Clicking, dropped, dead, or simply not showing up — whatever a hard drive is doing, the data is usually still on the platters, waiting to be read. We recover every make of drive, from Seagate and WD to Toshiba and the rest, for people and businesses across Belfast and Northern Ireland. Anything that needs opening is worked in clean-air conditions, and we read from a copy, never your original under strain.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sda → Device: WD Black 4 TB (Desktop) → Status: CLICKING — head crash, will not spin → Client: confidential · Belfast $ bdr engineer-working → Read-write heads: replaced · matched donor → Service area: firmware modules repaired → Imaging: 3.81 TB / 4 TB · 99.1% read $ bdr verify → ✓ documents — 21,400 files → ✓ photos — 38,900 files → ✓ drive recovered — data back
A drive that clicks, grinds or beeps has a mechanical fault, and those noises are the heads dragging where they shouldn't. Every extra minute it runs risks scoring the platters — the one kind of damage that loses data for good. Power it down, resist the urge to keep trying it, and let us look at it while the platters are still clean.
Hard drives fail in a handful of familiar ways — some mechanical, some logical. Whatever yours is doing, there's a good chance we've brought back a drive just like it.
We recover every make and model of hard drive — internal and external, desktop and laptop, and the drives pulled from PCs, Macs, servers and NAS boxes.
Every capacity and interface, from older IDE and PATA drives through SATA and SAS — single drives, external and portable units, and disks lifted out of laptops, PCs, Macs, RAID arrays and NAS enclosures.
Recovering a hard drive is about getting it stable enough to read once, cleanly. We repair or bypass whatever failed, take a read-only image of the platters, and rebuild your files from that copy — the original is never leaned on.
We find out exactly what's wrong — heads, motor, board, firmware or file system — opening the drive in clean-air conditions where needed, then send a written quote.
We repair or replace whatever failed: a matched donor head stack, a freed or swapped motor, board and pre-amp work, or a firmware repair to get the drive readable.
Anything that opens the drive is done in clean-air conditions, so no dust reaches the platters while the heads are handled.
Once stable, the drive is imaged sector by sector, reading gently around any weak areas to protect fragile heads and surfaces.
We reconstruct the file and folder structure from the image, so your data comes back organised and named, not as raw fragments.
Recovered files are checked to confirm they open and are intact, and we can show you what's come back 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 clicking desktop drive to a dropped laptop disk or a dead external, we recover hard drives of every make — always from a stabilised drive and a read-only image, never your original under stress.
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 hard 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 hard drives we've recovered across different makes and faults — device types and outcomes shown, customer details kept private.
The heads had failed but the platters were unmarked. A matched donor head swap in clean-air conditions let us image it and recover the lot.
A surge had blown the board's protection diode. We repaired it, carried the ROM across, and the drive spun up and imaged perfectly.
The heads had touched down and left light scoring, but it was switched off quickly. We imaged the good heads first and recovered almost everything.
Corruption in the firmware area was stopping it initialising. We repaired the modules, the drive identified itself, and it imaged cleanly.
Silt and corrosion coated the internals, but the platters were flat. We cleaned it, swapped the corroded heads, and imaged the drive in full.
The file system had been left half-written. We imaged the drive and rebuilt the structure, recovering the folders and files intact.
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 hard drive recovery.
Usually, yes — as long as you stop using it. Clicking is a mechanical fault, and the platters holding your data are almost always intact; it's the heads, motor or firmware that have failed. Running it on is what scores the platters, so switch it off and the odds are good.
Almost never. A drive that won't start most often has a dead board, a seized motor or a firmware fault — and in every one of those the platters, and your data, sit intact behind the problem. It's a bench job, but one of the more routine ones.
Yes. If it shows in the BIOS but not in Windows, it's usually logical — a RAW partition, a driver or a lost drive letter — with the data still there. If it's missing from the BIOS entirely, it's a hardware fault we repair on the bench. Either way, don't let anything format or initialise it first.
When the fault is mechanical, yes — and always in clean-air conditions so no dust reaches the platters. Head swaps, motor work and platter handling are all done that way. Logical faults don't need the drive opened; we image it and work from the copy.
£300 + VAT covers recovery of one hard drive, and the diagnostic beforehand is free, with no fix, no fee on most work. If the drive needs opening or parts, a 50% deposit covers donors and bench time — the balance falls due only on a successful recovery, and the full price is put in writing before anything starts.
Mostly, yes — if the data doesn’t come back, the recovery fee doesn’t apply. Physical jobs that consume donor parts are the exception: a deposit pays for those parts and the bench hours, though the balance still hinges on a successful result. You’ll know exactly which arrangement applies before anything starts.
All of them — Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, Hitachi and HGST, Samsung, Maxtor, Fujitsu and the rest, in every capacity. Internal or external, desktop or laptop, and the drives inside PCs, Macs, servers and NAS boxes.
Not on a drive that's physically failing. Recovery software keeps the drive powered and working hard, which can turn a recoverable fault into a lost one — and if it writes anything to the drive, it can overwrite the data you're after. If the drive is making noises or dropping out, stop and have it assessed.
No — it's an old myth that does far more harm than good. Condensation and the contraction of tight internal parts damage the platters and electronics. There's no safe DIY fix for a failing drive; it needs proper bench work.
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 — just let us know.
The drive can come to Cromac Square in person — weekdays, 9am to 5:30pm — or by insured post. Wrap it so it can’t rattle, add a slip with your name, number, email and address, and we’ll have it logged, diagnosed free and priced in writing.
One flat price — £300 + VAT per drive — a diagnostic that costs nothing, and no fix, no fee on most work. Whatever the make, every hard drive is recovered on our own Belfast bench, never outsourced. If it’s making noises, power it off now and get it to us.