Hard Drive Failure - General Guide

Its a fact of life, hard disks (like people) DO fail and it can be extremely frustrating to lose months if not years of work. Hard Drive Doctor provides a fast, confidential and cost effective data recovery and hard drive repair service in Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, the West Midlands and beyond, If your drive dies a death, theres a VERY good chance we can recover it for you. We STRONGLY recommend you read through the rest of this page if you are in a data loss situation.

Can a formatted drive or disk be recovered?

We can usually recover data from drives or disks that have been formatted and/or deleted providing the drive will actually spin up. See below for common questions. We can also assist with recovery through accidental deletion, corruption or virus damage to files including excel, word documents, access databases on IDE or SCSI drives (PC Only) as well as some CDRs and floppy discs. We also recover PST files from Exchange Server!

Data Recovery - West Midlands

* Zip Disk Recovery
* Floppy Disk Recovery
* Recovery of 5 1/4 inch disks
* Hard Drive Recovery & Repair - Data Retrieval
* Laptop drives - Failed Hard Drive
* MS Office File Repair including Word, Excel and Access
* Replacement Hardrives always in stock
* Microsoft Exchange Server Repair and PST file recovery
* Viruses & Hard Drive damage or corruption
* Data Recovery UK
* 'Invalid System Disk' message on boot up
* Lost Data and files
* Cheap Data Recovery
* Emergency Drive Recoveries UK

General Advice on lost data

Read the guide below then package the drive or disk securely (lots of bubble wrap) and send it to us by special delivery or bring it to us as soon as possible. If we get your drive early enough you stand a very good chance of salvaging your data. We can even recover data from a formatted or virus infected disk.

Do not attempt to open the drive or continue to run it as you may make the data unrecoverable. We can recover failed drives in 90% of cases providing you get it to us quickly. We cannot guarantee to recover data in EVERY case but we do not charge for a diagnosis - just the postage. Prices start from £250 for a 20GB hard drive, £100 for a Zip disk, and £20 for a floppy disk.

I really need my data back. Is there anything I can try myself?

Take some sound advice based on hard experience. A failing hard disk can deteriorate very rapidly indeed and whilst there are a few things you can try, you can actually make things far worse by repeatedly trying to access the drive. Its the equivalent of using a stomach pump repeatedly on a patient that may have only a mild cold. The patient won't be too pleased and you could actually have a fatality on your hands leaving you with severe feelings of loss and guilt that may require months of councilling. Your data could be lost forever.

If you are unable to transfer data by running it as a secondary drive, do not run it any longer than you have to. Sadly we often recieve drives that are just too far gone to recover simply because the owner totally exhausted its recovery potential. If its crucial data, just unplug the drive and get it to us as soon as you can - you stand a far better chance of recovering lost files that way.

Do you recover data from laptops, Zip Disk, PC drives, floppy discs and CDs?

Yes, although it depends on the physical condition in each case and like any medical condition, the Doctor can make no accurate diagnosis without actually seeing the patient! Accept certain truths - we do have to put some drives down, a sad fact of life but its often kinder for all concerned. You may wish to inform relatives.

How long will it take?

Hmmm depends. It can sometimes take days to recover data from a drive with real problems. Whilst we can take on emergency recoveries (the operating theatre is always on standby), we cannot guarantee to retrieve the data quickly. Much depends on the condition of the drive or disc. We've had some cases where it has taken up to two weeks to pull off just a few hundred megabytes of data - so please be patient (excuse the pun).You may only require one crucial piece of data but we have to run through the WHOLE drive in order to get at it.

But I only need two files

We understand this, but from a purely technical stance, to get at your data we have to recover the WHOLE drive.

Should I open my hard drive?

Categorically - NO! Please do not open a failed or failing hard drive case under ANY circumstances. Its like taking the back off a watch - it'll never be quite the same again. There is nothing you can repair in there and drives should ONLY opened in a totally dust free environment by a specialist technician. They are totally dust free zones for very good reasons. If you do open your drive - DON'T send it to us!

DO NOT fdisk, reformat, continually restart the machine or allow XP to 'repair' the disk as this may render the data totally unrecoverable. If we get the drive early enough, there is a much improved chance that we can recover it.

My drive is making strange noises - clicking

Severly damaged drives (ie clicking or grating sounds) or ones that will not even 'spin' up will almost certainly need to be sent to a laboratory for recovery and this can be VERY expensive indeed. We cannot recover data from severly damaged drives although we may be able to replace the controller card (subject to spares availability). There are specialist companies who recover dead drives - at a price (anything up to £1000 and beyond). In most other cases however, providing the drive is mechanically sound, even if its not recognisable in Windows, we can extract your data for you - so do call us first!

Can you recover data from a formatted drive?

In all likelihood - yes. There may be SOME corruption to files but our patients often make full recoveries from a total format and are generally up and about within a short time. Flowers are welcome on the ward - brighten the place up no end.

I get an 'Invalid System Disk' message when I try to boot into windows

Hmmm, annoying but we can probably get your data back for you.

BIOS does not recognise my drive or printed circuit (controller board) is damaged

We MAY be able to recover a drive that is not recognised by BIOS or with a damaged controller, but please email us the model number of the drive so we can check on spares availability first.

Can you recover data from every drive or disk?

Realistically - no. If we can't, we'll let you know. All you pay is £10 to cover postage & admin if we have to return the drive or disk as unrecoverable.

Can you recover mailboxes (PST OST files) from Microsoft Exchange Server? Our Mail Server crashed and we can't access the database.

Yes we can, but PST files are somewhat fragile, particularly when they're big files. In the first instance, click here and see if scanpst.exe will solve your problem.

How will you return my data to me?

Due to the failure of our blind carrier pigeon service, we now send by special delivery on CD, DVD or a brand new hard drive (see below). We can supply all three at reasonable cost. Less urgent returns are sent by first class (ordinary) post.

My data is extremely confidential

Thats fine. It will always be treated as such. We are not interested in contents - we only recover data. Period

How do I get the faulty drive to you?

Firstly, write down the model number and serial numbers printed on your drive and keep a record of these. Also include these, a summary of the fault and your return address. We recommend Special Delvery (roughly £6) or if 24 hour service is required, please use a Courier Service. Ensure drive is adequately wrapped (tons of bubblewrap) and mark it as 'Fragile'. There is a £100 surcharge for emergency recoveries. We don't normally accept direct delivery simply because we're often out on call and there is not always someone available to accept the drive. A £10 surcharge is now applicable on hand deliveries other than a courier service as it requires a member of staff be available to accept the drive. Please check first and arrange a time if you must do this - particularly if sending by courier.

We DO NOT offer a 'While-U-Wait' service. All recoveries have to be sheduled and go through a number of processes before we can begin a full recovery including analysis, virus checking and a spares check. We can prioritise work but a £100 surcharge is applicable if you need instant attention. Bear in mind that ALL data recoveries are emergencies by their very nature and we have to justify putting one job before another.

Setting Up A Secondary Hard Drive

In some cases, we return data on a brand new hard drive. We only format drives as FAT32 to ensure compatability unless otherwise requested. In the meantime, you may already be in the process of installing your operating system from scratch on a replacement drive. If you had programs installed on your old failed drive, you'll need to reinstall these again as they rarely (with a few exceptions) can be moved from one drive to another. This is because there are registry filess, DLL's and other files installed. We're not saying it CAN'T be done, its just that there are so many programs out there, we really can't advise on individual situations.

To access your old data, configure it as a secondary drive. There are many web sites oulining how to do this (run a search on Google for 'installing secondary hard drive'). Heres a couple that may prove useful:

Reg Stevens: Adding a Hard Drive

Mike's Hardware: Connecting IDE Drives

 

IF YOU NEED ADVICE PLEASE USE OUR ENQUIRY FORM

 

We need hardly point out that regular data backup is essential. Try to move crucial data to a less corruptable media such as DVD or CDR. Its considerably cheaper than trying to retrieve lost data later on.

Hard Drive Problems

We cover all of the West Midlands and the rest of the UK including:

Warwickshire, the West Midlands, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire including Coventry, Birmingham, Nuneaton, Bedworth, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Redditch, Rugby, Stratford Upon Avon, Wolverhampton, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Bromsgrove, West Bromwich, Kidderminster, Burton Upon Trent, Solihull, Tamworth, Lichfield, Brownhills, Cannock, Dudley, Hinckley, Leicester, Telford, Worcester, Derby, Walsall, Stafford, Daventry, Loughborough, Bridgenorth, Shrewsbury, Burntwood, Rugeley. Sandwell, Stoke On Trent, Smethick, Sutton Coldfield, Great Malvern, Hereford, Droitwich, Kenilworth, London, Newport, Loughborough, Hinckley, Melton Mowbray, Coalville, Wellingborough, Corby Kettering, Peterborough and Oxford.