My Passport WD10JMVW – 11AJGS2 Dropped Data Recovery

September 14, 2022 by Aaron Hook

Western Digital WD10JMVW Dropped Data Recovery

Dropped WD10JMVW Hard Drive Symptoms I received this WD10JMVW hard drive out of a My Passport from a client that had stopped working after being dropped. There were very important image, audio, and work documents on the drive when it was dropped, so they brought it in for data recovery. They reported that the drive was making a ticking sound when plugged in, but would never be recognized fully by any computer they connected it to. WD10JMVW Diagnosis When a drive has been dropped, my first worry is always that the heads have been damaged and could be causing media damage when the drive is powered on. For this reason, I start with an inspection of the dropped WD10JMVW hard drive in my clean room to check for any damage to the heads or platters. This particular drive looked great under the microscope. There were a few really minor areas with damage from what was likely the instant the drop happened, but no major scratching was present. The heads were damaged and needed to be … Read more

Beeping Western Digital Easystore WD20SMZW Hard Drive Recovery

August 17, 2022 by Aaron Hook

I received a quote request from a client who had been into a local computer repair shop with a failed Western Digital EasyStore external hard drive. Inside the hard drive was a WD20SMZW 2.5″ 2TB hard drive. This particular model has a USB port built into the printed circuit board, instead of a standard SATA connector. The client told me they brought the drive into the repair shop because it stopped working suddenly. They said there was a sound like a beep coming from the drive, but that the computer would not recognize it at all. The shop they brought it to attempted to run software-based data recovery tools on the drive, but they couldn’t get it to scan the drive at all. The repair shop told them to try us, as we have been successful in recovering data from other drives they were not able to successfully recover in the past. We work with a lot of shops that offer our services to their clients. We have a few referral programs available, so if … Read more

Budget ST1000LM010 Cleanroom Data Recovery

June 6, 2022May 30, 2022 by Aaron Hook

The call came in for this ST1000LM010 with the description of a clicking hard drive that would not show up on the computer. The client had already received a quote from a larger data recovery company of $1500-2400 for a cleanroom data recovery, in particular, a head swap. So he was especially pleased to get our affordable cleanroom data recovery quote of $699. I let him know that clicking on one of these drives doesn’t always mean bad heads, but if it did indeed need a head swap then our lab recovery rate of $699 would apply. Cleanroom Data Recovery This Seagate ST1000LM010 FreePlay drive is part of the Sentosa family of hard drives. I have a lot of experience recovering these hard drives. I see them with firmware issues as well as internal issues like bad heads. Sometimes you will get behavior that sounds like internal parts issues, and it will end up being an odd firmware problem. I received the hard drive and started with a physical inspection. Because the drive was reported … Read more

Honest Hard Disk Data Recovery Cost On Western Digital With Heads Issue

May 27, 2022 by Aaron Hook

If the heads issue on your drive requires a head swap procedure, our cleanroom hard disk data recovery cost is a $699 flat rate fee. While we are not the cheapest hard drive recovery service, I believe we offer the best value in the industry. Our safe data recovery methods coupled with years of experience and the best tools possible make our HDD data recovery cost very reasonable. Cleanroom Hard Disk Data Recovery Cost This drive came into us from a shop in Wichita that has been sending us drives that they have not been able to recover themselves. We have been working with this shop for about a year now, and have a very good success rate with the drives they send. They attempt very basic recovery techniques but don’t do any of the risky or unsafe data recovery procedures that so many repair shops attempt. The shop likes that our HDD data recovery cost allows their clients to get their data back without spending $1000’s as they had to before when they would … Read more

Seagate ST9500325AS Suddenly Stops Working

May 12, 2022March 7, 2022 by Aaron Hook

Seagate Momentus 500GB not working drive

This 500B Seagate ST9500325AS recovery project came from a local client that reported the drive just stopped working one day out of the blue. The hard drive was in a computer, so the whole computer just stopped booting fully. Recovering A Seagate Drive With Bad Heads The client took the computer into a computer repair shop and was told the issue was with the hard drive itself. The shop that looked at the drive did not have the tools and experience needed to recover the drive on their own, so they recommended the customer contact us for our affordable data recovery service. Ticking sound then spinning down When the client contacted us, they let us know the Seagate ST9500325AS drive was making a ticking sound, then spinning down. This is very classic on a Seagate of a bad head situation, so I was not surprised when I inspected the drive and found that head 0 and head 3 were both bad. Because this drive has 4 heads, I was able to use Head 1 and Head … Read more

Seagate 2TB Mobile Drive ST2000LM007 Recovered After Head Swap

May 13, 2022September 28, 2021 by Aaron Hook

Update Nov 2021 – This particular model, ST2000LM007, is part of the Rosewood family which I have a more in-depth blog post about titled Seagate 1TB Expansion External Hard Drive Model ST1000LM035 Not Mounting. This Seagate Rosewood model ST2000LM007 drive came in as a referral from a local computer repair shop. The repair shop had tried to recover the drive with software based recovery methods, but could not get their computers to recognize the drive at all. The repair shop recommended their customer contact us for an affordable clean room data recovery service. Rosewood head swap recovery Once I received the drive I started the diagnosis process. A visual inspection in the clean room environment showed platter damage so I let the customer know it was unlikely to be recovered, unfortunately. There was visible damage to the top platter from a failed head and there was a good chance if I completed a head swap there would still be no data recovered from this drive as some firmware modules may be inaccessible due to damage. … Read more

Western Digital Click of Death Fix

May 13, 2022September 22, 2021 by Aaron Hook

A teacher at a local college said she needed a “click of death fix” on this 2TB external My Passport Western Digital drive. A click of death issue is normally associated with a heads problem, but that is not always the case. I recover drives with clicking issues that end up having something else wrong other than heads all the time. In this case, the heads would end up being the issue, but be aware that if the drive has not been dropped and is clicking, there is a very good chance it is a problem other than the heads causing the noise. Click of Death Fix This particular WD20NMVW drive had the USB port built onto the printed circuit board of the drive. So instead of being able to connect it to my PC-3000 and diagnose the drive, the first step was to get a new printed circuit board (PCB) with a SATA connection that was compatible. Once the donor board arrived I moved the ROM over from the old PCB to the new. … Read more

Hitachi Hard Drive Makes Clicking Noise And Wont Boot

May 19, 2022August 19, 2021 by Aaron Hook

Hitachi HTS725050A9A362 500GB Hard Drive With Bad Head

When a hard drive makes clicking noise and wont boot, the most likely cause for this behavior is usually said to be bad heads. In my experience, clicking drives that won’t boot sometimes have heads issues and other times have issues like firmware corruption or a bad PCB. If your drive is clicking, it is important to have it looked at by a reputable data recovery shop because many times shops will quote for a head replacement, even if it is not necessary. Hard Drive Makes Clicking Noise And Won’t Boot This drive arrived with the client reporting that it was spinning up but not accessible with their recovery equipment. They mentioned clicking noises during use so I started with a visual diagnosis in the clean room. The heads did look good inside, and I couldn’t see any physical damage to the platters. I connected the HTS725050A9A362 hard drive up to my PC-3000 to diagnose the issue and I found that 1 of the 4 heads inside the drive was not working properly. In this … Read more

Alarming Seagate Hard Drive Beeping

May 19, 2022June 14, 2021 by Aaron Hook

Seagate drive open with a head visibly stuck on the top platter

This Seagate Rosewood drive came from an external USB drive that was dropped and immediately stopped working. With Seagate hard drive beeping, it is almost always an issue with heads being stuck on the platter. If you have a beeping drive that you need important data from, I offer affordable data recovery services. Recovering Data From Beeping Seagate Hard Drive The process for recovering a beeping hard drive with stuck heads is to open the drive in a clean room and use a specially made tool that separates the heads from the platter. Once those heads are no longer stuck they can be removed and examined under a microscope to check for damage. If any damage is present, swap the heads completely with a donor head set, and reassemble the drive. Carefully imaging the drive with the PC-3000 is recommended, or at the very least use an imager like the Deepspar Disk Imager. The risk when heads get stuck is that they can cause damage to the platter itself. Except for the parking area, the … Read more