Devices · internal hard disks
There are only so many ways a spinning disk dies: read heads, spindle motor, the circuit board, or its firmware. The fault matters less than what you do about it. Cut the power and hand it to the lab.
Speak to an engineer about it
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| The wording | What that tells you | First step |
|---|---|---|
| You need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it | Windows sees RAW: the file index is broken, though the files themselves usually aren't | Cut the power; never format |
| Data error (cyclic redundancy check) | Verification of the read has failed — nearly always damaged sectors | Abandon the copy; image instead |
| The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error | The drive no longer answers Windows dependably | Switch off; record the model number |
| Windows detected a hard disk problem | The drive's SMART monitoring forecasts a failure | Copy it out now, or image it |
| Error 0x800701E3 — a fatal device hardware error | Hardware giving way part-way through a transfer | Stop retrying; this needs the lab |
| S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD at power-on | Its built-in health monitor failed during start-up | Stop starting the machine from it |
| 0GB in the BIOS, or a model name that's wrong | Corrupt translator or firmware — the disk no longer knows itself | A firmware job for the lab |
As soon as it lands with us, your device gets its own case number. An engineer works out the fault, says what can genuinely be pulled off, then puts one fixed price in writing — no charge for diagnosis, no obligation, and no chargeable work until you approve it.
The disk goes on a hardware imager that eases past unreadable regions rather than pounding at them. Your files sit on a sound copy before any other work starts.
Dead head stacks are swapped for matched donor sets, seized spindles freed, and burnt boards repaired with the original ROM moved across.
From that image we put the file system back together, and a complete listing of what came off reaches you before any fee is due.
You sign off a complete list of the recovered files first; only then does the recovery fee fall due. Everything returns on fresh media, postage paid, and the job stays open until you confirm the files open at your end.
What are the real odds of failure? The Drive Stats figures Backblaze publishes — still the only sizeable open dataset — put the annualised failure rate at 1.36% for 2025 across more than 344,000 datacentre drives, against 1.57% the year before. Those run under constant load; drives in homes and offices fail less often, and with far less warning.
Two heads had failed and the platters hadn't turned for weeks. With donor heads fitted, the first imaging pass reached 96%, and the invoices, accounts and photos all went home verified.
Usually not. A click tells you the heads have stopped reading, not that the platters are empty. With matched donor heads and patient imaging, most clicking drives hand back most of their data. Carrying on using it does the damage, not the noise.
Usually, yes — just tell us honestly that it happened. Any drive opened away from the lab gets its own quote once we've looked at the platters, and prior damage can put a case outside no-fix-no-fee.
The diagnosis costs nothing, and your price is set in writing before any chargeable work begins. Logical faults land at the cheaper end; mechanical jobs needing donor parts come to more. You always see the figure first.
Yes — early SATA, IDE and SAS server disks are routine here. Age changes the tools, not the result.
Powering a damaged device up again costs you data. Start a case first; diagnosis is free whatever you decide.