SMR Hard Drive Data Recovery

At Rossmann Repair Group, we specialize in the recovery of data from Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) hard drives, which is new tech. SMR drives are widely used in consumer and enterprise environments since they provide higher storage capacity for less money. Their unique structure makes them very difficult to recover when they fail.


If your SMR hard drive is not working, we have all the tools necessary to get your data back!

Why Rossmann Repair?

What Makes SMR Drives Unique and Challenging for Recovery?

SMR hard drives write data in overlapping tracks, like shingles on a roof. This allows for higher storage density. While this technology maximizes capacity, it makes recovery more difficult due to the following reasons:

  • Overlapping Data Tracks: Modifying or recovering one track risks overwriting or corrupting adjacent tracks.
  • Second-Level Translators (SLT): These firmware components map logical block addresses (LBA) to physical block addresses (PBA). If the translator is damaged, the drive can return empty or corrupted data.
  • Trim-like UNMAP Commands: SMR drives used in host-managed or host-aware configurations can process UNMAP commands (similar to TRIM for SSDs) in some systems. These commands tell the drive to mark certain data blocks as no longer in use, which can sometimes erase important mapping information in the Second-Level Translator (SLT) that connects logical addresses to physical storage locations. Deleted translator metadata or zone mappings can prevent reconstruction of the overlapping data tracks unique to SMR drives.
  • Firmware Dependence: SMR drives heavily rely on firmware for managing data zones, and corruption here can make recovery extremely complex.

Who Uses SMR Hard Drives?

SMR drives are commonly found in:

  1. Consumer Electronics: External hard drives like the WD My Passport and Seagate Backup Plus.
  2. Network Attached Storage (NAS): Models like the WD Red series often use SMR drives for storage solutions.
  3. Surveillance Systems: High-capacity drives for storing security camera footage, such as some of Seagate’s SMR-based surveillance models.

Common Issues with SMR Drives

  1. Quick Formatting:
  • If you format a drive and unplug it, old-style CMR drives (CMR referring to Conventional Magnetic Recording) are trivial to recover with standard software like R-Studio or UFS. Sometimes a pain, but mostly doable.
  • With SMR drives like some WD My Passport models, you have to deal with second translators, translator dependencies, and you may not even get all the data from it.
  • Basic software like UFS Explorer and R-Studio will show only empty sectors with zeroes in a case like this where the drive was formatted.
  • Recovery often requires advanced tools to bypass damaged SLTs and restore fragmented data, like the Acelab PC3000.
  1. Firmware Corruption:
  • SMR-specific firmware handling is more complicated compared to older CMR drives.
  • If the second translator has an issue, the drive may click even if the heads are good, which can confuse new technicians into believing the heads are a problem.
  • Sometimes this means blocking access to the service area or special modules.
  • Software like UFS Explorer and R-Studio will not handle this. In this case, UFS stands for "u find shit" - only zeroes :'(

Our SMR Data Recovery Process

We use advanced technology and methods to deal with the challenges specific to SMR recovery:

  1. Translator Repair:
    • We rebuild or bypass the damaged second-level translator to recover fragmented data.
  2. Firmware Restoration:
    • Our tools safely repair corrupted firmware modules to get the drive back to working condition so we can recover all of its data.
  3. Zone Recovery:
    • By carefully handling overlapping zones, we ensure adjacent data tracks remain intact during recovery.
  4. Physical Repairs:
    • For drives with mechanical issues, our Purair VLF-48 laminar flow bench provides the controlled environment necessary for repairs. The Purair VLF-48 Laminar Flow Bench allows an ultra-clean workspace with ULPA filtration capturing 99.999% of particles down to 0.1 microns. Its vertical airflow design minimizes turbulence, making it perfect for handling delicate media during data recovery. We are NOT opening your drive in any old office!
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Watch a Real Data Recovery Service below!

Why SMR Data Recovery Requires Experienced Technicians

Recovering data from SMR hard drives is a highly specialized task that requires lots of technical expertise & precision. New technicians working with tools like the PC3000 or performing cleanroom repairs on a laminar flow bench are on their way to success if they are committed to learning, but newer technicians often make mistakes that lead to permanent data loss. Here’s why choosing an experienced technician matters!


Common Mistakes Made by Inexperienced Technicians

  1. Mishandling Second-Level Translators (SLT):

    • SMR drives rely on SLTs to map logical data to physical locations. A newbie may overwrite or improperly rebuild this translator, causing irreversible data loss.
    • Using generic PC3000 scripts without understanding SMR-specific firmware quirks can result in fragmented or missing data.
  2. Damage to Overlapping Data Tracks:

    • SMR drives write data in overlapping tracks, meaning a mistake in one area can overwrite or corrupt adjacent tracks.
    • Inexperienced techs often use cloning methods meant for standard old CMR drives which can destroy the integrity of overlapping zones.
  3. Improper Use of Cleanroom Tools:

    • Handling delicate internal components like heads or platters in a laminar flow bench requires experience. Common errors include:
      • Scratching platters while removing heads.
      • Misaligning replacement components, rendering the drive unreadable.
  4. Not addressing UNMAP Issues:

    • New techs sometimes overlook the impact of Trim commands, which can prematurely delete data necessary for a data recovery from SMR drives. Misconfiguring recovery software can make things worse.
  5. Inadequate Firmware Handling:

    • SMR drives depend heavily on proprietary firmware for managing shingled zones. Without training a technician might apply firmware fixes meant for CMR drives, bricking the device.

Why Choose Rossmann Repair Group?

  • Certified Expertise: Our technicians are extensively trained and certified by ACE Lab, the developers of PC3000. We understand the nuances of SMR drives and their unique recovery challenges. While "Apple certification" is useless & often means the technician is not allowed to do real repairs, acelab's actually matter!
  • Industry-Leading Tools: We
  • Experience You Can Trust: With years of expertise in data recovery, we handle cases other labs cannot.
  • Top Rated: No, really. Check google maps - we have the highest(and most) ratings of any data recovery company.
  • No paid advertising: No banner ads, no yelp promotions, no google adwords. We rely on word of mouth and videos demonstrating our abilities. The lack of paid advertising means the savings are passed onto you.

Contact Us Today

If your SMR hard drive has failed, don’t lose hope. Contact Rossmann Repair Group for professional data recovery services!

We Can Extract Information From These Types of Media at Our Lab

Laptop Hard Drives
Liquid damaged iPhones
Physically damaged USB flash drives
SD & microSD cards
WD MyPassport
Desktop Hard Drives
External Hard Drives
USB Hard Drives
RAID configurations
SATA, IDE, SCSI, SAS, SSD Hard Drives

Our Rates?

Giving a price without seeing the device, assessing its condition is impossible. Everyone feels better having some basic idea of what things may cost, so for a basic idea, see below. Do realize the + means price can go up! Please do note that drives that have been opened before are rarely if ever recoverable by us: mention this prior to sending it in as we rarely work on pre-worked on drives.
hard drives

Hard Drives

$100 for basic data retrieval, $250-$650 for firmware repair, $900-$2000 for heads swap.
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SD cards and micro sd cards

SDcards/microSD cards

$200 for basic data recovery, $900 for breakout board data recovery
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cellphone data recovery

CellPhones

$300-$650 for drop or liquid damage, $1200+ for difficult cases(board swap). $400+ for any damage inflicted by inept repair technicians(long screw) that is above and beyond terrible.
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ssd card data recovery

SSDs

$300-$2000 depending on extent of damage
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Love From Our Customers

Hear from our satisfied customers who trust us for their data recovery needs in Austin. We didn't become the top rated repair shop on Google maps by accident - this was a 15 year effort of providing best-in-class service, with no gimmicks. 

I was a LaCie user for four years when an accidental drop from my desk resulted in LOSING all access to my drive. So much for the "durable" orange protective casing. All of my client's projects and years of work lost in a second. I was desperate and like many others, immediately googled and youtubed as many solutions as I could find. I tried everything short of breaking the manufacturer seal. As it turns out, dropping a LaCie while it's running can sometimes damage the internal heads that read your data. Your options are a deadly 50/50 chance of success DIY or Rossman. I needed to know I had done my best to recover all the data so I sent my drive to Rossman. They were incredible from the start. In my panic I sent my package to the wrong address, THEY PICKED IT UP FOR ME. They informed me every step of the way where they were in the process of recovering my data. 5 weeks later and I just received my drive back with 95% of everything on my LaCie. If you need your data recovery done right choose Rossman.
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Meg Prom Avatar
Meg Prom
6/17/2022
5 star ratingI had an iPhone 8 that was totally dead, wouldn't recognize being plugged into a computer or power outlet. The biggest problem was that it hadn't been backed up in a long time and there 5000+ photos and videos of our kids were potentially lost.I sent it in to RRG and got a call from Kevin (who was the tech who was actually going to be handling my repair). He was great, forthcoming with the plan, and very polite.Bottom line? Got my phone back with all the data still intact (apps, contacts, photos, videos, settings) working 100%, AND got a flash drive with the photos and videos on it.Thanks guys!
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Chris S. Avatar
Chris S.
10/14/2019
These guys are LEGIT! Don't waste your time with anyone else. I had water damage in a newer iphone and had YEARS of pics which were not backed up. I was given a cost and time estimate reflective of what was on their website. Their service exceeded the high-points of both estimates. It was definitely not a drop-in the bucket cost, but worth the service. I was notified 24 hours later that my data recovery was complete. Unfortunately, my phone was not repairable but that didn't matter much to me anyway. Great service with these guys and glad to find them locally as well. If you're not in NYC- they will coordinate with you.
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Marlene Leekang Avatar
Marlene Leekang
12/17/2021
5 star ratingWhat a great group of people! I was clueless about my old hard drive and they fixed it til top shape I’m so happy to be able to look at my old photos. Thank you so much!
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Libby J. Justus Avatar
Libby J. Justus
12/17/2021
5 star ratingThese guys are LEGIT! Don't waste your time with anyone else. I had water damage in a newer iphone and had YEARS of pics which were not backed up. I was given a cost and time estimate reflective of what was on their website. Their service exceeded the high-points of both estimates. It was definitely not a drop-in the bucket cost, but worth the service. I was notified 24 hours later that my data recovery was complete. Unfortunately, my phone was not repairable but that didn't matter much to me anyway. Great service with these guys and glad to find them locally as well. If you're not in NYC- they will coordinate with you.
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Marlene Leekang Avatar
Marlene Leekang
12/17/2021
5 star ratingI walked in with my dead Macbook Pro Tuesday (randomly wouldn't turn on or charge) and Louis and his team were so helpful! At first they opened it up and said that the logic board needed to be replaced but were willing to see if the current one could be salvaged first. I left and came back and in an hour my Macbook was good as new!!!! Apple told me it would be better to just buy a whole new Macbook, so glad I came here first! Highly recommend for all your Apple repair needs.
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Lay E. Avatar
Lay E.
7/12/2018
5 star ratingI took my iPhone 6 Plus with a motherboard completely damaged took it to other technicians that were specialist in motherboards and no one could’ve get my data recovered or fix my phone to power back on these people of (Rossmann Repair Group) got the phone fully repaired and in perfect working order and also backed up all my data in to a new hard drive . I totally recommend this company they are very responsive responsible and very professional .. thank you Rossmann Repair Group 😊
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Hector Nunez Avatar
Hector Nunez
12/17/2021
5 star ratingI never write reviews, but I feel it's especially important because this store and the service they provide are one of the reasons why New York is a great city. Amid attacks on right-to-repair, on top of all the other struggles businesses in our increasingly corporatized city faces this is the kind of place that makes this city unique. I have a new MacBook Pro M1. It took an accidental bath, and Apple quoted me 2-week turnaround for repair at a number within 20% of the purchase price for the repair. I could have bought a max'd out brand new MacBook Air for less money than the amount Apple was charging for the job. It appears as though Apple doesn't repair discreet components - they junk an entire logic board and transfer the SSD over as opposed to truly trying to make a fix. Rossmann Repair Group took the time to diagnose the issue right in front of me before I dropped it off, gave me a quote that was fair and reasonable, repaired it within 48 hours, and when I went to pick it up the total cost was less than the stated quote. The machine was good as new. They knew I was willing to spend up to the quoted amount to get a repair, yet they billed me less. It's so very rare to find specialists with that sort of honesty. They knew I was willing to pay a certain price and they billed me for the true value of services rendered. While I never hope to be a repeat customer, if any future machine faces the same fate I know where I'll be going before I ever get it looked at by Apple. This place is awesome.
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Matt B. Avatar
Matt B.
3/30/2022
I stumbled on my daughter's 2012 MacBook Pro that she had been told (years ago) was beyond repair. I powered it up and a little research led me to guess that the hard drive was dead or not being seen. So I sent a note with that assumption to Rossman Repair Group. They said it could be the hard drive or it could be the drive cable which is a known issue with this model - $100 to repair if that's what it is. I gambled and paid $13 to ship it. For retail customers, Rossman will diagnose, outline the problem, and provide an estimate for free. They confirmed it was the cable and they needed the OS password to further test the operating system to make sure that it boots (loads to your desktop). I did not have the password so I asked if they could use the password reset? They replied "We wouldn't be able to reset the password, but we can wipe it and reinstall a new OS with a new password if you'd like. The hard drive cable is indeed bad on this device, with a new cable the hard drive does show up." I got it back (free return shipping), since the hard drive now shows up I was able to reset the PW and it looks to be running perfectly! Total repair cost $113.
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Scott Jones Avatar
Scott Jones
12/17/2021
5 star ratingAfter years of watching Louis' YouTube vids I had to contact them for a damaged USB drive. I know they work on Apple products 99% of the time. This thumb drive had important documents that could not be reproduced, so I sent it in and they quoted me three times under what My big city wanted. Not to negate the time and work that goes into working on something so small. They are absolute professionals and I will be sending more damaged items in the future. From the time sent to return was exactly 15 days. Absolute life savers.
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Randy M. Avatar
Randy M.
12/17/2021
5 star ratingAmazing technician, I believe the best in Apple repair in the country even better than Apple with the tools and facility they can get of course, Apple makes many problems for third party repair shops. I have learned a lot from his videos and from Jessa Jones at iPad Rehab in Rochester NY. I look forward in learning more from them all. Aside from being great technicians they are very honest which is a good relief from anyone that want's to get anything repaired. I look forward to visiting NYC one day and stopping by the shop and thank him in person. They have also fixed my laptop where I am writing this response on and gave me tips on my external hard drive which is now also up and working!
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Tony Trilex Avatar
Tony Trilex
12/17/2021
5 star ratingI was referred to Rossmann Repair Group by a friend whose dad swears by the shop. After my Macbook Pro crashed and Mikey's Hookup in Brooklyn quoted me $511 to fix it and recover my data (plus a $90 diagnostic fee), I was desperate for a second opinion. Enter: Rossman Repair Group, who was able to get the job done for $250. What's more, the guys accidentally fixed my computer without first sending me a quote - when they realized this mistake, they graciously offered that I not pay full price for the repair. One of the best customer service experiences I've had in a really long time, ESPECIALLY when it comes to Apple products... I highly recommend them!Thanks Rossmann Repair! My laptop is working great now - you guys are the best!
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L A. Avatar
L A.
10/30/2018
Got my data back after a used hard drive failed on me. Thank you, folks! Amazing! Even though they're in New York, I trust the work. Was happy to send my drive over.
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M Diaz Avatar
M Diaz
12/17/2020
I sent my MacBook Pro in for an SSD replacement. Work was done in 2 business days and shipping was very fast. As a technician myself I only trust board level repair or new Mac repair to Rossman and his team. Used to watch his YouTube videos many years ago. Great to see progress!
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Jason Dawkins Avatar
Jason Dawkins
7/17/2022
I took my iPhone 6 Plus with a motherboard completely damaged took it to other technicians that were specialist in motherboards and no one could’ve get my data recovered or fix my phone to power back on these people of (Rossmann Repair Group) got the phone fully repaired and in perfect working order and also backed up all my data in to a new hard drive . I totally recommend this company they are very responsive responsible and very professional .. thank you Rossmann Repair Group 😊
read more
Hector Nunez Avatar
Hector Nunez
12/17/2021

Our Recent Work

Our highly trained technicians have worked on some of the most complex cases with great success. If your hard drive or SDcard is no longer responsive, we’ll get your information back!
failed usb drive during data recovery service
Have a failed external USB drive? We can by-pass the USB on your drive and go straight for your data!
unstick heads - data recovery austin
Stuck heads? No problem! We have the tools and the clean room to un-stick your heads..
on site hard drive data recovery service
We can do clean room data recovery on premises when necessary.
inspecting 6 head stack donor drive
Inspecting a 6 head stack from a donor drive before it goes into the patient.

Bottom Line:

At Rossmann Repair Group, we don’t just recover data; we restore your peace of mind. Contact us today for your hard drive data recovery needs in Austin and experience service that sets the industry standard.

Top Reasons To Have Your Repairs Done By Us

All data recovery done on-site.

Our pricing is fair.

High success rate.

You can meet & speak with the recovery specialist working on your case directly.

Get In Touch with Us

Give us a call or fill out the form below to get a fast price estimate on a fix for your device.  If you are not local, we also offer a very streamlined Mail-In Service which makes it very easy to work with us from anywhere in the country.
Mail-In Repair Service

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Monday-Friday – 11 AM to 7 PM
2410 San Antonio Street
Austin, TX 78705

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We Can Fix Your Problem

We provide the best unauthorized MacBook, iPad & iPhone Repair in Austin. You can come to our store for a free estimate without an appointment, or mail your device to us from anywhere in the world to receive service.
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