External drives fail in ways their own case often hides — sometimes it's only the enclosure or its USB bridge that's died, with a perfectly healthy drive inside. Whether yours has been dropped, won't show up, beeps, or asks to be formatted, we recover WD, Seagate, Toshiba, LaCie and every other make for people and businesses across Belfast and Northern Ireland, in-house.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: WD My Passport (5 TB, USB) → Status: NOT DETECTED — USB board failed → Client: confidential · Belfast $ bdr engineer-working → USB board: repaired · drive healthy → Encryption: key preserved · unlocked → Imaging: 4.6 TB / 5 TB · 100% read $ bdr verify → ✓ photos — 41,200 files → ✓ documents — 12,800 files → ✓ drive recovered — data back
Most people typing ‘external hard drive repair near me’ don’t want the drive mended. They want what’s on it.
Plenty of external-drive faults genuinely are repairs — a cracked USB socket, a dead bridge board inside the enclosure, a failed power connector. We fix those routinely, because getting the disk readable again is step one of every recovery, and when the drive inside is healthy those jobs are quick.
A drive that’s mechanically failing is a different proposition. It can be repaired enough to read — donor heads, board-level work — but it isn’t refurbished and put back into service; the entire point is a verified copy of your files on new media. If files are what you’re after, recovery is the honest word for the job — and either way it starts with the same free diagnostic.
An external drive that beeps or clicks has a mechanical fault — the beep is the motor straining, the click is the heads. Plugging it into another port or computer to try again only risks more damage. Switch it off, don't keep retrying it, and let us open it in clean-air conditions before the platters are harmed.
External drives bring a fault of their own — the case — on top of everything that can go wrong with the disk inside. These are the ones we see most.
We recover every make of external and portable drive — USB, USB-C and Thunderbolt, desktop and pocket-sized alike.
Portable and desktop externals of every capacity, USB, USB-C and Thunderbolt — and where the case has failed, we recover the drive inside whatever make it turns out to be.
With an external, the first question is whether it's the case or the drive that's failed — and we start there. Whatever the fault, we read from a copy: bypass the bridge, repair the disk if needed, image it, and rebuild your files from that image.
We test whether the enclosure or the drive itself has failed, and if it's the drive, exactly what's wrong — opening it in clean-air conditions where needed — then quote in writing.
A dead bridge is bypassed and the drive read directly; a failed drive is repaired — heads, motor, board or firmware — enough to read it.
Anything that opens the drive is done in clean-air conditions, so no dust reaches the platters while the heads are handled.
Once readable, the drive is imaged sector by sector, working gently around any weak areas to protect fragile heads and surfaces.
For hardware-encrypted drives such as WD My Passport, we work through the encryption so the recovered files come back readable.
We reconstruct the file and folder structure from the image and check the recovered files open before anything is returned.
Your files come back on fresh media, or via our free download service for up to 75GB — whichever suits you.
From a dead-bridge My Passport to a dropped portable drive or a surge-hit desktop unit, we recover external drives of every make — always from the drive itself and a read-only image, never your original under strain.
Give us a few details about what went wrong and an engineer will come back to you, usually inside one working day.
We will get back to you soon. If it is urgent, call 028 9002 0144.
A free diagnostic first, then a fixed written quote before any work begins. Recovering a single external drive is £300 + VAT, with no fix, no fee on most jobs — and where the drive needs physical repair, a 50% deposit covers donor parts and bench time, with the balance only on success.
A representative selection of external drives we've recovered across different makes and faults — device types and outcomes shown, customer details kept private.
The case's bridge had failed and the data was encrypted through it. We bypassed the bridge, worked through the encryption, and recovered everything.
The fall had damaged the heads but spared the platters. A matched donor head swap in clean-air conditions let us image it and recover the lot.
The partition had turned RAW, but the data was intact behind it. We imaged the drive read-only and rebuilt the file system in full.
Stiction — the heads had stuck to the platters. We freed them in clean-air conditions and the drive imaged cleanly.
The board had been damaged but the drive itself was fine. We repaired the board, carried the ROM across, and it read perfectly first time.
The drive hadn't been used since, so the data was untouched. A deep scan of a read-only image brought the files back cleanly.
Post or drop in your device for a free diagnostic, with a note on what happened — an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before any work begins.
First step: get the device onto our Belfast bench. Wrap it well, tuck your contact details in the box, and post it over — the diagnostic costs nothing, and you’ll have a firm written price to approve before we touch a single sector.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is best. Dropping it off instead? You’re welcome Monday–Friday, 9am–5:30pm — please still pack the device as above.
Not ready to send anything yet? Use the form to describe the fault in your own words and one of the engineers will come back with a quote tailored to your situation.
We will get back to you soon. If it is urgent, call 028 9002 0144.
The questions we're asked most about external hard drive recovery.
Not necessarily — and often it isn't. A very common cause is the case's USB bridge failing while the drive inside stays healthy. Try another cable and port first; if it's still invisible, don't keep retrying it. We'll establish whether it's the case or the drive and recover the data either way.
Usually, yes. Clicking after a drop means head damage, which is recoverable with a donor head swap — as long as the drive hasn't been run for long while damaged. Switch it off and stop testing it; that's what protects the platters.
Yes. Many My Passport and Elements drives encrypt through the case's bridge, so a dead bridge locks the data behind it. We recover the drive and work through that hardware encryption to bring your files back readable.
Not if it holds anything you want back. That message means the file system is damaged (RAW), but your data is still there — formatting only begins to overwrite it. Let us recover it first, then format the drive afterwards if you want to reuse it.
Expect £300 + VAT for one external drive, diagnosed free beforehand, with no fix, no fee applying to most jobs. Physical repairs carry a 50% deposit that goes toward donor parts and bench hours; the rest is due only when your data is recovered. The figure is confirmed in writing before we begin.
For most work, yes: no recovered data means no recovery fee. Jobs that need donor hardware are the one exception — a deposit covers the parts and the bench hours — but even then the remaining balance is only ever billed on success.
All of them — WD, Seagate, Toshiba, LaCie, Samsung, Buffalo, G-Technology and the rest, in every capacity. Whatever the case, we recover the drive inside, whichever make it turns out to be.
We'd rather you didn't. On many drives the case's bridge is tied to hardware encryption, so removing the drive can make the data harder to reach, and prising a case open risks damaging the disk. Send it as it is and we'll handle the enclosure safely.
A beep on power-up is usually the motor straining against seized bearings or stuck heads, drawing power it can't turn into spin. It's a mechanical fault that needs the drive opened in clean-air conditions — and it's very recoverable, provided the drive isn't forced to keep trying.
A logical recovery is often done in 1 to 3 working days; a physical repair and image typically takes 3 to 7, depending on the drive's condition. The diagnostic itself is usually finished within 48 hours, and urgent cases can normally be prioritised.
Bring the unit to Cromac Square any weekday, 9am–5:30pm, or ship it insured. Post the complete enclosure with its cable, padded so nothing shifts in transit, and tuck a note inside carrying your name, address, phone and email — we’ll log it, run the free diagnostic and send your written quote.
Every make of external or portable drive recovered under one roof in Belfast — £300 + VAT per drive, free diagnostic, and no fix, no fee on most work. If it’s beeping or clicking, pull the plug and get it to us.