Second opinions · job record · ADR-2025-3161
The Shop Said No Good, and Gave It Back.
She had taken her Dell to a repair shop because her Dell was unable to locate its own disk (hard drive could not be found
). The repair shop told her the truth about what they could fix. The shop advised the hard drive was no good
and that he could not recover my files
, installed a new disk so she had a functional computer again, and returned her old disk to her. That last part is why this case has an ending at all. The contents of the original disk were the typical collection of information from a working life: files, photos and emails
. There were none elsewhere.
Same story on yours? Tell us what it does — the look is free.
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What failed, and why.
An honest and narrow evaluation from a repair shop answers one question: Is a disk fit enough to continue to use? In this case, no. Can the data be retrieved from the disk? That is another question, settled on other equipment. A repair shop has tools for computers that function properly, but they don't have the capability to access firmware or to image past sectors that won't respond on a failing disk. "No good" means outside of this bench. A computer can only locate a disk if it presents itself. If it does not present itself, the failure is either in the firmware, electronics, or mechanics, and these are the three areas a recovery bench exists to address. Returning the disk instead of throwing it away made recovering the data possible. One disk would cost £300 + VAT and the evaluation would cost nothing.
What the bench did with it.
The order of the job →| Equipment used | Its work on this job | The reason for it |
|---|---|---|
| DeepSpar Disk Imager 4 | Imaged behind a write blocker with retries held to a minimum where it could read | Mapped the heads first, then imaged one face of a platter per pass, with every reset, timeout and the power itself kept under our own control |
| ACE Lab PC-3000 Express | Accessed the firmware and fault conditions that a general bench cannot see | This allows access to the manufacturer's service area (where normal ATA commands cannot go) |
| R-Studio Technician | Emails and photos were opened from the recovered image after rebuilding the volume | Constructs an array from the images, and reads nearly every file system |
What the bench did with it.
No more attempts with general tools
The disk was delivered to us having only been tried once and subsequently left unused, which is close to the best condition one of these can arrive in. When she sent it in, it first met up with a current-monitored supply and nothing else, while we determined if it would even present itself. We also wanted to establish if its firmware had anything useful to say and how healthy it thought itself to be. After determining all of that, we had enough information to determine what type of failure had occurred, and to put a number beside it.
Name the fault before choosing the route
After determining what type of failure had occurred, there are two ways to proceed. These options aren't the same in terms of cost. Where a disk reads, it is imaged behind a write blocker with low retry counts and the difficult area(s) are postponed. If the mechanical components of the disk fail, it is opened first and matching donor parts are installed under magnification. Which route to follow is established rather than assumed.
Her mail and her photographs, opened one by one
We parsed the file system from the image as opposed to parsing the file system directly from the disk. Everything that we pulled out of the file system was opened here: photographs were rendered, email loaded into a viewer, and documents were opened here and there throughout the tree structure. A report based on how many files exist is not an actual recovery report. She had already received one verdict without much detail behind it, and receiving another similar one would have provided her with little additional value.
What went home.
Files, photographs and email were sent home on new media, and inspected prior to them being released to her. The repair shop did nothing improper in any respect: they responded to the question they were asked, replaced the existing disk with a working one, and recognised that returning the old one to her was the important thing to do in this situation. Returning the old one was the right decision, and it is typically the decision that most people make incorrectly.
Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.
Other desktop disks on the log.
Yours doing something similar? Power it down first.
Published prices are fixed. Memory cards and USB sticks are £250 + VAT. Any stand-alone drive is £300 + VAT. Drive configurations containing multiple disks (RAID, NAS or server) start at £500 + VAT. First assessments are always complimentary. Thereafter, data recovery charges are also fixed in advance and in writing, so you'll always know how much you owe before paying any money. Shut it down, get a quote first (by phone or with the form), then send it in or drop it off at our Guildford intake laboratory, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed). On most jobs you only pay if we recover your data.