Flooding, a spill or a fire do not have to result in loss of information if you react fast. We remove the corrosive and blackened residue from your drive’s surfaces, replace damaged parts from our 10,000 part donor stock, and then we read your information back at our facilities.
Turning on a wet hard drive can create a short-circuit instantly. Heating the hard drive or putting the hard drive in a bag of uncooked rice causes the corrosion and salt minerals to bond to the platters causing even greater damage with each passing hour. Do not alter anything about the hard drive; keep it sealed and send it to us as quickly as possible.
Fluids and heat affect a hard drive differently, ranging from electrical shorts and corrosion to sooting and warping. Below is a list of the common forms of damage we see and repair.
Since 2002 we’ve worked on water damaged and fire damaged hard drives from all of the major manufacturers. We are very confident we’ll be able to assist you in recovering your data if it’s stored on spinning platters.
Internal and external alike; 2.5-inch laptop and 3.5-inch desktop; SATA, SAS, SCSI and IDE/PATA; everything from 40 GB legacy units to today’s 24 TB helium drives.
If a drive was damaged by a flood, spill, or fire, we do not attempt to read the data until after we’ve thoroughly cleaned it. First we decontaminate it, secondly we fix any physical damage done to the board, heads, etc., and thirdly we read out your data slowly and methodically.
Simply post us your drive (or bring it into our lab), and we will assess the level of water or fire damage to the board, heads, and platters and send you a written quote for recovering it. This normally takes less than 48 hours.
We carefully disassemble the drive. Next, using the correct cleaning solutions, we gently remove soot, residue, corrosion and mineral deposits from both the inside components and the platter surfaces so that they are clean enough for the heads to read from.
Next we install replacement head-stacks, printed circuit boards or motors from our large supply of donors, specifically matched to your exact model number, firmware version, and head configuration.
If we’re unable to restore your original board, we move the original ROM and unique adaptive parameters onto a matched donor board. When this new board is turned on it should recognise its own heads and operate as normal.
The drive is cloned sector by sector to a stable storage device utilising imaging equipment. This allows us to read through weak areas, take slow steps around damaged heads and zones to recover as much of your lost data as possible prior to fatigue setting in.
From this image, we build back your original files and compare those against a file listing. Your recovered files will be provided to you on new media.
Your recovered data may be sent to you via an external hard drive or you have access to the recovered data via our complimentary download option for up to 75 GB.
Due to matching heads, boards and motors on site, most water and/or fire damaged drives can go into repair immediately after being cleaned; there is typically no need to delay for many weeks waiting for a matching donor drive to become available.
Tell us about your drive and we will get back to you, usually within 30 minutes during the day.
We’ll be in touch shortly. For anything urgent, call 01483 901310.
There are no additional fees nor are you pressured in any way. Prior to performing any services we provide you with a complimentary diagnosis and a written quote of costs associated with the restoration of your data.
Below are some samples of our recent recoveries of data from damaged drives due to water and/or fire damage which were performed in house. For confidentiality purposes, names have been withheld but each result was verified. Additional information regarding these recoveries can be found at full write ups: a Maxtor salvaged from a burnt-out laptop.
Both the board and contact points were heavily corroded. We decontaminated the internal parts, fitted a matched donor board and were able to obtain a clear image from the first pass.
A spill had short-circuited the board. We removed the residue and replaced the board and transferred all of the firmware to the new board and all of the data was recovered.
Due to soot and smoke contamination, along with water used during the firefighting, we had to decontaminate the platters, replace the bad heads with good ones and were able to recover most of the data.
Send us your device for a free diagnostic and give us as much information as you can about what happened. One of our engineers will review it and confirm your exact quote in writing before any work is carried out.
The first step to getting your data back is sending the device to us. Pack it safely, put your contact details inside the package and send it in. Once we have completed the free diagnostic, we will confirm the exact cost in writing before any work starts.
Sending it by post? We’d recommend a tracked, insured service. Dropping it in? No problem: Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm. Please package the device as described above first.
Would you like more information first? Complete the form with further details about your issue, and one of our engineers will review it and send you a tailored quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. For anything urgent, call 01483 901310.
The questions people ask us most about water, flood and fire damaged drives.
Do not turn it on, and do not use heat or rice to try to dry it. Applying power to a wet drive short-circuits the board and forces corrosion deep inside; applying heat warps the platters. Instead, seal the drive in a bag to hold the moisture in rather than letting salts crust onto the platters, and get it to us for cleaning and recovery.
In most cases, yes, particularly if it reaches us quickly. First we open it, remove corrosion and mineral deposits from the board and platters, fit matched heads or a donor PCB carrying the original ROM as necessary, and then image it sector by sector. The sooner we receive it, the less corrosion will have taken hold.
Often, yes. When we open up your drive, we remove the soot and smoke residue from the internal components and the platter surface, replace any parts damaged by heat, and recover whatever remains on the magnetic surface. Fire-damaged drives almost always come with water damage from the firefighting too, and we deal with both together.
It doesn’t. Where hard drives are concerned, this is an old wives’ tale. Rice cannot reach the sealed interior of a hard drive, nor can it reverse any corrosion already developing on your platters and circuit board, and letting the drive “dry” only allows the damage to set. Keep the drive sealed and damp, and send it to us for proper decontamination.
A great deal. The longer a wet hard drive sits, the more corrosion and mineral deposits develop on the contacts and platter surfaces, which makes a clean recovery harder. Do not turn it on and do not attempt to dry it. Seal it and get it to us straight away so we can decontaminate it before the damage spreads.
A single water/fire damaged drive costs £300 + VAT for standard recoveries. There is no charge for the written diagnostic beforehand and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. However, where the level of contamination is extreme, or the extent of thermal damage has been severe, a higher critical-recovery quote may be applicable, and this will be provided in writing prior to commencing the recovery process.
Once you have approved our quote, most water & fire damaged drives are recovered within three to four working days; however, those with high levels of contaminants may require additional time. Typically, the preliminary diagnosis is accomplished within 48 hours.
We support drives from all major manufacturers (Seagate, Western Digital, HGST, Toshiba, Hitachi, Samsung, Maxtor, Fujitsu, IBM, Quantum, SanDisk, LaCie, Buffalo, G-Technology, Transcend, ADATA, Verbatim, Silicon Power, Intenso, Iomega, ModusTech and UnionSine) in 2.5-inch laptop and 3.5-inch desktop formats including external storage devices.
Hand delivery during normal working hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm) at our Guildford unit is available. Alternatively, please package and seal your drive for shipping via a postal service (fully insured). Include your full contact information (name, address, phone number and email) so that we can schedule it into our system once it arrives. Upon receipt of your drive the free diagnostic will occur followed by a written quotation prior to initiating the recovery process.
A free written diagnostic, in most cases you only pay if we recover your data, and a stock of 10,000 parts stands behind every repair. The sooner we receive it, the better, so start your recovery today.