Fire Damaged Data Recovery

Often, yes. Hard drive platters store data as magnetic orientation in a cobalt alloy layer. Hard drive platters are coated in a cobalt-based alloy with high magnetic coercivity. While direct sustained fire will destroy them, the drive's casing often shields the platters from reaching the critical temperature where data is permanently erased. Most residential fires reach 600 to 800 degrees Celsius at the ceiling, and the drive's enclosed design and internal air gap provide a degree of thermal protection. Unless the drive was directly in the heart of the fire for an extended period, the platters often survive intact.

Soot is acidic and abrasive. Wiping it can drive microscopic particles into the drive's breathing holes, contaminating the platters. We remove soot under controlled conditions in our particle-filtered clean bench to keep contaminants out of the head disk assembly.

Yes. When the PCB is destroyed, the platters and data usually remain intact inside the sealed head disk assembly. We source an exact-match donor board and transplant the unique ROM chip from the original PCB (We source an exact-match donor board and transplant the unique ROM chip from the original PCB. Note: If the ROM chip itself is incinerated, recovery may be impossible for modern drives.). This is similar to standard PCB failure recovery.

It adds a second layer of damage. Fire suppression water causes PCB corrosion, connector oxidation, and potential head contamination if the seal was breached. We treat fire-damaged drives as combined fire and liquid damage cases: decontamination, ultrasonic PCB cleaning, then ROM transfer and imaging.

Handle gently; fire makes metal brittle and plastic seals fragile. Do not attempt to clean soot off the drive or remove the PCB. Wrap in anti-static material, pack with extra cushioning in a sturdy box, and ship to our Austin lab at 2410 San Antonio Street, Austin, TX 78705. Use a tracked shipping method.