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Case Study :: Data recovery

We were recently referred a hard disk that another data recovery agent had been unable to recover data from for the client. It was going to be referred to a clean room laboratory to be dismantled, but the client had baulked at the high fees quoted. The client wanted us to have a look before resigning themselves to losing their data forever.

We tried mounting the hard disk in our machine, and the disk was receiving no power at all, and was not mountable, so we knew immediately that it was going to be a hardware issue, and we would probably need to investigate the Printed Circuit Board (PCB).  We did some research on the particular disk involved, and tested the diodes on the PCB with a multimeter. Blown diodes can occur when the wrong power cable is connected to the powered Hard Disk Enclosure.

Sure enough there were signs that one of the diodes on the PCB had burnt out, so we removed the particular diode from the circuit and tried the Hard Disk again in our external enclosure. This time the disk spun into life and we were able to recover the data from the disk for a very grateful client. 

If you find yourself in a disk disaster, don't panic, we can help. Contact us.