Data recovery service in Manchester

I have a Lacie single drive and it wont power on. When connected to the computer it makes a few beeping noises and then stops and doesn’t work. The light still turns on.

The beeping noises are unfortunately errors signals coming from the hard drive that tell us that your HDD has a serious problem. For one reason or another, the motor that rotates the hard drive is unable to spin the platters. This can be for two reasons. Either the motor is broken and no longer works, or there is something that is preventing the platter’s rotation – a common problem that causes this is known as stiction and is where the heads of the hard drive become ‘welded’ to the platter surface. Freeing the stiction is a job fraught with danger as it is very easy to damage both the heads and the platter surface of the hard drive. My recommendation would be to use a data recovery company, see the link towards the bottom of this page.

Hard Disk Not Working
I have two hard disks, both 2tb which have both stopped working. I would like to recover the files from them.
How much would this cost?
How long would it take? I will be in Manchester from tomorrow until Sunday. If it is longer then a mate may take delivery of it for me.I have a WD My Passport that has stopped working. It was clicking so was sent to another data recovery company, who opened it up but said they couldn’t do anything with it. (I don’t believe they did anything other than open it and look to be honest, but I cant prove that), but since it’s return, it hasn’t been clicking, but still doesn’t get discovered on my PC.
I would like to recover the data on it and have another 500GB drive I can provide you to put it on.

As you are in Manchester my suggestion would be to take your disk along to a local hard drive recovery company. Data Clinic are one such company that have a lab in Bury, Greater Manchester. It’s not good that another data recovery company has opened up your hard drive, it would be good for know what they’d actually done (if anything). Some companies that have a good reputation do take good care when working with hard drives. Other places are little more than glorified amateurs with no idea what they are doing.

No matter what type of data recovery service you require, there’s always going to be an associated cost for doing it. Prices in the UK vary from location to location. As an example the price of data recovery in London is significantly higher in London than it would be in Glasgow or Manchester. This is due to the usual factors of supply and demand. In London the demand for hard drive data recovery is usually between £50 and £150 more expensive becuase there is so much demand, and suppliers can usually pick and choose which jobs they want to take on.

So, whilst London is the most expensive UK location for data recovery, Sheffield and Liverpool, cities that are both in the North West of England are the cheapest. In order to save money some people send their hard drives up to Sheffield and Liverpool from London to save a few quid.

Here are some standard enquiries about hard drive recovery services, recieved from all over the country. I’ve added links to sites that provide further information where I could. Costs for data recovery vary according to the type of problem. Prices usually start at around £300 and have a top end of around £1000.

“I have a G-Force, G-Drive Mobile USB external hard drive that has about 1T worth of memory. I have a lot of important things on it but the USB port got bent inside of it so I cannot plug it into my laptop anymore. Is there anyway to repair this or to at least recover the data?”

“I have a hard disk which failed, 1000gb desktop SATA, I believe it was the motor, as it just made a small whirr and click and repeated the click over and over. On bad advice I opened the case. I immediately knew not to touch anything and closed it again, but it was not in a protected room so it’s quite possible that some very fine house dust would have landed on the platter at this stage (I recall seeing a single speck on the platter before closing). I did not attempt to boot the disk again after closing the case. Can you tell me how likely it is the data can be recovered, and how much would you charge for this?” Drives that make whirr and click noises have faults with their read / write assemblies – take a look at the information on Data Recovery Tips if you are looking to try and recover the data yourself.

“My Imation 1TB external hard drive stopped working all of a sudden. It does not appear on mu computer list but appears on device manager list. Light is on and can hear the spinning sound in side. I have very importanat data inside which i don’t want to lose”

“Hard drive with all my family photos will not load. When plugged into laptop it lights up and spins but theres also a clicking sound. Hard drive size is 250gb i believe.” This enquiry is very much like the whirr and click enquiry above. Again in this instance the fault is probably located in the head stack assembly”

As you can see, there are lots of different scenarios that require a data recovery service, and the cost of this service varies depending on the type of fault and what location you send the hard drive to.

Endpoint Full Disk Encryption is a software product produced by Checkpoint and allows computer systems running either Windows or Max OS X to encrypt the contents of their hard drives. This has the effect of making the information on those drives useless should the drive be stolen or otherwise. To decrypt a hard drive encrypted with Checkpoint FDE it is necessary to enter the password when the system first boots. Decryption of the files is handled ‘on the fly’ so it is important that the FDE system runs on a machine powerful enough to handle this. If a FDE enable system won’t boot, this presents a significant problem in retrieving the data from the hard drive.

Whilst the software may be well written and relatively bug free, the hard disks it runs on are often of the mechanical HDD variety – which is based on 40 year old technology that relies on moving parts. Additionally other nasties like bad sectors develop on hard drives and any problem on a drive will hinder the operation of FDE. Interestingly there’s a new post about recovering the data from a hard drive encrypted with Endpoint (see http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/recovering-check-point-endpoint-fde-encrypted-hard-drives/) that had developed these problems and no longer worked. The only option was to send the hard drive to Data Clinic and hope they could recover the information.

The Checkpoint FDE software can run on multiple disk systems too, including Network Attached Storage (NAS) hard drives and the larger RAID 5 servers. Of course these systems are far more complex than their single drive counterparts and the problems faced by repair companies are significantly enhanced should problems begin to develop on the hard drives from a NAS or RAID server. As yet I am unaware of any company that has been asked with recovering the data from one of these systems that has been encrypted with the Checkpoint software, although this is bound to happen at some point.

Regular NAS and RAID systems that don’t use encryption are still more complex than single disk to repair and recover. Data Clinic (link above) should be able to handle data retrieval from these systems but there are other companies that offer the same type of service too such as http://www.emergency-raid-datarecovery.com for RAID recovery and http://www.datlabsdatarecovery.co.uk for all popular hard disk types.

In all cases, make sure you do your own research and review what other people say about the company before you make your choice on who to use. Checkpoint’s FDE is a complex product and any hard drive that uses encryption is a much trickier proposition to recover the data from than a hard drive that doesn’t, so make sure you use a well known data recovery company rather than one that is not well regarded.

There’s a huge growth in CCTV equipment in the UK, and a recent study by the BBC claimed that in 2015 there were between some 4 – 5.9 million cameras in the UK. As this article is now over a year old there’s a very high chance that this number has increased.

Whilst there is much public debate that surrounds the ethical and moral use of CCTV cameras and their capture of actions by people unaware they are being filmed, it is of interest to note that there is practically zero debate about how vulnerable to data stored by CCTV actually is. To understand this issue we need to look at the basic hardware components of any CCTV system, or to be more accurate, just one of them: the hard disk drive.

Very much like the computer you have at home, the data captured by a CCTV recorder is stored onto a computer hard drive, and it’s here where the Achilles Heel can be found. The hard drive is a fragile device. One knock or blow can cost a user their data. Hard drives should be sold with a “Handle With Care” label. The reason why hard drives are so brittle is because they are based on an old technology that is based around moving parts. Central to a hard drive is a rotating magnetic disk or “platter”. This is coated in a magnetic film which is able to store billions of electronic signals that represent either a ‘0’ or a ‘1’. Images are written to the hard drive as a series of zeros and ones by another moving part: an arm that moves back and forth across the surface of the hard write, writing and reading the data.

It’s these moving parts that are extremely fragile, but there are many other faults a hard disk can suffer from that will also result in the images recorded being lost. Once the hard disk is damaged it requires experts in recovering CCTV images to repair the hard drive and get the images back. Although these companies are highly skilled, it’s not guaranteed that they will be able to rescue the images from a damaged or broken CCTV system. It very much depends on the fault.

So if hard drives have this Achilles’ Heel are so fragile and so prone to breakage, why use them in CCTV recorders? Hard drives do actually have a lot of positives in their favour. They are cheap, they store a lot of data, they don’t use much power and are therefore cheap to run. But most of all in these days of mass surveillance, they are the only option.

So some bright spark has created a USB stick that does nothing except fry your computer when you plug it in.

What’s the point? Unfortunately, some people are just idiots aren’t they.

It looks exactly like a USB stick and the maker has been leaving them in places where there are found. People then pick them up and being inquisitive plug them into their machines to see what’s on the stick. As soon as the device is plugged in though, it shots 220V through the computer, often killing it. This is because USB ports of made to work on 5V and are designed as such, so putting 220V through the port destroys the computer’s motherboard, and if you’re unlucky, other parts of it too such as the hard drive.

Read the full article as posted on The Register here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/14/sneaky_220v_usb_fries_laptops/

“Hi I live in the North West of England and I have a seagate hard drive it’s not even a year old as was a Xmas present the Xmas just gone. Anyway I have some pics and videos in a file I really need! The hard drive All of a sudden has gone completely dead apparently and I don’t no what to do to get my stuff back. I am wondering if you could help me please. Although I live in the north west, I work in London and can drop the drive off with you perhaps?”

Yes we should be able to help you. The reasons why hard drives break and develop problems are many. It’s not worth trying to figure out what this matter with the drive is either because many of the different faults have the same symptoms, so it’s fairly easy to misdiagnose what the problem is. This is a problem that can prove fatal if you then apply the wrong type of fix as the result is you can lose all your files.

Saying that, if there’s nothing seriously wrong with your hard drive we may well be able to get your data back using our own skills but due to how complex hard drives are we don’t actually repair them ourselves, instead we send them to our data recovery partners in either Blackburn, Burnley, Bury or Manchester. For those of you in and around the capital, the same company have a data recovery operation in London also, which is based on Lombard Street, very close to the Bank tube station.

In the meantime here’s a good data recovery blog that you may find helpful as it contains much useful advice and links about repairing and restoring the files from busted hard disks.

I’ve recently received a number of questions regarding hard disk issues. I’ve listed some of them below.

I have a Samsung external hard disk 500gb with a range of files
The disk has a power light on but I dont hear any noise or vibration from the unit
I’ve tried different cables and mac/PC (i normally use it on a Mac). I’ve tried various computers but no joy
It would be good to get this back this week if possible

The Seagate 9SD2N1-500 portable hard drive has stopped being recognised. the power LED lighjt comes on but it beeps repeatidly and isnt recognised by my computer.

My external Hitachi 2TB Touro Desk DX3 dropped off my desk and now cannot be recognized by any PC’s. Sounds like the heads may have collapsed but cannot confirm as i am unable to open the casing.
I am inquiring on the cost for a diagnoses of the hard drive as there are home videos that i would like to recover IF the hard mechanics are too badly damaged.

Can’t access LaCie hard drive. Makes ‘clicking’ noise and won’t turn off one powered up. Contains some work stuff but it is the photos that I am concerned about. Am based in Rochdale, and can drop the disk drive off anytime from Thursday morning.

Some time ago I attempted to re-format my Seagate SRD0SP0 so that windows could be installed on a notebook. The laptop battery was not fitted and I accidentally removed the power cable during the process! The laptop won’t recognise the Seagate anymore and I’m concerned I’ve lost all the drive data. If possible I’d like the data recovered and the Seagate format returned to normal (NTFS?)!

I have a Samsung M3 1TB portable drive that has stopped working.

When plugged into to a computer it will beep for a few seconds and thats it. Explorer doesnt seem to pick up the drive but it seems to be listed in device manager.
There is 600 GB of data i wish to try and recover can you advise please.

Tackling Hard Disk Trouble

I divide problems into two distinct types: those where the BIOS still detects the disk and those where it does not. If the hard disk is still detected then the computer can still interact with it. This means the problem can usually be handled without the need to engage an expert company. All that is usually needed is some hard disk diagnostic software. If you’re going to tackle hard disk recovery yourself then sites like http://data-recovery-tips.co.uk/ invaluable as they provide excellent diagnostics and troubleshooting information you can use to get your data back.

When the computer can’t connect to the disk it means there’s a serious problem with the hard disk, one that often requires professional help. Simply Google something like “data recovery services” from your browser. If you do choose to use a data recovery company make sure you check it out first and ensure the company has a good pedigree and is able to recover your data.

UK data recovery experts Datlabs have launched a new look web site for their hard drive recovery business. The growth of the site reflects the growth in their hard drive data recovery business over the last 18 months or so.

I called Datlabs to ask them about their new web site and how they are fairing in the complex world of data recovery. “We have seen a huge upturn in the amount of work being sent in to us where portable and external USB hard drives have broken” said Datlabs tech wizard Ashley Gomes. “Whereas only 5 years ago we would see comparatively few external and portable data storage devices, we now see an increase of almost 5 fold.”

This is a statistic that is common amongst many data recovery companies the world over: external hard drives are just so much more popular these days, and the fact that they are portable means they get lugged around from place to place and get knocked and dropped.

“Inside the casing a hard drive is a very delicate storage device”, continued Gomes, “a jolt or knock can cause real problems with accessibilty, whilst dropping and external hard drive can result in the data being lost forever”.

With the likes of web sites http://thursdaynightblues.com/ and http://harddriveman.com/ reporting on many different types of hard drive fault, Datlabs should be busy, and their new site rocks!

CCTV is being used increasingly extensively in the UK these days. It seems like it’s impossible to walk in some places without spotting a ubiquitous CCTV camera high above on a wall looking down. While there is a fair amount of criticism of CCTV recording in public places, CCTV images have helped in the solving of some nasty crimes of late (source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12080487).

Most CCTV recorders write their images to hard drive where they can be recalled when necessary but what happens if the CCTV images are lost? Who do you go to if you need them restoring?

UK company Data Clinic are CCTV restoration specialists who are able to retrieve the video and images recorded on most CCTV systems. Their skills are known far and wide and are used by the public, business owners and police forces to retrieve potential evidence that may be stored on a CCTV system. They have been asked to recover CCTV images that have been lost and deliberately deleted as well as from hard drives that have stopped working.

Many CCTV systems record the data to their hard drives without issue but some of the hard drives in the recorders are not of the best quality and can break very easily. This is when Data Clinic’s skills come into their own – recovering the images from the CCTV so that they can then be examined by a trained and highly skilled computer forensics examiner who will be able to extract evidence.

Lots of activity this year in the world of computing and hard drives. Here are some of the lesser known things that went on:

1. The vulnerability of cloud services has been illustrated almost weekly by different hacks and attacks on various networks. The latest, from last weekend, was the hack of the Sony Pictures web site, apparently by a group sympathetic to North Korea over a new American film. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30507306)

2. Apple have won an anti trust campaign over it’s music service and iPods. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/16/itunes_verdict_in_its_an_apple_win/)

3. Microsoft launch Sway – a new presentation add on to Office (http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsofts-newest-office-product-sway-is-now-open-for-all/)

4. A computer virus used to snoop on organisations worldwide is uncovered (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regin_%28malware%29)

5. Western Digital and Seagate producing 8GB, 10GB and 12GB hard disk drives (http://www.extremetech.com/computing/186624-seagate-starts-shipping-8tb-hard-drives-with-10tb-and-hamr-on-the-horizon)