Frequently Asked Questions About Hard Drive Recovery

Hard drives have several mechanical components that can wear down over time. The read/write heads, spindle and actuator assembly are particularly sensitive, and a slight offset will prevent the drive from reading data correctly. Likewise, the hard drive's electronics can fail due to an electrical event or improper operating conditions. This prevents the drive from interfacing with your computer.

User error, virus attacks and file corruption can also cause data loss. When any of these situations occur, you need help from a professional data recovery company in order to restore access to the files on your disk.

Dozens of factors can affect pricing. Your hard drive's brand, model and failure scenario play an especially significant role.

Secure Data Recovery Services offers risk-free standard diagnostics for all desktop, laptop and external hard drives. During our diagnostics, our engineers perform a series of tests to analyze the extent of media damage, which allows for an accurate price quote and turnaround estimate. Contact us to set up an evaluation at one of our offices

The answer varies from case to case, but our teams typically repair or replace damaged hard drive components--including the read/write heads, the actuator arm assembly and other delicate parts--in a certified Class 10 ISO 4 Cleanroom. All engineers need to work in a certified Cleanroom to prevent accidental media damage.

Corruption can still prevent file access, particularly if the drive was operated in a failed state. Our teams then create a full copy (or "clone") of your hard drive, then run specialized software on the copy to retrieve your files. In some cases, our engineers will work directly with data on a bit or block level.

After recovering your files in their original condition, we return your data on the return media of your choice.

We offer several service options; our emergency service has an average case completion time of under a day. Contact our customer service team for more information.

While the general process is the same, our engineers use a different set of tools to perform delicate procedures on smaller hard drives. Engineers treat physical media damage by repairing damaged components, at which point they can access your data and treat any file corruption.

It is important to note that the physical size of a hard drive does not necessarily affect the chances of a successful recovery. We offer exceptionally high success rates for laptop drives, micro drives and other drives with a small form factor.

No. While there are dozens of data recovery programs on the market, there is no way to fix physical media issues with software. You may seriously damage your hard drive by operating it after a component failure.

If you have accidentally deleted files from a hard drive, data recovery software could potentially overwrite your data during installation. Contact a professional data recovery provider for the best results.