WD10SMZM Western Digital Data Recovery Project

August 25, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This 1TB Western Digital external drive came in with a WD10SMZM model hard drive inside. It had already gone to Geek Squad as well as another computer repair shop. Geek Squad was not able to get any of the data off the drive, and the computer repair shop recommended us after they were also unsuccessful in getting back any data. These newer Western Digital external drives have a USB port built onto the PCB. This can cause some complications, so the first step was to swap out this PCB with an unlocked PCB. I did not have this particular model PCB in stock, so I had to wait for the part to arrive from China. Once the PCB arrives I swapped it out and started the process of testing the WD10SMZM drive. I did find some issues with firmware which I was able to clear, then continued with testing the hard drive’s heads. All heads tested good, so I continued with getting the drive ready for a full clone. Setting the firmware on the drive … Read more

SD Card Recovery – Fix Corrupt Memory Card and Recover Data

August 17, 2022August 9, 2022 by Aaron Hook

SanDisk Ultra Plus 32GB Micro SD Recovery Micro SD memory cards provide convenient and cheap storage for DSLRs and other portable devices. In some cases an SD memory card may be corrupted accidentally or damaged in some way, causing loss of stored photos, videos, audio files, or other important data. In this case, the micro SD card recovery was required because the card had issues with bad sectors. Common signs & symptoms of a corrupt or damaged SD card The most common sign of a corrupt or damaged SD card is that the sd card will not show up on your computer when you plug it in. If you have important data stored on the card, you will likely need to have data recovery performed to get those files recovered. Another symptom of a failing micro SD card is that it will unmount during use. If your memory card is showing this intermittent symptom, you will want to backup your important file to a different storage device like an external hard drive before you need … Read more

Western Digital WD10JPVX Data Recovery

August 3, 2022August 1, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This WD10JPVX Western Digital hard drive came from inside an external enclosure. The client had used it to store their important photos and some sermons, so when it stopped working they knew they needed a professional data recovery service to help. The client first brought the hard drive to a computer repair shop that also advertises data recovery services. This is one of the computer repair shops we work with to help with the recoveries when they aren’t able to complete them. In this case, they were not able to get the WD10JPVX drive to work at all with the recovery equipment they had. The shop recommended the client discuss the case with me to see if it was a drive I would be able to recover. After discussing the drive I told the client it was likely we would be able to recover it. The drive wasn’t making any weird noises and had not been dropped. It had also started acting slow and erratic before it stopped working altogether. WD10JPVX Diagnosis Once I had … Read more

Western Digital WD2500JS Data Recovery

June 17, 2022 by Aaron Hook

A shop we have worked with for some time sent this WD2500JS data recovery project to us to attempt to get the client’s important data back. The drive had been used inside an iMac for years before the iMac stopped working. The shop diagnosed the drive as having issues and needing data recovery and they sent the drive over to us for the project to be completed. WD2500JS Data Recovery Project The Western Digital hard drive arrived with the symptoms being described as the hard drive will spin up and sounds good, but won’t show up on any computer for data recovery software to access. Because the drive was reported as sounding good, with no drops, I started by connecting it to my PC-3000. Once connected, the drive spun up correctly just as described, and it got ready. I ran the utility for this drive and did all the standard fixes and got it configured for imaging. Once that process was complete I went ahead and left it connected to the PC-3000 and started the … Read more

Hitachi Hard Drive Recovery With Bad Sectors

June 8, 2022June 6, 2022 by Aaron Hook

Hitachi hard drive recovery -HTS725050A7E630

Sometimes even the most basic sounding issues with a hard drive can cause the data to be unrecoverable without specialized equipment and experience. This Hitachi hard drive recovery was one of those recoveries that sounded like the issue may require internal parts replacement, while in reality, the issue was just bad sectors. Hitachi and Western Digital A lot of people don’t realize that the hard drive portion of Hitachi was purchased by Western Digital in 2012. This drive is from after that merger, so this Hitachi drive was created by the Western Digital company. To talk about the merger, you have to go all the way back to 2012. For those of us old enough to still have the battle scars, this was a year after the floods that caused hard drive prices to skyrocket for a time. In 2012, Western Digital Corporation announced that it would be acquiring Hitachi Global Storage Technologies in a deal worth $3.9 billion. The move marked a shift in the storage landscape, as Western Digital became the world’s largest … Read more

Seagate ST31000528AS iMac Recovery

September 30, 2022April 8, 2022 by Aaron Hook

There are certain scenarios where bad sectors can really cause a lot of problems. In most bad sector cases, the data that is not stored in the failing sectors is easily retrieved by the owner of the drive, and many times they don’t even know they have an issue with their drive until they try to move files off of it that are stored in the area of the drive with the failing sectors. In this ST31000528AS iMac recovery case, the bad sectors on this Seagate hard drive caused the drive to not show up on the client’s computer, and even a computer repair shop couldn’t get any usable data from it. iMac stops responding The call came from a customer that had brought their Apple iMac into a computer repair shop when their drive had stopped responding out of the blue. Instead of booting the iMac was just showing a white screen. The Seagate ST31000528AS drive from inside the iMac would not mount on any of the repair shop’s equipment, even after they physically … Read more

Hitachi HTS547575A9E384 With Bad Sectors Recovered

May 12, 2022February 4, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This 750GB Hitachi HTS547575A9E384 hard drive came from a client in McPherson, Kansas. Their hard drive had stopped working before they were able to completely backup the important photos and work excel documents stored on the drive. They brought the drive into us for data recovery and I started on the diagnosis right away. Bad Sectors I found that the problem with the drive was not with the heads, firmware, or PCB, but rather was an issue with failing sectors on the drive. Often times this issue is called “bad sectors”. Basically, the sectors hold the data on the drive and some of them can fail with age. There are millions of sectors on a drive, so when some of them start having issues it can make a drive not work properly. Depending on where the bad sectors are on the drive will dictate how the drive acts. Sometimes those bad sectors are just in areas storing files that are not used very frequently. When you go to open a file that is an area … Read more

How to recover data from laptop hard drive that won’t boot

May 12, 2022January 24, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This 1TB HGST drive came to us from a shop locally here in Wichita. The Wichita shop received a drive that wasn’t showing up on the computers they would plug it into, and they were not able to complete software-based recovery on the drive. This shop likes to refer people to us as we are normally able to recover the data quickly and for a lot less than any competitor data recovery companies. Recovering Important Music From Hard Drive That Won’t Boot This particular drive had some important audio files for a DJ that had created original music. The customer had tried the Geek Squad from Best Buy first but was told they were not able to recover anything from the drive without sending it out for recovery. The quote for the recovery through Best Buy was $1450. The customer decided to not go through them for recovery but brought the drive to their local computer repair shop instead. The local computer repair shop attempted a recovery on the drive but found it would not … Read more

Latest Not Showing Up SSD Data Recovery Service

July 1, 2022December 22, 2021 by Aaron Hook

Pioneer solid state drive that was not showing up on computer

We offer an SSD data recovery service under our affordable Standard service rate. Many recovery companies are charging a higher rate for SSD recovery services, but not us! We charge the same low rate as we do with standard hard drive recovery. SSD Data Recovery Service This older Pioneer solid state drive got referred to us by a shop that offers some data recovery services but doesn’t have the more advanced tools or experience in the data recovery field. This particular SSD was an older 120GB Pioneer model APS-SL2-120. The computer that was in use with the drive stopped mounting it, and the repair shop reported that while their recovery software could “see” the drive and even get back some folder structure, they were not able to recover any usable data files from it. Diagnosing the Pioneer APS-SL2-120 For solid state drives, I complete a quick visual inspection to verify there is no liquid or obviously burned chips present. Once that has been verified I connect the drive to the PC-3000 and check if it … Read more

Intel Pro 2500 SSD Stopped Working

May 12, 2022November 30, 2021 by Aaron Hook

A computer repair shop in Wichita referred a client to us who had an older Intel SSD Pro drive. The customer had brought a laptop into the shop because it was no longer fully booting and reported that it had just stopped working randomly. The repair shop found that the SSD stopped working and that is what was causing the issues with the laptop. SSD Stopped Working Recovery The repair shop attempted to get the data off the drive by connecting it to another machine and using software-based data recovery tools. They were not able to get any data from the drive at all, so they recommended for the customer to contact us to see if we could help recover this Intel SSD for an affordable rate. Some people are surprised to hear that SSD drives can fail in similar ways to a regular hard drive. Always have a full backup of any important data no matter what you use to store your files, as all drives will fail eventually. I rarely see these Intel … Read more