When you have a broken hard drive that you need to get the files from you have to send your computer disk to a data recovery company to get them to retrieve your data. They will examine your hard drive and find out what is wrong with it. Then they'll send you a report detailing the faults and issues. Here's a standard report:
This is the report from another company I used two years ago:
The report from the lab has been finalized and the engineer has reported the following.
· When powered the drive clicks and spins down
· Drive opened within clean lab for internal examination
· Failing read/write heads preventing access to data
· Possible damage on media surface area causing mechanical and logical read/write operation to fail.
· Partition tables unreadable due to read/write failure
Access to data is unsuccessful due to damaged read/write heads.
The heads are the mechanical components that read/write data to/from the internal platters.
The work required to correct the faults include:
1. Drive disassembled within clean lab facility
2. Drive rebuilt with compatible donor heads
3. Drive to be placed on Data Extractor to improve stability and read/write process
4. Attempted Sector by sector image
This is a highly skilled process that is not infallible. The chance of a successful recovery once this process has been completed is approx: 70%.
Unfortunately there are currently no parts in stock to complete the rebuild but we can purchase a compatible donor from our suppliers in the US.
As you can see, a data recovery report clearly identifies what the problem with the hard drive is and the chance of them getting your data back should you decide you want to proceed with the data recovery cost. You can expect to pay in the region of £300 to £700 for a data recovery service from a hard drive.