How it was lost · fire or flood
A soaking rarely touches the platters, and data walks out of fires that gut the machine around it. What finishes drives off is what happens next — the hopeful switch-on, the radiator, the bag of rice — and waiting, because corrosion starts within hours. Seal it in a bag and get it in the post from Exeter today.
Talk it over with an engineer
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| The error | What it usually means | Step one |
|---|---|---|
| Dead ever since the water got in | Water has claimed the PCB — the platters behind the seal are almost certainly fine | Post it to us still wet, bagged |
| Trips the plug socket or PSU when connected | The board is shorted — every retry pushes current at the head preamp | No more attempts |
| White or green fur growing on the contacts | Active corrosion, spreading while you wait | Every hour counts |
| Pulled from a fire, casing intact | The platters live in a sealed chamber; a scorched board is replaceable | Handle gently, never open it |
| Soot around the connectors or breather hole | Abrasive, acidic grime — fatal the moment the platters turn | No cleaning, no power |
| Went into the sea | Salt attacks the magnetic layer itself — the worst water there is | Keep it wet and sealed |
Your device is logged under its own case number the day it arrives. An engineer finds the fault, tells you plainly what stands a real chance of coming back, and writes you one fixed quote. Nothing is charged for that look, nothing obliges you, and paid work starts only when you say so.
Wet drives travel wet, sealed in a bag — dry one out and the dissolved salts crystallise across the surfaces. Fire-damaged units arrive packed and unopened, soot undisturbed.
Corrosion comes off, contacts are restored, and a donor PCB goes on with your drive's original ROM chip aboard — fresh electronics serving unharmed platters.
Once cleaning stops, the chemistry restarts — so the drive is imaged straight away, and after that copy exists the original never runs again.
Before any fee falls due you see a full listing of everything recovered and approve it. Your files travel back on brand-new media, return postage on us, and the case stays open until you've confirmed everything opens on your own machine.
Every water and fire case shows the same pattern: the outcome is mostly decided before the parcel reaches the bench — by whether anyone pressed the power button, and how fast it travelled. Drives that were never switched on and posted the same day recover as a matter of routine. The phrase we dread is 'I just tried it quickly': on a wet PCB, that one try is how a board repair becomes a head repair as well.
Full marks to the owner: no power applied, sealed in a bag still damp, posted first thing. On the bench we washed up the contacts, fitted a donor board carrying the original ROM, and had the whole drive imaged inside the week — two decades of family photos back, none the worse.
Usually, so long as it wasn't powered up wet and reaches a lab promptly. Water mostly ruins the electronics and leaves the platters alone — and electronics can be replaced.
No. Rice does nothing for sealed electronics: the inside is out of its reach, it sheds starch and dust, and all the while corrosion carries on eating the device.
Frequently, yes. The platters live in a sealed metal housing, and a burnt PCB is straightforward to replace. The genuine dangers are heat warping the platters and soot working inside — keep the drive closed, don't rinse it, don't power it.
Strange advice, but correct — no. Drying lets the dissolved minerals and salts crystallise across the surfaces. Bag and seal a wet drive; if it's been in salt water, keep it wet until it's on the bench.
Each power-up of a failing device takes more data with it. Open a case first — the look-over is free whichever way it goes.