Hitachi HTS547575A9E384 With Bad Sectors Recovered

May 12, 2022February 4, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This 750GB Hitachi HTS547575A9E384 hard drive came from a client in McPherson, Kansas. Their hard drive had stopped working before they were able to completely backup the important photos and work excel documents stored on the drive. They brought the drive into us for data recovery and I started on the diagnosis right away. Bad Sectors I found that the problem with the drive was not with the heads, firmware, or PCB, but rather was an issue with failing sectors on the drive. Often times this issue is called “bad sectors”. Basically, the sectors hold the data on the drive and some of them can fail with age. There are millions of sectors on a drive, so when some of them start having issues it can make a drive not work properly. Depending on where the bad sectors are on the drive will dictate how the drive acts. Sometimes those bad sectors are just in areas storing files that are not used very frequently. When you go to open a file that is an area … Read more

Clicking Western Digital Hard Drive Surprising Recovery

May 12, 2022February 1, 2022 by Aaron Hook

A customer contact me and reported that their Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB drive from 2008 had stopped working and was making a clicking sound. It would no longer mount on the computer, but did make an audible clicking sound before spinning down. Bad Heads Recovery? They first took it to a recovery shop that diagnosed the clicking Western Digital hard drive as having bad heads. The shop said that because the drive made clicking sounds then spun down, and was not accessible to their recovery rigs, they would not be able to recover the drive. The shop recommended they try us for an affordable clean room data recovery since the photos and music files on the drive were very important to the client. Diagnosing the clicking Western Digital Once the hard drive arrived I started with an inspection. The head stack appeared to be in good shape and there wasn’t any media damage present. This made me think there could be a weak head (a head that seems to be in good shape but does … Read more

Hard drive not showing up Windows 10

May 12, 2022January 27, 2022 by Aaron Hook

Desktop Seagate drive that is not showing up when plugged in

This 1TB Hard drive not showing up Windows 10 was a Seagate Desktop HDD with the model number ST1000DM003. It was reported that it had just stopped working randomly with the symptoms of not showing up in Windows 10 when plugged into the computer. The client initially went to a computer repair shop and had the drive diagnosed as failed. When a drive is not showing up in Windows 10, it can be a lot of different things causing the issue. It could be an issue with the drive, with the cables connecting the drive to the computer, the drive itself, or a combination of problems. If there are no odd sounds coming from the drive that is not showing up, it would be a good idea to try plugging the drive into another computer. If the second computer doesn’t see the drive, then you know the drive itself is the issue. Seagate Not Showing Up Recovery In this case, the customer’s local computer repair shop tested the drive by plugging it into a computer … Read more

How to recover data from laptop hard drive that won’t boot

May 12, 2022January 24, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This 1TB HGST drive came to us from a shop locally here in Wichita. The Wichita shop received a drive that wasn’t showing up on the computers they would plug it into, and they were not able to complete software-based recovery on the drive. This shop likes to refer people to us as we are normally able to recover the data quickly and for a lot less than any competitor data recovery companies. Recovering Important Music From Hard Drive That Won’t Boot This particular drive had some important audio files for a DJ that had created original music. The customer had tried the Geek Squad from Best Buy first but was told they were not able to recover anything from the drive without sending it out for recovery. The quote for the recovery through Best Buy was $1450. The customer decided to not go through them for recovery but brought the drive to their local computer repair shop instead. The local computer repair shop attempted a recovery on the drive but found it would not … Read more

Unresponsive Samsung SSD Data Recovery Service

May 12, 2022January 21, 2022 by Aaron Hook

Samsung 850 PRO not being recognized by computer

I received this unresponsive Samsung 850 Pro as a mail-in for our SSD data recovery service. The client mailed the 512GB solid state drive in from Michigan to my lab here in Kansas. They needed the data from the hard drive, but it was not mounting on their computer at all. In fact, the computer would not recognize the SSD when connected. The client had already tried connecting the drive to other computers and had troubleshot the issue until they were certain the drive itself was the issue. The customer had discussed their Samsung 850 Pro with other recovery companies before deciding on us to attempt the recovery. They liked our affordable flat rate recovery service as well as the fact I was able to discuss what the issue might be for this particular Samsung SSD data recovery. Firmware Samsung SSD Data Recovery The problem with this drive ended up being a firmware-based issue. These Samsung 850 PRO drives have a common firmware issue that you can address using the PC-3000 by ACE Laboratories. Thanks … Read more

Recover Deleted Photos From SD Card Quickly

May 12, 2022January 18, 2022 by Aaron Hook

A local photographer accidentally deleted photos from an SD card that had not been downloaded to their computer yet. This type of mistake is very common (I even did it once with some Christmas photos). Thankfully it is usually possible to recover deleted photos from an SD card for an affordable price. Recover Deleted Photos The accidental deletion usually happens when you have a couple of SD cards and are a little distracted as you load them into the computer. When you have a few SD cards that you are using with a digital camera, it is easy to get confused and accidentally format the wrong card. Especially when you have a process you follow and it is muscle memory to insert a card into the camera and format. In this case, the photos were important enough that the photographer decided to have us complete a deleted files recovery on the SD card. In cases like this, I like to run a few recovery programs on the cards to make sure I get back all … Read more

Unresponsive USB Flash Drive Data Recovery

May 12, 2022January 13, 2022 by Aaron Hook

Expanded view of Transcent 16GB USB Drive that is not staying connected to computer

I received a call from a client in Little River, Kansas who needed a flash drive data recovery. He informed me his Transcend 16GB USB Flash Drive wouldn’t show up on his computer when he plugged it in, or if it did show up, it would disconnect almost immediately. Nothing seemed to lead up to this behavior (like the classic going through the wash in your pocket), it just stopped responding out of the blue. This unresponsive behavior was keeping him from being able to access any of the important files he had stored on the drive. I told him about the affordable flash drive recovery service we offer, and he made the decision to drop it off for data recovery. Flash Drive Data Recovery Flash drives are becoming so inexpensive that they are everywhere. For about $10 you can get a 32GB or even larger USB drive for a convenient way of transporting files. Do keep in mind though that flash drives do fail. Always have a backup of the data you are storing … Read more

Memorable Floppy Disk Data Recovery

May 12, 2022January 10, 2022 by Aaron Hook

It isn’t every day that I get a call about a floppy disk data recovery! I am always excited to try to recover important data that has aged to perfection. In this case, I was contacted by a gentleman who had a short story that he had written over 20 years ago that was on a 3.5″ floppy disk that wouldn’t mount on his computer. Floppy Disk Data Recovery I have recovered a couple of floppy disks in the past, so I told him to mail it in and that I would do my best to recover the data. I normally treat floppy disks the same as USB thumb drives or SD cards as far as the pricing tier is concerned, so it is pretty affordable to have me recover the data professionally. Diagnosing the floppy disk Once it arrived I inspected the media and it looked good with no visible damage… but after plugging it in, I found that it wasn’t responding and would freeze up the recovery software when I tried to access … Read more

ST2000LM003 Hard Drive Not Showing Up

May 12, 2022January 7, 2022 by Aaron Hook

Seagate 2TB Portable drive that won't mount

This Seagate ST2000LM003 model hard drive went to a local computer repair shop before it came to us with the issue description of hard drive not showing up. The drive was inside a laptop, and the laptop just stopped working without any drops or spills being involved. For those keeping score this is a Samsung drive branded as a Seagate. These 2TB laptop drives were popular for a while inside some Windows-based laptops. Hard Drive Not Showing Up Data Recovery The repair shop the customer brought their computer to took a look at the laptop and narrowed down the issue to the hard drive itself. While the hard drive was recognized by the computer, it would not mount when plugged into any computer they tried it on. They also tried running data recovery software on the drive but were not able to recover any usable files. The repair shop recommended the client bring the drive to us for data recovery as the data on the drive was quite important to the client. ST2000LM003 diagnosis This … Read more

HTS545050A7E680 Hard Drive Bad Sectors

May 12, 2022January 4, 2022 by Aaron Hook

HGST 500GB Laptop drive that just stopped working

This HGST hard drive is an HTS545050A7E680 500GB model that was made in February of 2014. This client took their computer into their local computer repair shop to find out why the laptop had just suddenly stopped working. They used the laptop for personal photo storage as well as work documents, so they needed all the data back and the computer to be back up and running as soon as possible. Hard Drive Bad Sectors Recovery The computer repair shop found that the hard drive was not responding properly, which in turn caused the computer to not boot fully. They removed the hard drive from the computer and discovered the drive was not showing up on their data recovery rigs as well. The repair shop was able to get the computer working again by installing a new hard drive, but they recommended the client contact us regarding getting the important photos and work documents recovered. We have worked with this recovery shop in the past and have been able to recover data for their clients. … Read more