Seagate is one of the largest and oldest hard drive industry. The company grew significantly when they bought for approximately $2 billion the competitor company Maxtor in 2006, while in 2012 they also bought Samsung. Samsung hard drives now have the Seagate logo (while the technoogy and architecture remains that of Samsung).
Hard drives of the **DM** line (Grenada family etc, for example, ST3000DM001, ST2000DM001 etc.) are considered one of the worst hard drives' family as far as quality is concerned. Their mechanical parts (the read/write heads) are of bad quality, the platter material decays quickly having as a result that the hard drive surfaces are destroyed while the drives are having considerable problems with their Firmware.
Barracuda 7200.11 & 7200.12 hard drives, especially ST31000340AS & ST3500320AS get damaged constantly, something the infuriates the company's faithful customers. A problem in the firmware's microcode, that causes the well-known "Bricking", appeared in these drives somewhere near the end of 2008 and the company recalled these drives series. But it was late, as millions of pieces had been sold (due to their low price) resulting in many users facing huge problems. The drive operates normally, when after a reboot it locks and is not recognized by your computer (and the BIOS also). In other words, the drive powers up, spins up, but is not recognized. In Northwind we have a solution for this problem and we can solve it without breaking the drive's warranty (the warranty is retained).
Typical Seagate drives problems include:
Seagate Momentus - develops premature surface decay Seagate U Series - frequent problems with the motor Seagate Cheetah - frequent problems with the firmware Seagate Barracuda - frequent problems with the firmware, motor and heads.
Seagate drives are vulnerable in power surges. In these cases, the part of the drive that gets damaged is its PCB. This PCB contains unique data for every drive, which means that very rarely you will just change the PCB and the drive will be operational again. We need to transfer these unique data from the damaged drive to the new drive in order for the drive to read its identity and operate again. In most cases the motor chip gets burned (SMOOTH chip). If this happens, then your computer will shut down, you will notice a smell of something burned and when you reboot, your drive will not function at all.
This case, where the drive does not function at all, could mean a stuck motor or destroyed surface of the platters. Data recovery, in these cases, can only be done if the drive is opened inside a clean room and we work on its internal parts.
Finally, a classic problem of these drives (as well as of all drives) is that of Bad Sectors. After a while, the platter to which the data are written start to degrade and bad sectors appear. When the drive tries to read these parts of the surface, it can "freeze", or make strange sounds like "scratching", light ticks or loud noises. As soon as the drive starts displaying these kind of problems, it is very important to power it off and send it to us for a free evaluation.In its lab Northwind uses expensive cloning tools which can bypass the corrupted parts and read data from the 'healthy' parts of the drive's surface. This is usually the only method through which data recovery from Seagate drives is possible.
Maxtor produces hard drives for home and professional use since 1990. These drives had very good reputation for their credibility, with the DiamondMax series to be considered - even today - one of the best hard drives' family, which was the reason that the company was Νο3 hard drives company in the world until May 2006 that was bought by Seagate.
One of the most common problem that the Maxtor drives exhibit is firmware problems. Firmware is stored on the platters, on the System (Service) Area of the Maxtor hard drive. If one of these modules gets damaged, then the drive can't start and is recognized by its code name. For example, instead of the model name a "MAXTOR N40P" displays on the DiamondMaxPlus 8 drives, a "MAXTOR CALYPSO" on the DiamondMaxPlus 9 drives, a "MAXTOR FALCON" on the DiamondMax Plus 10 drives etc. If your drive exhibits this problem, there is a solution! You can't solve this problem alone. It is a complicated procedure, that requires expensive equipment and experience in data recovery.
MAXTOR is also known for their 'melodic' drives series. These drives give a melodic sound - like a mobile phone sound - when their motor gets stuck (hear the sound here). This damage requires for the motor to be unblocked with a specific technique and opened inside a clean room so that the platters are moved to a new donor-drive. This is a complicated process that requires precision, experience and use of specilazed equipment in order to retain the heads alignment.
Another damage that Maxtor drives can have is the PCB electronic error. This usually occurs due to overheating, power surge or problems in the drive's motor. If this happens, the drive won't start and - of course - is not recognized by the BIOS at all.
If the drive makes "clicking sounds" when it starts - hear some typical examples here -, then most times this is a sign of damaged heads. In that case, it is very important to run the appropriate diagnostics in order to rule out the possibility that the drive is damaged due to problems in the firmware or a PCB problem.
Finally, a classic problem of these drives (as well as of all drives) is that of Bad Sectors. After a while, the platter to which the data are written start to degrade and bad sectors appear. When the drive tries to read these parts of the surface, it can "freeze", or make strange sounds like "scratching", light ticks or loud noises. As soon as the drive starts displaying these kind of problems, it is very important to power it off and send it to us for a free evaluation. In its lab Northwind uses expensive cloning tools which can bypass the corrupted parts and read data from the 'healthy' parts of the drive's surface. This is usually the only method through which data recovery from Maxtor drives is possible.
How a Damaged HDD Sounds Like, you can listen to some typical damaged hard drive sounds examples for each manufacturer.
We have recovered data in all these cases.
1. 3.5" WD drive which has unstable heads. It clicks a few times and then spins down. It has to be opened inside a clean room for the heads to be changed.
2. Typical problem of damaged heads, needs to be opened inside a clean room and heads to be replaced.
3. Typical problem of a stuck motor. The drive tries to start and the siren means it doesn't succeed.
4. Typical problem of damaged heads, needs to be opened inside a clean room and heads to be replaced.
5.Motor problem from a 500GB WD. The drive can't reach the correct spin speed.
6. Typical problem of damaged heads in a 500GB drive. The drive clicks a few times and then spins down. It needs to be opened inside a clean room and heads to be replaced.
7. Typical problem of a stuck motor. The drive won't spin up.
8. Typical problem of damaged heads. The drive clicks a few times and then spins down. It has to opened inside a clean room and the heads to be replaced.
9. Problem in the preamplifier chip (which is on the heads). The drive clicks a few times and then spins down. It has to opened inside a clean room and the heads to be replaced.
10.Problem in the motor and the heads of old Caviar drives. The drive makes strange sounds and doesn't spin or spins for a while and then spins down. It's a motor damage that very often hits the heads. It has to opened inside a clean room.
11. Typical problem of heads in a Caviar drive. Needs to be opened in a clean room and heads to be replaced. These drives also exhibit problems with head alignment after the replacement.
12. Typical problem of drive heads in a Raptor drive. It has to opened inside a clean room and the heads to be replaced.
13.Stuck motor problem in a WD6400AALS drive. It needs to opened in a clean room.
14.Problem with damaged heads in a Tornado drive (WD5000AAKS-**YGA*). It has to be opened in a clean room.
15.Damaged heads on a 1TB WD Purple drive. Heads can be heard trying to calibrate and clicking. The drive needs to be opened and heads need to be replaced.
16.Damaged heads on a 500GB WD TahoeXL (3.5"). Heads can be heard clicking. The drive needs to be opened and heads need to be replaced.
17.Damaged heads on a WD 500GB HubbleLT (2.5"), job no. Α101403. Heads can be heard clicking. The drive has had its heads changed inside the Clean Room and has been recovered with 100% success.
18. Typical damaged heads sound on a WD 1000GB 2.5" USB (My Passport) (Fblite - WD10JMVW-**AJG**), job no. A79301. Heads can be heard clicking. The drive has had its heads changed inside the Clean Room and has been recovered with 100% success.
19. Typical damaged heads sound on a WD 1000GB 2.5" USB (My Passport) (Fblite - WD10JMVW-**AJG**), job no. 288301. Heads can be heard clicking. The drive has had its heads changed inside the Clean Room and has been recovered with 100% success.
20. Typical damaged heads sound on a WD 1000GB 2.5" USB (Elements) (Firebird - WD10JMVW-11S5XS0), job no. 265601. Heads can be heard clicking. The drive has had its heads changed inside the Clean Room and has been recovered with nearly 82% success.
21. "Funny" sound that equals to damaged heads on a WD 1000GB 2.5" USB (Elements) (Fblite - WD10JMVW-**AJG**), job no. 198306. Heads can be heard clicking. The drive has had its heads changed inside the Clean Room and has been recovered with nearly 97% success.
22.Stiction on a WD 2.5" 1000GB FBlite (WD10JMVW-**AJG**) drive. Heads are stuck on the platters and they're unable to spin. The recovery was 100% successful (job no. 273603)
23. Typical Stiction sound on a WD Blue 2.5" 500GB Mariner family (WD5000BEVT). Heads are stuck on the platters and they're unable to spin. The recovery was 100% successful (job no. 77102)
1. Classic problem of stuck motor in a Seagate drive that fell.
2. Typical problem of damaged heads in a Seagate drive. It makes slow clicks & beeps.
3. Typical problem of damaged heads in a Momentus (2.5") drive. The drive makes loud sounds.
4. Typical problem of damaged heads. Needs to be opened in a clean room and heads to be replaced.
5. Typical problem of heads that are about to crash. Needs to be opened in a clean room and heads to be replaced.
6. Typical problem of motor seizure - spindle lock. The platters need to be transferred to a new drive (second case).
7. Typical problem of motor seizure - spindle lock. The platters need to be transferred to a new drive (third case).
8.Typical problem of motor seizure - spindle lock or stiction in Barracuda 7200.10 or 7200.11 drives. The platters need to be transferred to a new drive (fourth case).
9. Problem in drive heads that usually comes with surface damage, in Barracuda LP (i.e. ST2000DL01) drives. The drive clicks & beeps. It needs to be opened in a clean room to fix the damaged surfaces and then replace the heads.
10. Problems in drive heads of a Seagate drive. It needs to be opened in a clean room to fix the damaged surfaces and then replace the heads.
11. Problems in drive heads of a Seagate drive. It needs to be opened in a clean room to fix the damaged surfaces and then replace the heads.
12.Problems in drive heads of a Seagate drive. It needs to be opened in a clean room to fix the damaged surfaces and then replace the heads.
13.Heads problem on a Seagate 3TB drive. The drive is producing typical clicking sound and spins down. It needs to be opened inside the Clean Room and checked. Then, heads needs to be replaced.
14.Heads problem on a Seagate 2TB Grenada family (ST2000DM00*). The drive is producing typical clicking sound and spins down. It needs to be opened inside the Clean Room and checked. Then, heads needs to be replaced.
15.Heads problem on a Seagate 500GB 7200.10 series (ST3500630ΑS). The drive is producing typical sounds that might be an indication of media damage. The drive needs to be checked inside the Clean Room for surface damage. Then, heads need to be replaced.
16.Heads problemon a Seagate 160GB 2.5" (ST9160412ASG). The heads are damaged. It needs to be checked inside the Clean Room and heads need to be replaced.
17. Typical sound that equals to damaged heads on a Seagate 3.5" 7200.12 series (ST31000528AS). Needs to be checked inside the Clean Room for media damage and then the heads need to be replaced.
18.Damaged heads and media damage on a Seagate 3.5" BarracudaLP/Bogart series (ST2000DL003). The platters are damaged and the drive is unrecoverable.
19.Damaged heads and possible media damage on a Seagate 3.5" Grenada family (ST1000DM000). The drive needs to be opened inside the Clean Room for inspection and heads transplant.
20. Typical sound that equals to damaged heads and media damaged on a Seagate 250GB 2.5" (ST9250424AS). The drive needs to opened inside the Clean Room for inspection and heads transplant.
21.Typical sound that equals to damaged heads and media damaged on a Seagate 500GB 3.5" 7200.11 (ST3500320AS). The drive is 100% unrecoverable.
22.Typical sound that equals to damaged heads on a Maxtor external 2000GB 2.5" drive. These drives, even though labelled as Maxtor, they are Seagate, and specifically they belong to the notorious Rosewood family. The drive needs to be inspected inside the Clean Room and then heads need to be replaced.
23. Typical sound that equals to damaged heads and media damage on a Seagate 3.5" 7200.12 series (ST31000524AS). The drive is 100% unrecoverable.
24.Typical sound that equals to damaged heads and media damage on a Seagate 3.5" Grenada family (ST2000DM003). The drive is 100% unrecoverable.
25. This sound equals to eccentricity problem on a Seagate 3.5" 7200.11 series (ST3500320AS) drive.
1. Classic problem of stuck motor in a Toshiba drive. You can hear the motor trying to start.
2. Classic motor problem in a Toshiba drive.
3. Typical problem of damaged heads in a Toshiba drive. The drive clicks when it starts.
4. Typical motor problem. The drive makes loud sounds.
5. Typical damaged heads on a 2ΤΒ 2.5" external drive (MQ01UBD200). The drive produces typical clicking sounds. It needs to be opened inside the Clean Room for inspection and heads transplant.
6.Damaged heads and media damage on a 500GB 3.5" external drive (DT01ACA500). The drive was unrecoverable due to platter scratches.
7.Damaged heads and media damage on a 500GB 3.5" external drive (DT01ACA500). The drive was unrecoverable due to platter scratches. [version 2]
8.Damaged heads and media damage on a 500GB 2.5" internal SATA drive (ΜΚ5065GSX). The drive is producing fast clicking and scratching sounds. It is unrecoverable due to surface scatches.
1. Classic problem of damaged heads in a Samsung drive. The drive makes quick clicks.
2. Classic problem of damaged heads in a Samsung drive. The drive clicks a few times and then spins down.
3. Problem in surfaces in a Samsung drive. The heads click when trying to read from bad sectors.
4. Typical problem of damaged heads in a Samsung drive.
5.Damaged heads on a Samsung/Seagate 2.5" 1ΤΒ drive (ST1000LM024/HN-M101MBB). The drive had suffered a fall while copying data.
6.Stiction on a Samsung/Seagate 2.5" 1ΤΒ drive (ST1000LM024/HN-M101MBB). The drive had an impact during operation and the heads were stuck on the platters. The recovery was 100% successful. (job no. 226402)
1. Classic problem of damaged heads in a Quantum drive with many clicks.
1. Classic problem of stuck motor in a Maxtor drive. The drive makes the characteristic 'melody'.
2. Classic problem of stuck motor in a Maxtor drive. The drive makes the characteristic 'melody'.
3. Typical problem of damaged heads in a Maxtor drive. You can hear the characteristic sound together with a metallic sound.
4. Typical problem of damaged heads in a Maxtor drive with continuous clicking.
1. Classic stuck motor problem in a Hitachi drive.
2. Typical problem of damaged heads in a Hitachi drive.
3.Damaged heads problem in a Hitachi drive. You can hear the click and a beep.
4.Damaged heads problem in a Hitachi drive. Needs to be opened in a clean room.
5.Damaged heads on a Hitachi 2.5" drive (HTS541075A9E680). The drive is unrecoverable due to platter damage.
6.Damaged heads on a Hitachi/HGST 3.5" drive (HDS721050CLA362). The heads are mashed.
7.Damaged heads on a Hitachi/HGST 1TB 3.5" drive (HDS721010CLA332). The heads are damaged and the platters are suspect for damage.
8.Damaged heads and media damage on a Hitachi/HGST 500GB 2.5" (HTS541050A9E680) drive.The drive is 100% unrecoverable.
9. Scary sound that equals to damaged heads and media damage on a Hitachi/HGST 1000GB 3.5" drive (HDS721010KLA330). The drive is 100% unrecoverable.
1. Typical problem of damaged heads and damaged surface in an ΙΒΜ drive.
2. Typical damaged heads problem in an ΙΒΜ drive.
3. Typical damaged heads problem on an ΙΒΜ SCSI 36.7GB drive.
1. Typical problem of damaged heads in a Fujitsu drive.
2. Typical problem of damaged heads in a Fujitsu drive.
3. Typical problem of damaged surface in a Fujitsu drive.
Toshiba produced until 2012 only laptop drives (2.5") and some SCSI drives. In the summer of 2012 it hit the market with 3.5" drives, and in very competitive prices for their capacities (500GB, 1TB, 2TB & 3TB). In reality, these drives were produced by WD, after the two companies came to a deal. Toshiba is still, though, considered the leader production company for 2.5" drives.
The main problem that Toshiba drives have is the problematic greasing of the motor in some 2.5" models (usually GAS & GAX). These problems occcured in the drives that were produced after 2007, while from that year and onwards, we received many drives with these symptoms:
The drive starts by making loud sounds or, worst case, it doesn't start at all
The drive is not recognized by the BIOS
The drive is making faint sounds, ticks & scratches, when the motor tries to start but won't start
Another common problem of Toshiba drives is the clicking sounds etc. The drive spins up and the heads start making continuous or off and on sounds. This is a sign of damaged drive heads and in order to recover data what is needed is experience, equipment and a clean room.
A classic problem of these drives (as well as of all drives) is that of Bad Sectors. After a while, the platter to which the data are written start to degrade and bad sectors appear. When the drive tries to read these parts of the surface, it can "freeze", or make strange sounds like "scratching", light ticks or loud noises. As soon as the drive starts displaying these kind of problems, it is very important to power it off and send it to us for a free evaluation. In its lab Northwind uses expensive cloning tools which can bypass the corrupted parts and read data from the 'healthy' parts of the drive's surface. This is usually the only method through which data recovery from Toshiba drives is possible.
Toshiba drives also display some classic problems of 2.5" drives. One of these is the drive heads sticking on the platters. The heads usually park on the special ramp outside the platters, but many times, after a damage or abnormal shutting down, they can't or don't have enough time to return to the ramp and stay on the surface. Immediately after the spin down, the heads get stuck on the surface and it is impossible to get free without the right equipment and experience from the technician. Do not try to open the hard drive yourselves - you will damage the platters and the drive will be non-recoverable.
This HDD from Toshiba, model DT01ACA050 came to our labs for data recovery.
The HDD owner reported that this was an external drive, kept inside his laptop case. Unfortunately his case was stolen and found later by the police, in bad condition. We checked the HDD inside Northwind Data Recovery's Clean Room and found its heads to be smashed and deformed. One of the sliders (it's a part of the hard drive's head assembly) was not where it was supposed to be and after looking around the drive's internals we couldn't find it. This meant that the slider was stuck on the bottom surface and had to be removed and collected.
We removed the platter (!! #dont try this at home!) and indeed,
we found the slider to be stuck underneath. We carefully removed it using special equipment and put the platter back in. Now we were ready to proceed with the recovery.
We replaced the heads of the hard drive and then we attempted to clone it. Of course, we had to tweak the firmware so the drive would tolerate the new parts.
Result: 97.8% of our client's data recovered successfully!
Damaged Hard Drive - Case 272407
This drive that came in to Northwind Data Recovery's labs belongs to another era! :)
It's a WD model with production date: 27 July 2000. Capacity: 7.5GB.
Unfortunately, we confirmed that the HEADS of the drive were destroyed and there were damages to the platter.
For a modern drive, that would mean that the chances of recovery are slim to none. However, these drives had lower data density, meaning that we could maintain some hope for this drive.
Indeed, we replaced the WD HDD heads and to our surprise, we could clone the drive with high speed (compared to its problems and its age).
We successfully avoided the damaged areas of the platter's surface and we managed to recover a very satisfying 83% of our client's data! :)
Damaged Hard Drive - Flood - Case 124501
We got a call about a case with flooded drives. They were victims of the devastating floods that took place in Samothraki island during the September of 2017. Large areas of the island were completely destroyed.
The drives were part of two drives RAID array and this picture describes what we had to deal with when we received them..
The PC was drenched in mud, thus the HDDs were drowned in mud too.
We got to work: We cleaned the drives thoroughly on their outside first, including the electronic parts (PCB). Their PCB were in extremely bad condition due to the flood and the mud. Afterwards, we opened up the drives to see what we had to deal with on their internals.
Having good past experience in situations like this, in Northwind Data Recovery in Thessaloniki, we were sure what would have to face with,, and we were right: Mud everywhere and solidified pieces of mud on the platters of the hard drives platters. Water particles all over the drive's surfaces and on their other internal parts. We initiated special cleaning procedure and removal of the foreign objects from the drive's internals, so we could have a chance in recovering data from this damaged hard drive due to flood. Then, we replaced the heads and the PCB and we put the drive for cloning using our specialized hardware equipment.
We managed to recover data / files with an incredible success rate of 99.9%. Client very happy :)
Damaged Laptop Hard Drive - Case 141304
It's a 2.5" laptop hard drive. The drive is manufactured by WD, and it's of 500GB capacity.
This is a damaged laptop hard drive..
This laptop was in a car that was involved in a serious car accident (luckily, no injuries).
Due to the impact, the laptop suffered several serious hits and was destroyed completely.
Visual inspection helped us realised the severity of the damage: The hard drive's chassis was deformed and was wobblbing (pic. 1 to the left and pic2. to the right).
Of course, a simple drop of the lapto would be sufficient to cause damage to the hard drive due to the fall. In this case, it's much worse because we had impact and total HDD disaster.
Careful, do not drop down your laptops! :)
In our case, we decided it was necessary to transfer the platter to another chassis, Of course, we also had to replace the drive's internal parts (heads etc)
Then, we put the drive up for imaging. Result:
SUCCESS! We were able to recover 96,8% of our client's data! Another happy client! :)
CASE 1201 - HDD Not Recognized By The System
Seagate 500GB hard drive - ST3500320AS model.
Symptoms: Not recognized by the system, with no other causes (fall, power etc).
Solution: It is the well-known problem of the 7200.11 drives family with FW: SD15, which we solved completely.
Percentage or recovery: 100%.
Dropped HDD - Damaged
CASE 1499 - Dropped HDD / Damaged
Seagate 1,5TB hard drive - ST31500341AS model.
Symptoms: Beeping Noise, not recognized.
Causes: Drive fell.
Background: The drive fell while it was not operating. The fall caused the platters to get stuck.
Solution: The platters were unstuck by using specialized equipment and the data was recovered.
Percentage or recovery: 97%.
CASE 1458
Seagate 500GB hard drive - ST9500325AS model.
Symptoms: Spins up, clicks, spins down.
Causes: Fall.
Background: The problem appeared after the drive fell.
Solution: The drive's head 2 was damaged. The heads were replaced with those of a compatible donor and the drive was cloned.
Percentage or recovery: 95%
CASE 1402
Seagate 80GB SATA hard drive - ST380815AS model.
Symptoms: Clicking Noises, not recognized.
Causes: Drive fell.
Background: We checked the internals to find magnetic dust. This dust is created by heads scratching the surface. After inspection under the microscope we could see tiny scratches all over the surface.
Solution: There was no solution. The drive was non-recoverable.
Percentage or recovery: 0%.
Crashed RAID
CASE 1503 - Crashed RAID
Hard drives in RAID 0 array, 2xWD750GB, WD7500AAKS model.
Symptoms: RAID crashed having as a result that the drive is not recognized.
Causes: Orange light on the RAID (HDD Fail).
Background: RAID "crashed" due to a disk failure. There was an automatic rebuild attempt that failed.
Solution: RAID was set up from scratch and using specialized techniques most data was recovered.
Percentage or recovery: 81%.
CASE 1574 - Crashed RAID
ΗΡ 3*37GB SCSI hard drive - BD03685A24 model in RAID5.
Symptoms: RAID crashed and was rebuild.
Causes: Disk error 0.
Background: The problem appeared suddenly. The drive contained an Oracle database with the company's logistical data.
Solution: There was a Firmware problem of drive 0. Drives 0 and 2 had bad sectors. The firmware problem was corrected and the healthy sectors were read. Drive 0: 14599 bad sectors. Drive 2: 1111 bad sectors. The RAID was then set up from scratch and Trace was analysed in order to find the order, the parity and the block size and data was recovered. The process was completely successful.
Percentage or recovery: 100%
CASE 1597 - Crashed RAID
NAS Boxes can use drives in RAID10, RAID5 or RAID0 and can have any Filesystem (XFS, ext3/4, NTFS...). Usually they form a small Linux partition (ext3/4) for their internal administration operating system.
NAS BOX Intel drives system, 4*500GB Seagate ST3500320AS Barracuda 7200.11.
Symptoms: The online storage system is unresponsive.
Causes: Orange light, error on drives.
Background: NAS has 4 drives in RAID 5 in XFS Filesystem. One of these drives (drive "0") had a problem in one of its heads, while a second drive (drive "3") is not recognized by the system, due to the known problem of that drive family.
Solution: We fixed drive "0" problem and it was recognized by the system. Unfortunately, when the Intel NAS Box crashed, it attempted to Rebuild having as a result that all RAID drives were needed in order to recover data. We replaced drive "3" heads and managed to clone 97% of the drive. Then, the RAID was analyzed with all 4 drives' data and it was destriped in a new 2ΤΒ drive. We recovered the data from there.
Percentage or recovery: >97%
Hard Drive With Deleted Files
CASE 1771 - Hard Drive With Deleted Files
WD 160GB 2.5" hard drive.
Symptoms: Deleted files.
Causes: Unknown.
Background: The drive was recovered by another company that recovered ~30 Word files and many non-functional files.
Solution: We recovered a great amount of files which seemed OK in the initial check, but in a second check the result was disappointing (<6% functional data). We looked into the drive's firmware in order to research the reasons behind this problem, to find that a damaged module was causing data shifts. We corrected this problem and recovered the data successfully.
Percentage or recovery: 77%.
Transferred HDD Platters
CASE 1558 - Transferred HDD Platters
WD 500GB 2.5" hard drive - WD5000BMVV model (with USB embedded on the PCB)
Symptoms: Not recognized by BIOS, heads click
Causes: Drive fell.
Background: The drive was dropped by its owner from a 20 cm. height. It was then sent to another data recovery company which opened the drive and said they couldn't find spare parts to recover the data. The drive was maltreated externally, one of the screws were damaged and we found oil (!!) in the drive's interior and fingerprints on the surfaces... The drive's heads were damaged and we also found other strange damages inside.
Solution: The platters were cleaned with a special material and were transferred to another drive for cloning.
Percentage or recovery: Even though we didn't expect to recover more than 30-35%, in spite of what other 'companies' would have wanted, we recovered 54% of the data!
CASE 1661 - Damaged WD HDD
WD400GB SATA hard drive - WD4000YR 3.5" model
Symptoms: Drive fell
Causes: The drive was dropped by its owner while it was operating
Background: After the fall, the drive's owner sent the drive to another data recovery company which, in turn, sent it to England, to one of the 'top' data recovery companies. That company returned the drive characterizing it as "100% non-recoverable" due to "surface damage".
Solution: The drive had two heads (h0 & h4) damaged. We used compatible spare parts on the drive which the drive 'rejected' alsmost immediately. From a new check with special equipment which retains the platters alignment, we checked the platters one by one and found out that the last one had scratches, something that explains the spare parts rejection. We applied a special technique with multiple spare parts and lots of patience ;-)
Percentage or recovery: 98.4%. We recovered 330GB of data with total success. The procedure lasted 36 days.
Encrypted HDD / Dropped
CASE 1587 - Encrypted HDD / Dropped
These drives have an embedded USB Controller on the PCB and factory encryption.
WD 1000GB SATA hard drive - WD10TMVV 2.5" model.
Symptoms: The drive was not recognized. Clicking Sounds.
Causes: Drive fell.
Background: Problem appeared after the drive fell.
Solution: It's a type of drive that have a USB embedded on the PCB. The heads were replaced and the drive was cloned. These drives have factory encryption, something which complicates the recovery process. Nevertheless, recovery was impressively successful.
Percentage or recovery: 99%.
Broken USB Stick
CASE 1600 - Broken USB Stick
USB Stick data are analysed using specialized software, with which we combine and decrypt them.
Kingston 8GB USB Flash Stick, chip ID P82232BD.
Symptoms: Not recognized.
Causes: Broke while transferred.
Background: A heavy object fell on the stick and broke it.
Solution: The stick contains 2 chips on which data is written. These chips were inserted on the device that reads their data. The contents were encrypted. Data & Mark ID was analysed and data were decrypted.
Percentage or recovery: 100%.
Stuck Motor In Hard Drive
CASE 1612 - Stuck Motor In Hard Drive
Seagate 1000GB SATA hard drive - ST31000333AS 3.5" model
Symptoms: Drive fell
Causes: The drive was dropped by its owner while it was operating
Background: After the fall, the drive's owner attempted to fix the problem himself (stuck motor) by opening the case. Luckily, he didn't continue and closed the case.
Solution: The reason why the case should not be opened in an uncontrolled environment is the one shown on the image below. Dust particles and himidity from the air sit on the platter surfaces and can cause severe damages. Luckily the client didn't continue with attempting to fix the problem and brought us the drive to recover the data. The platters were cleaned and the drive was cloned.
Percentage or recovery: 93%.
HDD Deep Freeze Trick
CASE 1809 - HDD Deep Freeze Trick
Condensates are on the surfaces, a result of the drive's owner using the "deep freeze trick".
Symptoms: The drive clicks and is not recognized.
Causes: The drive was dropped by its owner while it was not operating
Background: After the fall, the drive's owner attempted to fix the problem himself by putting the drive on the freezer for 4 hours.
Percentage or recovery: 0%.
Solution: The various DIY solutions based on urban legends like the "deep freeze" one, resulted in severe damage, as you can see on the image. There are condensates on the drive's surfaces resulting in the drive being 100% non-recoverable.
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ISO27001
Northwind Data Recovery ensures the data recovery security processes with the ISO27001 Certification. You can view the certificate in the following link: ISO27001 Certification.
General 
Western Digital 
Seagate 
HGST 
Maxtor 
Toshiba 
Fujitsu 
Samsung 
IBM/Hitachi 
Quantum 
External Drives 
Typical Seagate drives problems include:
Maxtor produces hard drives for home and professional use since 1990. These drives had very good reputation for their credibility, with the DiamondMax series to be considered - even today - one of the best hard drives' family, which was the reason that the company was Νο3 hard drives company in the world until May 2006 that was bought by Seagate.
It's a WD model with production date: 27 July 2000. Capacity: 7.5GB.
