Since 2008 | No Data, No Fee | $100–$2,000 | Nationwide Mail-In
G-Technology drives (now sold as SanDisk Professional) contain HGST or Western Digital enterprise-class hard drives inside aluminum enclosures. Recovery targets the internal HGST Ultrastar or WD drive, not the Thunderbolt/USB bridge board. We extract the bare drive and image it through PC-3000 using the WD Marvell or HGST firmware module. No data recovered = no charge.
PC-3000 HGST/WD Module
Enterprise firmware access
No Data, No Charge
Free evaluation always
G-Technology was founded as a premium storage brand for creative professionals. HGST acquired G-Technology, and Western Digital acquired HGST (formerly Hitachi GST) in 2012, bringing G-Technology under the WD umbrella. Every G-Technology enclosure contains a standard HGST or WD mechanism. In 2021, the brand was renamed SanDisk Professional.
G-Technology data recovery pricing is determined by the failure type of the HGST or WD drive inside, not the enclosure model. Air-filled internals use standard HDD pricing from $100–$2,000. Helium-sealed G-DRIVE, G-RAID, and G-SPEED mechanical cases use helium HDD pricing from $200–$5,000+. Thunderbolt bridge board failures where the internal drive is healthy are treated as simple copies. Free evaluation and a firm quote for every drive. If we cannot recover your data, you pay nothing.
If Your G-DRIVE or G-RAID Is Clicking
Power it off. Do not run Disk Utility, DiskWarrior, or any recovery software. G-Technology enclosures contain enterprise HGST/WD drives with high-density platters. Running software on a drive with failing heads forces repeated read attempts that carve through the magnetic coating. Once the coating is gone, the data is permanently destroyed. Send it for free evaluation instead.
Verified on Google
“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.”
Andrew Hansen
“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.”
Kyle Hartley (crazybangles)
“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).”
Christopolis
Seagate
“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!”
Patrick Dughi
Air-filled HGST/WD internals use standard HDD tiers. Helium-sealed Ultrastar internals in high-capacity G-DRIVE, G-RAID, and G-SPEED units use helium HDD tiers for mechanical work. Bridge board failures where the drive itself is healthy fall into the simple copy tier.
Your drive works, you just need the data moved off it
Functional drive; data transfer to new media
Rush available: +$100
$100
3-5 business days
Your drive isn't recognized by your computer, but it's not making unusual sounds
File system corruption. Accessible with professional recovery software but not by the OS
Starting price; final depends on complexity
From $250
2-4 weeks
Your drive is completely inaccessible. It may be detected but shows the wrong size or won't respond
Firmware corruption: ROM, modules, or translator tables corrupted; requires PC-3000 terminal access
CMR drive: $600. SMR drive: $900.
$600–$900
3-6 weeks
Most Common
Bench diagnosis found the read/write heads have to be replaced. Clicking can also come from firmware, the preamp, or the spindle
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
$1,200–$1,500
4-8 weeks
Your drive was dropped, has visible damage, or a head crash scraped the platters
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
$2,000
4-8 weeks
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.
The prices above are for standard hard drives, which covers most jobs. Helium-sealed drives (for example WD or HGST Ultrastar He and Seagate Exos X) must be resealed and refilled with helium in-house after the chamber is opened, so they price higher, in the $200–$5,000+ range. See helium drive pricing.
Low complexity
Your helium drive works, you just need the data moved off it
Functional drive; data transfer to new media
Rush available: +$100
$200
3-5 business days
Low complexity
Your helium drive isn't recognized by your computer, but it's not making unusual sounds
File system corruption. Accessible with professional recovery software but not by the OS
Starting price; final depends on complexity
From $600
2-4 weeks
Medium complexity
Most Common
Your helium drive is completely inaccessible. It may be detected but shows the wrong size or won't respond
Firmware corruption: ROM, modules, or translator tables corrupted; requires PC-3000 terminal access
Helium drive firmware recovery is more complex due to sealed chamber architecture
$900–$1,200
3-6 weeks
High complexity
Bench diagnosis found the read/write heads have to be replaced. Clicking can also come from firmware, the preamp, or the spindle
Head stack assembly failure. Transplanting heads from a matching helium donor drive on a clean bench. Helium refill required.
50% deposit required (usually $1,100 non-refundable deposit). Helium cost ($400-$800) and donor drive cost additional.
50% deposit required
$3,000–$4,500
4-8 weeks
High complexity
Your helium drive was dropped, has visible damage, or a head crash scraped the platters
Platter scoring or contamination. Requires platter cleaning, head swap, and helium refill
50% deposit required. Helium cost ($400-$800) and donor drive cost additional. Most difficult recovery type.
50% deposit required
$4,000–$5,000
4-8 weeks
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 and helium are consumed in the attempt.
Each G-Technology product pairs a different HGST or WD drive family with a specific enclosure design. The failure pattern and recovery approach depend on the internal drive, not the aluminum housing or Thunderbolt interface.
Contains a single Ultrastar enterprise 3.5-inch drive built for sustained throughput in video editing workflows. Enterprise-class heads are more resilient than consumer drives, but they still fail from desk vibration and power surges. The most common G-DRIVE failure is a Thunderbolt bridge board fault; the internal drive is often intact. Recovery uses PC-3000 with the HGST module for firmware access. Newer models ship with WD Ultrastar DC HC series drives.
Interfaces: Thunderbolt 3, USB-C, USB 3.0 | Capacities: 4TB, 6TB, 10TB, 12TB, 14TB, 18TB
Two-bay Thunderbolt 3 enclosure containing dual HGST or WD enterprise drives. Ships configured as RAID 0 (striped) by default for maximum throughput. RAID 0 provides zero fault tolerance: one drive failure destroys the entire volume. Many video editors mistake RAID 0 for a backup; it is the opposite. Recovery requires imaging both member drives individually, then reconstructing the RAID stripe with the correct parameters. G-RAID hardware controllers use specific stripe sizes that differ from generic NAS defaults.
Interfaces: Thunderbolt 3, USB-C | Capacities: 8TB, 12TB, 24TB, 36TB
4-bay or 8-bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID enclosure designed for multi-stream 4K/8K video editing. Uses a built-in hardware RAID controller with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10. The controller stores RAID metadata on the controller board and on each member disk. If the controller fails, the drives still hold data, but reconstruction requires matching the array parameters: stripe size, parity rotation direction, disk ordering, and reserved partition layout. We image all member drives via PC-3000 and reconstruct the array offline.
Controller: built-in hardware RAID | Capacities: 16TB, 24TB, 32TB, 48TB, 64TB, 72TB
Rugged portable enclosure containing a 2.5-inch WD or HGST mechanism. The triple-layer shock-resistant housing (aluminum, rubber, internal bumper) protects against minor drops, but internal head failures still occur from vibration in transit or during use. Recovery workflow mirrors standard WD portable drive recovery: extract the bare drive, connect to SATA, and image via PC-3000 with the WD Marvell module. Head swaps require matching donor drives by model, head count, and firmware revision.
Interfaces: USB 3.0, USB-C | Capacities: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 5TB
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 maintain drive integrity. This approach allows us to serve clients nationwide with consistent technical standards.
Open-drive work is performed in a 0.02 micron ULPA-filtered laminar clean bench.
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
Our engineers review all lab protocols to maintain 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 showing the bench rather than just describing it. Open-drive work runs on a 0.02 micron ULPA-filtered laminar clean bench, and we filmed it.
See the particle counter test at the benchEvery G-Technology external drive has two components: the Thunderbolt/USB bridge board (converts SATA to Thunderbolt 3 or USB protocol) and the internal HGST or WD hard drive. The first diagnostic step is determining which component failed.
If the bridge board is dead but the internal drive is functional, we extract the HGST/WD drive, connect it directly to a SATA port, and perform a standard data copy. This is a simple copy tier recovery ($100). No clean bench work, no head swaps, no firmware repair.
If the internal drive has failed (clicking, beeping, not spinning, firmware corruption), the bridge board is irrelevant. We bypass it and connect the bare drive to PC-3000 via SATA for firmware-level diagnostics using the WD Marvell or HGST module.
G-DRIVE Thunderbolt models use Intel or Texas Instruments Thunderbolt controller chips on the bridge board. These controllers handle protocol translation and sometimes power delivery. The bridge board is separate from the drive and does not contain user data. A failed bridge does not mean the data is gone.
Larger G-DRIVE models ship with helium-sealed HGST Ultrastar mechanisms. Helium-sealed drives use a lower-density gas instead of air to reduce aerodynamic drag on the platters, which allows thinner platters, closer head spacing, and higher capacity per drive.
Helium drives present specific recovery challenges. The hermetic seal must remain intact during recovery. If the seal is breached (through improper opening), air enters the drive housing, turbulence increases, and the heads crash into the platters within seconds. Head swaps on helium drives must be performed with the seal intact or in a controlled environment with minimal exposure time. Not all recovery labs stock helium-sealed HGST donor drives; we maintain helium drive donor inventory for Ultrastar He series models.
Helium seal failure can also cause data loss without any drop or impact. If the factory seal degrades over time, the helium leaks out and air enters. The drive may develop increasing read errors, slow performance, or complete failure. PC-3000 can detect helium pressure-related performance degradation through SMART attribute monitoring.
A G-Technology head swap is mechanical work on the bare HGST or WD drive after extraction from the enclosure. Disassembly, donor matching, and reseal happen at the Austin lab on a 0.02 micron ULPA-filtered laminar-flow clean bench. We do not outsource head stack work. The same workflow applies to 2.5-inch G-DRIVE Mobile and ArmorATD internals and to 3.5-inch G-DRIVE desktop and G-RAID internals, with helium-specific steps added when the mechanism inside is helium-sealed.
Heads inside G-Technology enclosures come from the HGST Ultrastar and WD Ultrastar product families. A donor that looks the same is not enough. Before any disassembly, we screen donor candidates against the attributes below so the donor head stack will read the patient platters, and which of them are decisive depends on the exact drive:
Donor inventory is indexed by those attributes. When a G-DRIVE arrives, the patient PCB is read with PC-3000 to extract the model, firmware, preamp ID, and ROM adaptive zone count before any donor candidate is opened. The procedure is documented further on our donor drive matching reference page.
Breaking the seal on a helium-sealed Ultrastar mechanism inside a G-DRIVE or G-RAID enclosure vents the helium, so the gas has to go back before the platters turn again. The disassembly itself happens under our 0.02 micron ULPA-filtered clean bench in filtered ambient air, with the drive unpowered and nothing spinning, because the risk at that stage is particulate contamination rather than aerodynamics.
After the new head stack is installed, the lid gasket is replaced with a fresh seal and the chassis is closed. The chamber is then purged and refilled with high-purity helium through a calibrated manifold, and the drive is leak-checked at the seam before any spin-up. Helium refill on these units adds material and bench time to the recovery; that cost is published in our helium hard drive recovery pricing.
A swapped head stack is not the end of the recovery. The drive comes out of the clean bench and onto PC-3000 Portable III for firmware initialization. We power the drive in safe mode, read the SA module to confirm donor preamp parameters were accepted, then walk the translator: rebuild or verify the LBA-to-CHS map, recheck adaptive zone tables against the ROM, and validate that each head in the new stack reads its assigned surface. Only after the translator is clean does imaging begin through the DeepSpar Disk Imager with retry counts tuned for the remaining weak heads.
This procedure is the same workflow we apply across all hard drive data recovery cases with mechanical damage. The G-Technology enclosure simply adds the bridge-board extraction step before the bare drive enters the head swap pipeline.
The G-SPEED Shuttle is G-Technology's flagship product for video production houses. A single Shuttle can contain 48TB-72TB of active project footage in RAID 5 or RAID 6. When the hardware RAID controller fails, the entire volume goes offline.
The controller stores RAID metadata on its own flash and on a reserved area of each member disk. If the controller board fails but the drives are intact, we reconstruct the array from the on-disk metadata. If that metadata is damaged in both places, we derive the parameters from the member images themselves: stripe size, parity rotation, and member disk ordering.
Recovery process: extract all 4 or 8 member drives from the Shuttle enclosure, image each drive individually through PC-3000, verify the health and integrity of each member image, then reconstruct the RAID array offline. If one or two member drives have also failed (common in aging Shuttle arrays where all drives are the same age and batch), those drives go through individual recovery first before the array is assembled.
Do not attempt a RAID rebuild on a degraded G-SPEED Shuttle. If the enclosure reports a degraded array, do not insert a replacement drive and rebuild. A rebuild forces a full read of all surviving drives. If a second drive fails during the rebuild (likely when all drives are from the same batch and age), the entire array is destroyed. Power off the Shuttle and send it for professional RAID recovery.
In 2021, Western Digital rebranded G-Technology as SanDisk Professional. Products previously sold as G-DRIVE, G-RAID, and G-SPEED Shuttle are now marketed under the SanDisk Professional name with the same product line designations.
Recovery procedures do not change based on whether the label says "G-Technology" or "SanDisk Professional." The internal drives remain HGST or WD Ultrastar enterprise mechanisms. PC-3000 firmware access uses the same modules regardless of the external branding. If you have a SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE, G-RAID, or G-SPEED Shuttle, the recovery workflow described on this page applies to your drive.
Tell us at intake whether the volume was ever locked with a password. With the password in hand, the recovered volume unlocks after imaging. Without it, the contents stay encrypted no matter which lab holds the drive. No lab can bypass that, and one that says otherwise is describing something else.
Your G-Technology drive stays in our Austin lab from intake through return. Every drive is logged, serialized, and tracked. Recovery work happens on isolated, air-gapped systems; your data is never exposed to a network. We deliver recovered files on encrypted external media and securely purge all working copies using secure multi-pass cryptographic erasure.
G-Technology drives are popular with video production houses, post-production facilities, and photographers working on commercial projects. We handle sensitive creative work regularly. NDAs are available on request.
Shipping
Mail-in
Transit time depends on the carrier and service you choose.
Fully Insured
Use FedEx Declared Value to cover hardware costs. We return your original drive and recovered data on new media.
Related services
All external drive brands
WD internal and external drives
HGST Ultrastar and Travelstar
Multi-drive RAID arrays
Sealed helium enterprise drives
Another WD subsidiary brand
Published HDD recovery pricing tiers
Mail-in to our Austin, TX lab
How to choose a recovery lab
Free evaluation for all G-Technology and SanDisk Professional models. We identify the internal HGST/WD drive and failure pattern before quoting. No data, no charge.
