Data Recovery Case File · Trust, Practice & Honest Limits · Transit Is a Risk Too

Ask for the Position Before It Travels

This enquiry came from an institution abroad and raises something the archive has not covered. A solid-state drive that "recently stopped working — it crashed twice when it was on a desktop before it entirely gave out — and I need its data extracted. I am situated" overseas, at a donor-funded school. Sending failed media internationally is a decision with real costs attached, and it is worth making deliberately. The most useful thing is a straight answer about likelihood before anything is packed, because the shipping is not the cheap part of this.

The decode: what the crashes suggest, and what shipping involves

What two crashes before total failure indicate: a progressive fault rather than a sudden one. On solid-state media that pattern most often points at the controller — the component managing the mapping between addresses and physical memory, which can degrade before it fails outright, producing instability first and unresponsiveness afterwards. That is a real fault class with a real route, through the manufacturer's technological modes, and also one where the outcome is genuinely uncertain in advance.

Why that matters before shipping: the honest prospects for a controller failure on this class of device should be described before a package is sent, not after it arrives. A straight answer about likelihood is worth more than a quote, particularly where funds are limited and the shipping itself is a meaningful expense.

What to check locally first: whether the data exists anywhere else — a backup, a networked copy, a colleague's machine, or a cloud account the institution runs. That question costs nothing and resolves a surprising proportion of enquiries before anything travels.

On packaging, which is not a formality: a drive that survived its failure can be finished by a courier. It should travel in an anti-static bag, inside rigid packaging, with cushioning on every face and no movement possible inside the box — not in a padded envelope. Solid-state media has no mechanical vulnerability, so shock is less critical than for a spinning drive, but static and crushing are real.

On the customs declaration, where people go wrong: the item is used data storage media of low commercial value. The value is the data, not the device — declaring it at the cost of a working drive invites duty and delays, and declaring it as nil value can cause its own problems. A realistic low figure with an accurate description travels most smoothly, and a tracked, insured service is worth the difference.

Why the transit itself is harmless here: a solid-state drive sitting unpowered for a fortnight is unchanged. That is not true of everything — a mechanical drive left dormant develops its own problems, and a liquid-damaged device corrodes continuously — so the calculation differs by fault type, and for this one time in transit costs nothing.

The thing worth asking for, given the context: the position stated before any charge, and confirmation of whether the fault class is one where success is likely or uncertain. An institution deciding whether to commit funds deserves that distinction rather than an average.

On the bench

The likely fault class and prospects were described before shipping was advised — two crashes preceding total failure indicating progressive controller degradation, a route with genuinely uncertain outcome, which an overseas sender should know before committing to carriage. Packaging and declaration requirements were specified: anti-static bag, rigid outer, no internal movement, and a declaration describing used media of low commercial value. On arrival the drive was assessed on a direct connection with vendor technological modes attempted, and the position confirmed before any charge.

The outcome

The prospects described before carriage, the drive assessed on arrival and vendor modes attempted with the position confirmed before charge. Free assessment, one fixed written figure including VAT; where a chip has to be removed, 50% of parts and labour is payable upfront with the balance only on success — otherwise no recovery, no fee. The decode, for anyone sending failed media a long way: ask for the position before you pack it. Two crashes before total failure suggests progressive controller degradation, which has a real route and an uncertain outcome — and that distinction matters when shipping is itself a significant cost. Declare used media of low value; the data is the value, not the device.

Our case files are drawn from genuine enquiries received by our laboratory over the past ten years, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery procedure our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.