising the HD and we took it to a local PC repair shop who confirmed the HD had failed. We have some files on there which were not backed up which we would like recover.

I have a SSD that has crashed. What is the procedure for sending it to you for data recovery? Would you be able to determine the percentage of recoverable files and the percentage of files unable to be recovered? Do you charge on a sliding scale depending on the percentage of data/files recoverable? What is your range of charges - I'm midlands based near Birmingham and Wolverhampton?

I have a plug in USB hard drive which my laptop stopped recognising. When I plugged it in again it started making a bleeping noise. Can this be repaired or the data (photos) recovered.

My laptop have been dropped and subsequently hdd has been damaged and will not work. How much do you charge for recovery or fixing it?

I have a Freecom Classic SL Hard Drive (160gb) that is probably about 10 years old. I'm located just outside Birmingham, near Wolverhampton. I tried plugging it in for the first time in a while and the power supply sparked a little, then I could see smoke coming out. I'm worried I'll have lost all the data, but if retrieval might be possible I would be hugely grateful.

Most data recovery companies apply a sliding scale of charges for their recovery services which are dependent on how complex the data recovery procedure is that they need to apply in order to recover the files from the device. Companies like Data Clinic will provide you with a cost first. It's up to you if you want to proceed with the recovery or not.

Broken Computers and Hard Drives

My computer is broken and I would like to retrieve all data, but especially photographs, from it. External USB Hardrive (WD 2TB Passport) fell off desk landing vertically on floor, connector side up. Now when plugged into my Mac, the drive makes a clicking noise and the light flashes. The drive doesn't show in Finder, but appears in Disk Utility, however the single partition is greyed out as if eject. If it makes any difference, the drive was plugged into my RAID server when it broke, however the data had started copying off the drive yet. The drive was about 1/3 to 1/2 full with data, with the majority of it being audio files.

I have and WD Exteranl HD giving a message " the request is failed due to a fatal device hardware error". It has a lot of very important backed up files which I'm desperate to get to as my laptop has been stolen. I wonder how much it cost to get the data off? How long it would take and if you are open next Monday

Failed/failing standalone hard disk. Host OS generates SATA errors (command failures, resets etc.) when trying to access the drive. SMART self tests fail with read errors. Drive is branded as a Samsung "Momentus" but is actually a Seagate ST1000LM024 2.5" 1 TB SATA (used as an external drive via USB). Would like to explore options for data recovery.

My Seagate expansion hard drive is not showing up on my Macbook. I've tried on my friends macbook and it doesn't turn up on disk utility either. There's no problem with the wire as I used it with another hard drive and it worked fine. There are sounds coming from the hard drive that are identical to my other hard drive when plugged in. I'm hoping you'll be able to help with this.

I have a G-Technology GDRIVE Ev ATC External hard drive. I have been using this on my mac book pro for the last 18 months no problem. I have just tried to use it but it is not showing up in the mac book finder. It is showing up on Disk Utility but the volume is greyed out and unmounted. The hard drive light switches on when plugged into the laptop and the hardrive is vibrating suggesting that it is on. But I desperately do not want to risk loosing the video files and video editing projects that are on the hard drive. Is there a way of opening the hard drive and saving the files somewhere else? I am leaving the country on Sunday so this is quite urgent!

Trying to Recover Data

I am looking for a price to recover data from an WD My Passport external 1TB hard drive. The drive is clicking so and will not respond. All of a sudden my WD passport wouldn't mount. It wasn't dropped or knocked or anything. I have tried on several comps and with different usb cables in different ports. Disk utility sees it, but it's greyed out and it can't restore it. I ran disk warrior and it failed. Please help! I have to finish a client film on there by Friday!

There was a power cut in our local London area. After I switched my PC back on, I noticed that a large folder and all it's subfolders was now missing from the 'pictures' folder in My PC. This folder contained thousands of image and video files, totalling around 500GB or more. I've used some basic file recovery software that has found most of the image files, but the video files have all come back corrupt.

I have a western digital external hard drive with suspected impact damage. I cannot access or recover any data. Please advise on the cost and procedure of your repair service.

Hardrive was struck against a wooden table. Cracked outercasing but still in tact. when attempting to power up it just powers up then clicks and ceases. Then repeats. No detection thru laptop USB.

External hard drive has stopped working completely. It whirrs briefly into life but then beeps a lot and the motor stops. I have replaced the SATA connection but that has made no difference. Just need to recover data off the drive if possible.

Can not acces the drive. I think is due the drive has been droped , unfortunately. My external hard drive was working yesterday today I couldn't access it. The drive it showing up on the computer but it wont allow access. Could I have someone call me regarding this as all my London dissertation/ university work is on it?

The desktop computer was running a software that was writing files to the hard drive (D). When I came back to the computer the monitor was black and it was not responding and there was no weird noises. I restarted it using the button. When it started the drive (D) was not listed in the explorer, disk manager or device manager. I could not tell if there was any noises from the hard drive or not, but I think it was silent. I have now removed the drive from the computer. OS: windows 7 Hard Drive: 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm SATA 6Gbit/s PS. I would prefer if we could discuss on email and not phone. Then I could call Data Clinic if I think it is necessary.

SSD File Recovery

Recovering data files from SSD hard drives can be a big of a black art - these hard drives are completely different on the component level - no moving parts, and the data is stored to memory cells rather than a rotating magnetic disk. Here's an interesting enquiry from someone wanting their data back from one of these:

OWC SSD"I had an OWC Aura SSD in my Macbook Pro until Sunday until it stopped mounting when booting up my laptop. I've removed it and put the old original SSD for now. It uses the Sandforce 2281 controller, which I understand makes things very difficult to recover data. Are you aware of any options I have for recovering the data?"

It really depends on what the trouble is with the controller or the SSD main body. Until I have a close look at it I won't know what they problem is. In the meantime have you thought about looking on the web and trying some DIY data recovery on it yourself? Sites like Data Recovery Tips provide excellent advice on what people can try themselves to retrieve inaccessible data from their hard drives. My first recommendation is therefore to browse this site and see if you can find any useful information. If you are still stuck please come back to me and I'll see if I can recover the data for you.