Specialist · hard drive repair
Most 'repair' advertisements omit the most important fact about hard disk failure: a failed drive will remain as it was when it stopped working. We repair circuit boards and rewrite firmware so that data can be recovered from them; we install new heads (donor heads) to allow just enough time for transferring the data off the failing disks. No one fixes or restores the original drives for keeps. All that returns to you in Exeter are the things that were always most important: your files, now stored on new storage media.
Talk it over with an engineer
0800 6890668
| What's wrong | What it usually means | Step one |
|---|---|---|
| Can clicking sounds be repaired? | The heads have failed. The donor heads go in to enable copying of the platters, then the drive is retired | It’s actually a data recovery project |
| Dead and completely silent | Often a bad TVS diode or dead board: electronics, properly repairable | Repair the board; copy the disk |
| Appears as 0GB or shows the incorrect model name | Damage to the firmware or translator, repairable at service-area level | First the firmware, then the copy |
| My portable’s USB connector broke loose | An actual fix: the port and bridge are worked upon; for WD portables that board is important twice over | Get a quote first, then send it in with the shell still intact |
| The repair shop tells you that "it is sorted" | Find out exactly what was done. A brand-new blank hard drive in the computer does not mean you have your files back | Check that your files are actually back before celebrating |
| Can’t I simply replace this printed circuit board (PCB) instead of repairing it? | No longer: a bare donor board will no longer work, since the ROM on the board contains calibration data unique to that specific drive | We move the ROM chip over as well |
Your device will be logged under its own case number on the day it comes into our lab. The engineer who works on your device identifies the problem with it, clearly states what we think has a good chance of coming back and provides you with one fixed quote. There are no charges for this assessment; there is no obligation for you to do anything; and paid work does not begin until you authorise us to start.
The 'broken' label covers three main areas (electronics, firmware, mechanical), and the free check names yours, as well as what an honest fix for that area would be.
You get your own ROM loaded onto a board that has been rebuilt, you have the original firmware back on there and donor parts are used wherever you had mechanical failures: everything is serving one purpose, a complete, clean copy.
All of these files will be returned checked for integrity (they are listed), and they are on brand new media. The old drive was simply just the container for them. If your unit can honestly handle some light use again, we'll tell you that, and if it shouldn't, you'll find out from us just as straight.
You have access to a complete list of every item recovered from your device, which you approve prior to any fees being applied. The files will be returned via new media (brand new) with the return postage paid by us, and the case remains open for as long as it takes to confirm that all the files open properly on your own machine.
In writing, we will honour this commitment to you: boards and firmware can be repaired outright. The heads and motors on a disk can be repaired only until your copy has been completed. No one can repair a scored platter regardless of what an advertisement may state. Time and age do not alter anything: IBM, HGST, Hitachi and Fujitsu-era disks are all still treated at our bench. If a company tells you they will return a failed drive in working order (i.e., 'fixed'), then read their fine print alongside that promise and watch the wording soften.
An Exeter student's laptop was returned to them after being repaired and was working perfectly well; however it now had an empty disk in it. The old disk, which had been thought to be dead, sat clicking in a drawer. The donor heads were installed and two days were spent imaging; after that every single essay and photo ended up on the replacement that had been installed by the shop.
PCB and firmware issues can be put properly right; mechanical failures are a totally different animal: the donor part will allow the drive to be read just long enough to copy your files, but there isn't a reputable lab that would send that drive back for normal use. Regardless, the finish line is still the same: your files, copied to new media.
Repairing a damaged drive means fixing the functionality of the drive so that it will work again. Recovery refers to getting back anything you had on the drive before it became damaged. Once a drive has failed, only recovery is a realistic goal, which is why some 'repair' shops can give you back a functional computer but with an empty new disk put into it.
Replacing the circuit board on its own nearly always fails. Modern hard drives have their own calibration data located in a ROM (read-only memory) chip on that same board. The ROM has to be transferred to the receiving board (the donor PCB), which requires labour at the bench with soldering irons and other tools. This is well beyond replacing a board with a few screws.
You can replace a drive for little cost; the drive isn't what you're paying for. The files you want back are what make recovering your files onto new hardware worth spending your money on, while spending money to 'fix' a disk you could never trust again is wasting your money.
Every time a failing hardware component is powered back up, there is additional lost data. First open a case with us: the inspection (look over) is always at no cost, whichever way it goes.