Samsung belongs to Seagate since 2012. Seagate has retained some Samsung models as they were, putting its brand name on the drive sticker (i.e. HD204UI = ST2000DL004), while the rest of the models were discontinued. Nevertheless, the technology and architecture remains that of Samsung.

One of the most common problem that the Samsung drives exhibit is firmware problems. Firmware is stored on the platters, on the System (Service) Area of the Samsung hard drive. If one of these modules gets damaged, then the drive can't start and is recognized by its code name. You can't solve this problem alone. It is a complicated procedure, that requires expensive equipment and experience in data recovery.

Another damage that Samsung 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 Samsung drives is possible.

Western Digital is one of the biggest hard drive companies in the world. The last few years the company has developed various innovations separating itself from the competition.
In 2001 it developed a series of ATA hard drives with 8ΜΒ cache, while most hard drives at that time were working with 2ΜΒ.
In 2003 it presented the first SATA hard drive in the world that operates in 10.000 rounds/minute: Raptor, a 36GB drive with 6ms reading speed. A while later it presented an edition of double capacity (74GB) which was more quiet compared the 36GB one. Of course, as years went by, more editions followed (150GB, 300GB and 600GB).

Since 2012, WD has acquired Hitachi's Hard drive department (the technology and architecture of these hard drives remain to Hitachi, though).

It's worth noting, that the MyPassport, My Book, MyBook Essential, MyBook World etc. drives have encryption integrated on their PCB. Specifically, Passport drives have an integrated USB bridge on their PCB, which contains encryption. The rest 3.5" models, have on their USB bridge similar PCB that encrypts the data. This complicates the data recovery process, but Northwind's experienced technicians have a way to overcome the most complex damages.

The most usual problem of Western Digital drives is on their PCB. These drives are sensitive to overheating, and bad power supply or power surges are enough to destroy the PCB microchips resulting in un-accessible data.

If your drive appears to have this kind of problem Northwind can recover your data. Our labs have specialized equipment with which we can alter a PCB and use special software to program it, so we can read the drive's data correctly.

WD external drives (Passport, MyBook etc) tend to not be recognized by the PC after they are connected to it through USB cable. The drive is recognized as a Passport 0731 (or similar) without allowing access to the data, or is recognized as MyBook but requests format or does not assign a drive letter or recognized it as a WD BAD PCB. This is a very common problem and results in un-accessible data.
In Northwind we have cases like that every day and have success in recovering data.

In Western Digital drives it is possible that as soon as they spin up, the heads start 'clicking' (you can hear typical damaged drives sounds here). Most times, this is a sign of damaged drive heads and it is very important to run the diagnostics correctly in order to eliminate the case that the problem is due to firmware or PCB, something that could also cause clicking.

Finally, a classic problem of these drives (as well as 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 WD drives is possible.

Fujitsu's fame has rised significantly the past years, compared to the disdain it had suffered when they had publicly confessed that they had produced 9 million faulty drives in the MPG and MPF series. These drives had faulty chips (Cirrus Logic Chip). After a few months of operation, these drives didn't spin up, their mechanical operation was problematic, they made clicking sounds etc.
This happened some years ago, but despite that, Northwind's labs keeps getting Fujitsu drives with that problem.
Thanks to the techniques we are using, we can recover all data from these drives.

When these drives get damaged, it is very important to NOT change the PCB with another one. Each drive's PCB contains unique information for that drive. Even worse, a different PCB can cause a mechanical damage in these drives and make data recovery very difficult. If you suspect that your drive is ready to crash, power it off and remove it from your computer as soon as possible. The sooner you turn off the power the more likely it is for us to recover its data.

In any case, the last generation Fujitsu drives (3.5", 2.5" and 1.8") have, generally, above average performance compared to similar drives of other companies.

In Fujitsu drives, it is possible, that as soon as they spin up, the heads start making sounds (listen to sounds from typical problems here). Most times, this is a sign of damaged heads. If this happens, it is very important to run the appropriate diagnostics on the drive in order to eliminate the possibilities that the problem is due to a firmware error or a PCB problem, something that could also cause clicking.

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 Fujitsu drives is possible.

Hard drive data recovery

Choose a brand:
Western Digital | Seagate | Maxtor | Toshiba | Fujitsu | Samsung | IBM/Hitachi | Quantum | Εxternal Drives

Northwind specialized in hard drive data recovery of all controller types (IDE, SATA, SCSI etc) as well as external hard drives of all types (USB 2.5", USB 3.5" etc).

We recover data from hard drives regardless of the operating system (Windows, Linux, MacOS, SCO etc) and our equipment is compatible with all hard drive brands (Western Digital, Seagate, Samsung, Maxtor, Hitachi/IBM, Toshiba, Fujitsu, HP, Quantum etc).

If your drive has stopped responding, if you accidentally dropped it and is no longer recognized by your PC, if it makes strange sounds, it is very important to do absolutely nothing on your own because you could make things worse resulting in higher recovery costs and compromising your data recovery success possibilities.

In all these cases please power off your hard drive and contact us (210 3314829 for Athens, 2310.402675 for Thessaloniki or for emergency cases call 6946.908811) and one of our experienced technicians will guide you to your next steps in order to have a free evaluation of the damage.

Finally, we would like you to pay attention to the following very important information regarding data recovery:

• Hard drives contain sensitive mechanical parts. Only specialized technicians with the right equipment should have access to these parts. Do not try to access the drive's internal parts in order to fix the damage yourselves. In 99.999% of the cases your drive will be non-recoverable after you have messed with it. Mainly because the distance between the heads and the platters is so small that even a dust particle can damage it. For this reason, hard drives are opened inside a Clean Room which is dust and humidity free. 
• Finally, it is imporant to know that in order for a drive to be operational its heads are positioned with 0.001mm accuracy. Without having the right equipment which will retain the alignment, the drive will be 100% non-recoverable.
• During the recovery process it is not your own drive that is fixed. We just replace the damaged parts in order to make it as functional as possible and we then proceed in copying your functional data. At the end of the process your drive is returned to you in its initial state, that is, non-functional. In the cases where this method is not effective we follow another approach, which includes transferring the drive's platters to another drive.