$100–$2,000 | No Data, No Fee | Nationwide Mail-In
External hard drives fail for two reasons: the USB enclosure dies, or the internal drive mechanism fails. When the enclosure is the problem, the drive inside is often intact and recovery is straightforward. When the internal drive clicks, beeps, or is not detected, we use the same head swap and firmware repair techniques as any other HDD recovery.
WD My Passport drives add a complication: the bridge board encrypts all data by default. If that bridge fails, connecting the bare drive via SATA shows only encrypted gibberish. We extract the encryption key from the bridge flash chip using PC-3000 and recover through the original encryption path.
External hard drives fail when the USB bridge board dies, the internal drive mechanism sustains physical damage, or the drive firmware becomes corrupted. Bridge failures are the most common cause; the internal SATA drive is usually intact. Firmware corruption causes the drive to spin without being recognized. Mechanical failures from drops, power surges, or motor seizure require clean bench intervention.
Every external hard drive is an internal hard drive inside a plastic or metal shell. That shell contains a USB bridge board that translates between SATA and USB. Either component can fail independently.
The most common cause of a dead external drive. The bridge chip fails, the USB connector cracks, or a voltage regulator blows. The internal drive is fine; it just lost its translator.
Recovery: Remove the drive from the enclosure and image it directly. $100-$300.
Warning: WD My Passport drives encrypt through the bridge. Do not remove them from the enclosure without professional help.
Portable drives travel in backpacks and get knocked off desks. A fall while the platters are spinning slams the read/write heads into the recording surface. The result is clicking or complete silence.
Recovery: Head swap in our 0.02 micron clean bench. $1,200–$1,500.
Using the wrong power adapter or experiencing a surge can blow the TVS diodes on the PCB. The drive may be silent but the protection circuit saved the data.
Symptoms: Drive completely dead, no spin, no lights, possibly burnt smell.
Recovery: PCB repair or replacement with ROM chip transfer. $300-$800.
The drive spins but the computer does not recognize it, or it shows the wrong capacity. The Service Area modules on the platters are damaged or the translator table is corrupt.
Recovery: PC-3000 firmware repair, translator rebuilding. $600–$900.
A beeping external drive means the spindle motor cannot rotate the platters. Stiction (heads stuck to the platter surface) or bearing failure. Each power-on attempt risks scoring the magnetic coating.
Recovery: Head unsticking or platter transplant. $1,200–$2,000.
“Sent my hdd for data recovery, process was simple and I was able to pre-authorize an amount. They worked on my drive within 2 days of receiving it and the total cost was literally 1/10th of the amount of another service I got a quote from. Professional, quick, affordable. Nothing to complain about.”
“My satisfaction with Rossmann Repair Group goes beyond just 5 stars. I had a hard drive die some time ago, but I had no idea where I could send it knowing it would be safe, or there being a chance I'd be ripped off.”
“Had a raid 0 array (windows storage pool) (failed 2tb Seagate, and a working 1tb wd blue) recovered last year, it was much cheaper than the $1500 to $3500 Canadian dollars i was quoted by a Canadian data recovery service. the price while expensive was a comparatively reasonable $900USD (about $1100 CAD at the time).”
“Walked in with my wife's dead hard drive, walked out 20 minutes later with it fixed. They were friendly, professional, did the work in a snap, and saved me the hefty repair prices for other (mail in) hard drive recovery services!”
No. A physically damaged external hard drive cannot be repaired for continued everyday use. When we open a drive in our 0.02 micron ULPA-filtered clean bench to perform a head swap, the goal is solely to stabilize the mechanism long enough to extract data to a healthy drive.
Buying a matching Printed Circuit Board online and swapping it will not work. Every PCB contains a ROM chip programmed with unique adaptive parameters for that specific mechanical assembly: head calibration voltages, servo zone offsets, and defect lists. A generic PCB swap produces a clicking drive that cannot read the Service Area. Recovery requires desoldering the original ROM chip and transplanting it to a donor board using a hot-air rework station.
The outcome of hard drive data recovery is your files on a new, healthy drive. Once the factory seal is broken and donor heads are installed, the original mechanism cannot be returned to reliable working condition. We image sector by sector using PC-3000 and deliver recovered data on a transfer drive.
Direct SATA connection fails on WD My Passport drives because every byte on the platters is encrypted with AES-256 through the USB bridge chip. Removing the drive from its enclosure and connecting it to a SATA port produces encrypted gibberish, not readable files, because the decryption key lives on the bridge board.
Every WD My Passport and My Book manufactured since 2011 uses hardware AES-256 encryption through the USB bridge chip. This encryption is always active, even if you never set a password. The bridge chip generates a Data Encryption Key (DEK) stored in a flash chip on the bridge PCB.
When the bridge board fails, many users or repair shops remove the internal 2.5" drive and connect it directly to a SATA port. The data on the platters is encrypted. The result is gibberish. The drive appears to work, but every file is unreadable. This is not corruption; the data requires the original encryption key to decode.
We desolder the flash chip from the failed bridge board, read out the DEK using a programmer, and either repair the original bridge or transplant the key data to a donor board. The drive is then accessed through the encryption path, and your files come back intact.
Do not remove a WD Passport drive from its enclosure.
If you already have, stop. Do not format or write to the drive. The encryption key is on the bridge board, not the drive. Send both pieces to us.
If you set a password on your WD drive, you will need to provide it for recovery. We cannot bypass user-set passwords.
Bridge-only failure with healthy internal drive: $300-$600. If the internal drive also needs mechanical work, add the standard head swap or firmware tier on top.
We recover data from all major external hard drive brands including Western Digital, Seagate, LaCie, Toshiba, Samsung, G-Technology, Buffalo, and Transcend. The internal drive mechanism determines the recovery procedure and cost, not the enclosure manufacturer or brand name.
External hard drive PCB failures are diagnosed by inspecting board-level components for burnt TVS diodes, failed voltage regulators, or cracked solder joints. Recovery requires transferring the ROM chip from the failed PCB to a compatible donor board, then imaging the drive directly via PC-3000.
This video examines the PCB on a LaCie Rugged external drive, showing how board-level components fail and what the recovery path looks like.
External drives use the same internal mechanisms as laptop and desktop drives. Our five-tier pricing applies. Encrypted WD models add $200-$400 for bridge chip key extraction if the enclosure has failed.
Your drive works, you just need the data moved off it
$100
3-5 business days
Functional drive; data transfer to new media
Rush available: +$100
Your drive isn't recognized by your computer, but it's not making unusual sounds
From $250
2-4 weeks
File system corruption. Accessible with professional recovery software but not by the OS
Starting price; final depends on complexity
Your drive is completely inaccessible. It may be detected but shows the wrong size or won't respond
$600–$900
3-6 weeks
Firmware corruption: ROM, modules, or translator tables corrupted; requires PC-3000 terminal access
CMR drive: $600. SMR drive: $900.
Your drive is clicking, beeping, or won't spin. The internal read/write heads have failed
$1,200–$1,500
4-8 weeks
Head stack assembly failure. Transplanting heads from a matching donor drive on a clean bench
50% deposit required. CMR: $1,200-$1,500 + donor. SMR: $1,500 + donor.
50% deposit required
Your drive was dropped, has visible damage, or a head crash scraped the platters
$2,000
4-8 weeks
Platter scoring or contamination. Requires platter cleaning and head swap
50% deposit required. Donor parts are consumed in the repair. Most difficult recovery type.
50% deposit required
Our "no data, no fee" policy applies to hardware recovery. We do not bill for unsuccessful physical repairs. If we replace a hard drive read/write head assembly or repair a liquid-damaged logic board to a bootable state, the hardware repair is complete and standard rates apply. If data remains inaccessible due to user-configured software locks, a forgotten passcode, or a remote wipe command, the physical repair is still billable. We cannot bypass user encryption or activation locks.
No data, no fee. Free evaluation and firm quote before any paid work. Full guarantee details. Head swap and surface damage require a 50% deposit because donor parts are consumed in the attempt.
Rush fee: +$100 rush fee to move to the front of the queue.
Donor drives: Donor drives are matching drives used for parts. Typical donor cost: $50–$150 for common drives, $200–$400 for rare or high-capacity models. We source the cheapest compatible donor available.
Target drive: The destination drive we copy recovered data onto. You can supply your own or we provide one at cost plus a small markup. For larger capacities (8TB, 10TB, 16TB and above), target drives cost $400+ extra. All prices are plus applicable tax.
Recovery cost depends on which component failed: the USB bridge board, the drive firmware, or the read/write heads. Bridge-only failures start at $100. Firmware corruption costs $600–$900. Head swaps after a drop cost $1,200–$1,500 because they require donor parts and clean bench work.
Bridge or Enclosure Failure
The USB-to-SATA bridge board died, but the internal SATA drive is healthy. We remove the mechanism, connect it directly, and image through PC-3000. Minimal lab time, no clean bench work required.
Firmware Corruption
The drive spins but is not recognized. The Service Area modules or translator table on the platters are damaged. Requires PC-3000 firmware-level access to rebuild the translator and restore drive identification. Common on Seagate Rosewood and WD drives with adaptive parameter corruption.
Mechanical Failure
The read/write heads crashed after a drop, or the spindle motor seized. Requires sourcing exact-match donor heads (same model, firmware revision, and production batch), swapping them in our 0.02 micron ULPA-filtered clean bench, and imaging sector by sector with DeepSpar Disk Imager for error-tolerant reads.
Encrypted WD My Passport or My Book models add $200-$400 for bridge chip DEK extraction if the original enclosure has failed. This covers desoldering the flash chip, reading out the Data Encryption Key, and transplanting it to a donor bridge board.
Our Austin lab operates on a transparency-first model. We use industry-standard recovery tools, including PC-3000 and DeepSpar, combined with strict environmental controls to make sure your hard drive is handled safely and properly. This approach allows us to serve clients nationwide with consistent technical standards.
Open-drive work is performed in a ULPA-filtered laminar-flow bench, validated to 0.02 µm particle count, verified using TSI P-Trak instrumentation.
Serving clients nationwide via mail-in service since 2008. Our lead engineer holds PC-3000 and HEX Akademia certifications for hard drive firmware repair and mechanical recovery.
Our repair work has been covered by The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider, with CBC News reporting on our pricing transparency. Louis Rossmann has testified in Right to Repair hearings in multiple states and founded the Repair Preservation Group.
Our "No Data, No Charge" policy means we assume the risk of the recovery attempt, not the client.
Louis Rossmann
Louis Rossmann's well trained staff review our lab protocols to ensure technical accuracy and honest service. Since 2008, his focus has been on clear technical communication and accurate diagnostics rather than sales-driven explanations.
We believe in proving standards rather than just stating them. We use TSI P-Trak instrumentation to verify that clean-air benchmarks are met before any drive is opened.
See our clean bench validation data and particle test videoDisconnect the drive immediately and stop all power cycles. Clicking, beeping, or grinding sounds indicate physical damage that worsens with each power-on. Do not run recovery software or CHKDSK on a drive making abnormal sounds; both force read attempts that can scratch platter surfaces and destroy data permanently.
Most portable external HDDs sold since 2018 use Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR), which overlaps data tracks to increase capacity. When an SMR drive develops bad sectors, running CHKDSK /f forces Windows to rewrite the Master File Table and remap sectors. Because SMR tracks overlap, these blind writes corrupt adjacent tracks containing unrelated files. A minor sector error becomes catastrophic, multi-gigabyte data loss.
Modern external HDDs also support SCSI UNMAP (the USB equivalent of TRIM). If Windows sends UNMAP commands during a format or during CHKDSK's "cleaning up" phase, the drive firmware unmaps those logical block addresses and schedules the physical blocks for erasure. Once UNMAP executes on an SMR drive, the data is gone; no software or hardware tool can reverse the firmware's block erasure.
Seagate Backup Plus drives using the Rosewood platform (ST1000LM035, ST2000LM007) fail at high rates due to fragile read/write heads that degrade prematurely and a firmware Service Area prone to translator corruption. Both failures require PC-3000 intervention to recover data.
Seagate Backup Plus Slim and Portable drives from 2016 onward use the Rosewood platform (model numbers ST1000LM035 and ST2000LM007). These 2.5" drives are among the most failure-prone mechanisms we receive.
Rosewood drives use a single-platter, two-head design with Seagate's Marvell-based controller. The common failure pattern is read/write head degradation that begins as slow reads and escalates to clicking within days. The firmware Service Area on these drives is also fragile; translator corruption causes the drive to hang at spin-up even when the heads are functional.
Recovery requires PC-3000 with the Seagate Rosewood utility module. We access the drive in factory mode, bypass the corrupted translator, build a temporary head map to skip damaged heads during imaging, and clone sector by sector using DeepSpar Disk Imager for error-tolerant reads. Donor heads for Rosewood require exact firmware revision matching; head compatibility varies between production batches even within the same model number.
No. LaCie Rugged rubber bumpers absorb minor impacts from resting surfaces, but a powered-on drop from desk height onto hard flooring will cause the read/write heads to contact the spinning platters regardless. The internal Seagate mechanism has no additional vibration isolation beyond the rubber shell.
LaCie Rugged drives are marketed as drop-resistant. The orange rubber bumper absorbs some shock, but the internal mechanism is a standard Seagate 2.5" drive with no additional vibration isolation. A fall from desk height onto a hard floor while the drive is powered on will cause a head crash regardless of the bumper.
We see LaCie Rugged drives regularly from photographers and videographers who trusted the enclosure to protect against field drops. The internal Seagate mechanism suffers the same head failures as any other portable drive.
Recovery follows the standard head swap procedure: open the drive in our 0.02 micron ULPA-filtered clean bench, remove the failed head stack assembly, install matched donor heads, and image using PC-3000 with adaptive head mapping. For drives with platter scoring from a head crash, we clean the debris from the platter surface before installing new heads to prevent immediate secondary failure.
Yes, but external SSD recovery depends on the controller state and encryption architecture. Both Samsung T7 and SanDisk Extreme encrypt data through the controller; if the controller dies, NAND chips cannot be read without extracting the encryption key or rebuilding firmware. TRIM also complicates deleted-file recovery on external SSDs.
External SSDs fail differently from spinning drives. There are no moving parts, so drops are less destructive. The failure modes are controller firmware bugs, NAND wear-out, and encryption lockouts.
Samsung T5 and T7: These use Samsung's own controller and V-NAND. The T7 encrypts data via the controller even without a user password, similar to the WD Passport problem. If the controller fails, the NAND cannot be read directly without the encryption key. Recovery depends on whether the controller can be restarted or a compatible replacement can be sourced.
SanDisk Extreme and Extreme Pro: These drives use a proprietary controller that is prone to firmware failure. The drive drops off USB, shows 0 bytes, or becomes completely unresponsive. Some batches exhibit premature failure tied to firmware versions. Recovery requires direct NAND access through chip-off or ISP techniques when the controller cannot be revived.
External SSD recovery follows our SSD pricing tiers: $200 for a simple copy, $450–$600 for circuit board repair (failed PMICs, shorted capacitors), $600–$900 for firmware reconstruction, and $1,200–$1,500 for PCB/NAND transplants.
SanDisk Extreme and Extreme Pro portable SSDs use a proprietary controller that applies a dynamic XOR encryption algorithm to all data written to the NAND flash. Each controller generates a unique XOR key tied to its silicon; a replacement controller cannot decrypt data written by the original.
When the controller firmware panics or the controller chip burns out (a common failure on early Extreme Pro batches), the drive shows 0 bytes or drops off USB entirely. Swapping the controller PCB does not work because the new controller lacks the original XOR key. Chip-off NAND reads are not viable on these drives because the hardware-bound encryption and LDPC error correction render raw NAND dumps undecryptable without the original controller. Recovery requires component-level microsoldering to diagnose and repair the drive's power management ICs or passive components, restoring power to the original controller so it can decrypt its own NAND.
External SSDs and USB flash drives using the Phison PS3111-S11 controller suffer from a known firmware failure after unexpected power loss. The Flash Translation Layer corrupts, and the controller falls back to a hardcoded safe mode. The drive enumerates as "SATAFIRM S11" with 0 bytes of capacity. No file system is visible; recovery software sees an empty device.
Consumer software cannot address this state because NAND cell degradation corrupts the Flash Translation Layer and Service Area modules, and the controller refuses normal read commands. We use PC-3000 Portable III to force the controller into Vendor Specific Command mode (Technological Mode), inject a working firmware loader into SRAM that skips the corrupted SLC cache, and manually rebuild the flash translation layer to map logical addresses back to physical NAND pages. The NAND data itself is usually intact; the failure is in the translation metadata, not the stored bits.
External hard drive recovery ranges from $100 for a simple enclosure failure where the internal drive is healthy, to $1,200–$1,500 for a head swap after a drop. Encrypted WD My Passport bridge repairs cost $300-$600. We provide a firm quote after a free evaluation. No data recovered means no charge.
Yes. Most dead external drives have a failed USB bridge board, not a failed drive. We remove the internal mechanism and connect it directly using PC-3000. If the drive itself has mechanical damage, we perform head swaps in our 0.02 micron filtered clean bench. WD My Passport models require bridge-level encryption key extraction before direct connection.
Common causes include: failed USB bridge/enclosure (drive is fine, interface is dead), USB cable failure, drive firmware corruption, mechanical failure (clicking/beeping), or PCB damage from power surge. Many "dead" external drives just have a failed enclosure; the internal drive is often fine.
Do not click "Format" and do not run CHKDSK. Windows throws this prompt when the partition table or Master File Table (MFT) is unreadable, often after a sudden disconnect or power failure. The drive's file system has gone RAW, but the underlying data is still on the platters. Formatting or running CHKDSK overwrites the original directory structure. We connect the drive through PC-3000 Data Extractor and virtually parse the MFT (for NTFS) or Catalog File (for APFS/HFS+ Mac-formatted drives) in RAM, reconstructing the directory tree without writing a single byte back to the damaged media. This is a Tier 2 file system recovery starting at $250 when no physical damage is present.
Beeping from an external hard drive means the motor cannot spin the platters. This is caused by stiction (heads stuck to the platter surface) or spindle seizure. Both require clean bench work: stiction needs manual head unsticking, and spindle seizure requires a platter transplant to a donor chassis. Do not keep powering the drive on; each attempt risks scoring the platter surface.
Yes, but do not remove the drive from its enclosure. WD My Passport models use hardware AES-256 encryption through the USB bridge chip, even if you never set a password. If the bridge fails, the encryption key is stored in a flash chip on that bridge board. We desolder the flash chip, extract the key, and either repair the original bridge or transplant the key to a replacement board.
Usually yes. Dropped drives often suffer head crashes or stuck heads. We perform head swaps in our clean bench environment using donor parts. Success depends on platter condition. The sooner you stop using it after the drop, the better the recovery chances.
Opening the plastic enclosure is usually safe. Opening the internal hard drive mechanism is not; that requires clean bench conditions. However, if you have a WD My Passport or other encrypted drive, do not remove the drive from its enclosure. The encryption keys are tied to the USB bridge.
Data recovery is not a drive repair. When we open a drive in the clean bench and swap heads, the drive is only kept alive long enough to image the data sector by sector using PC-3000. The mechanism is not stable for continued use after the factory seal is broken and donor parts are installed. The cost covers extracting your data to healthy media, not returning a working drive.
Capacity alone does not change the base recovery tier. A head swap costs the same whether the drive is 500GB or 2TB. However, high-capacity portable drives (4TB and above) often use Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR), which complicates firmware-level recovery because the translator table is larger and more fragile. Desktop externals above 8TB may use helium-sealed mechanisms. Opening a helium drive on a laminar flow bench is possible, but the work must be completed before helium dissipation degrades head fly height, which makes donor sourcing and the swap procedure more time-sensitive.
No. Recovery cost is determined by the physical state of the hardware, not the volume of data stored. PC-3000 Data Extractor images the drive sector by sector using an active head map. Recovering 10MB of documents requires the same clean-bench labor, the same donor head sourcing, and the same imaging time as recovering 900GB of video files from the same drive. The pricing tiers ($100 for enclosure failure up to $1,200–$1,500 for a head swap) reflect what component failed, not how full the drive was.
Standard donor parts are included in the Tier 4 head swap price of $1,200–$1,500. Finding a compatible donor means matching the exact model number, firmware revision, and preamp configuration. The donor drive is destroyed during the procedure; we harvest the head stack assembly and install it in our 0.02 micron ULPA-filtered clean bench. If the failed drive uses a rare model or discontinued firmware revision that requires sourcing from overseas, we communicate the donor premium during the free evaluation before any paid work begins. There are no hidden parts fees after you approve the quoted price.
The destination drive is separate from the recovery fee. After imaging, we write the recovered data to a new, healthy external hard drive or flash drive. You can ship a blank drive with your mail-in package, or we provide one at market cost. The original drive cannot be reused after clean-bench work breaks the factory seal and donor parts are installed.
Opening the internal hard drive mechanism breaks the manufacturer's factory seal, which voids the warranty. If your drive failed under warranty and you only need a replacement, file a warranty claim with the manufacturer first. If you need the data off the failed drive, that requires opening it in our clean bench, and the drive cannot be returned to working condition afterward. You are choosing between a warranty replacement (no data) and data recovery (no warranty).
Turnaround depends on the failure type. A bridge-only failure where the internal drive is healthy takes 1-3 business days. Firmware corruption requiring PC-3000 Service Area rebuilds takes 3-5 business days. Head swaps take 5-10 business days because donor sourcing must match the exact model, firmware revision, & head preamp configuration. A $100 rush fee moves your drive to the front of the queue if you need faster turnaround.
Most external hard drive data recovery cost at big labs includes overhead for sales teams, marketing, & multiple office leases. We operate a single lab in Austin, TX with no sales staff & no franchise fees. The technician who diagnoses your drive is the same person who performs the recovery. Our five published tiers ($100 to $2,000) cover the same procedures that other labs charge $2,000-$7,000+ for.
Seagate Backup Plus Slim and Portable enclosures contain Rosewood-platform drives (ST1000LM035, ST2000LM007). Firmware repair on Rosewood costs $600–$900 because the diagnostic F3 terminal is locked by default; PC-3000 must patch the physical ROM to unlock it, modify the SMP flags in System File 93 to disable background auto-repair, and reconstruct the Media Cache Management Table (MCMT) in Sys File 348. If the drive is clicking or beeping after a drop, the heads have failed and the cost rises to $1,200–$1,500 for a clean bench head swap with exact-revision donor parts.
No. WD My Passport drives use a native USB PCB rather than a standard SATA connection. Buying a donor board and plugging it in will not work because each board's 8-pin ROM chip stores unique adaptive parameters for head calibration, and the AES-256 encryption key is bound to the Marvell controller. Recovery requires desoldering the ROM chip from the failed board, transferring it to a compatible donor using a hot-air rework station, converting to SATA, and using PC-3000 to extract the encryption key from the controller or Service Area. This puts most WD Passport recoveries in the $300-$600 firmware/encryption tier when the internal drive is healthy.
Usually not. The enclosure is a plastic shell with a USB-to-SATA bridge board inside. If only the bridge or USB port broke, the internal SATA drive is healthy and recovery is a Tier 1 simple copy at $100. We remove the mechanism and image it directly via PC-3000. If the drive was dropped while spinning, the impact likely crashed the read/write heads onto the platters, which escalates to a $1,200–$1,500 head swap. We evaluate the bare drive via SATA to determine which scenario applies before quoting.
Recovering deleted files from a modern external SSD is nearly impossible once TRIM executes. If the USB bridge supports UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol), TRIM and UNMAP commands pass directly to the NAND controller, which unmaps the logical addresses and schedules background garbage collection to erase the freed blocks. DIY recovery software scans return zeroes after TRIM runs because the controller intercepts read requests to unmapped addresses. If you accidentally deleted files, immediately disconnect the drive to prevent garbage collection from completing. Recovery odds depend entirely on whether TRIM executed before disconnection.
Yes. WD My Passport drives use an integrated USB bridge that marries the USB interface directly to the drive firmware. When the firmware Service Area (SA) modules become corrupted, the drive spins but cannot enumerate over USB. We convert the native USB PCB to a standard SATA pinout and use the PC-3000 WD utility to diagnose and rewrite the corrupted SA modules directly on the platters. This is a firmware-tier recovery at $600–$900.
This is a common symptom of USB Attached SCSI (UAS) protocol errors on ASMedia bridge controllers, particularly the ASM1153E and ASM235CM. Power management bugs cause the controller to hang under sustained read/write loads, forcing a hard power cycle. The internal SATA drive is usually healthy. We remove the mechanism and image it directly via PC-3000, eliminating the faulty bridge from the data path. This is typically a Tier 1 recovery at $100-$300.
Local computer repair shops rarely have the equipment required for mechanical hard drive data recovery. Opening a drive safely requires a 0.02 micron ULPA-filtered clean bench; head swaps require exact-match donor parts and PC-3000 for firmware-level imaging. Most local shops either run consumer software (which destroys physically failing drives) or act as middlemen who ship your drive to a lab at markup. Our nationwide mail-in service ships directly to our Austin, TX lab with transparent pricing and no middleman fees.
Internal HDD, desktop and laptop drives
NVMe, SATA, and external solid state drives
Backup Plus Slim, Hub, and Expansion. No hardware encryption on bridge.
WD-specific recovery expertise
Apple Time Machine drive failure and APFS backup recovery
Enclosure PCB failed, drive is fine
Motor seizure and stiction diagnosis
Ship from anywhere in the U.S.
LaCie Rugged, d2, 2big RAID
G-DRIVE, G-RAID, G-SPEED Shuttle
No data recovered means no charge
Pack your external drive in anti-static wrap with at least two inches of cushioning on all sides. Ship to our Austin, TX lab via FedEx Priority Overnight; most US addresses arrive by 10:30 AM the next business day. Include the original enclosure and bridge board, even if damaged.
1 Business Day
FedEx Priority Overnight delivers to Austin by 10:30 AM the next business day from most US addresses.
Fully Insured
Use FedEx Declared Value to cover hardware costs. We return your original drive and recovered data on new media.
Free evaluation, firm quote before any paid work. No data, no charge. Mail-in from all 50 states.
