Data Recovery Case File · Desktop Externals · Process & Trade

The enquiry written like an RFQ: a 5TB Backup Plus recovered, and our process set out as asked

Enquiries from IT professionals have a particular shape: device identified to the model inside the enclosure, fault stated without adjectives, and the questions aimed at process — how does shipping work, what's the turnaround, confirm the environment. This one, from an IT firm handling the job on a client's behalf, even sketched their understanding of what a proper lab does. This page is the recovery, and the answers, in their format.

The enquiry

“Are you able to quote based on the details below? If you could confirm your process — do we post or drop off, turnaround times etc. — with the quote, that would be fabulous. The item is a USB 3.0 Seagate Backup Plus with a Barracuda 5TB 2.5″ SATA disk inside. It powers up via the enclosure but is not readable and doesn't mount on Mac or Windows. Usually the recovery experts have a dust-free, static-free environment where they can transfer the data onto another working drive…”

The recovery, briefly — because they'd already guessed most of it

Their sketch of the trade was near enough correct to need only footnotes. Assessment traced the mounting failure to the usual suspect in a slim high-capacity portable: heads worn past their opening reads on an otherwise healthy drive. The dust-free environment they anticipated is the flow bench, where a donor head-stack from the matching family went in; the footnote worth adding is that on a dense 2.5″ drive of this generation — five terabytes of shingled recording in a laptop-drive footprint — the transplant is the start, not the substance. The substance is the imaging: run through the PC-3000 and USB Stabilizer with the drive's housekeeping stood down, sequential and sympathetic to the shingled layout, cooperative surfaces banked early and the reluctant remainder negotiated late, in Data Extractor. The client's volume came off the completed image intact and verified — near-total coverage, itemised.

The process, as requested

In their format: Logistics — post (tracked and insured, drive powered off, padded snug) or drop off; both routes land on the same bench. Assessment — free, non-invasive first, with a written diagnosis and one fixed price before any chargeable work; no-recovery-no-fee as standard. Turnaround — a standard queue and an expedited service, both stated in days on the quote rather than promised in adjectives; mechanical jobs carry the assessment-to-approval loop, so the written go-ahead is the clock's real start. Environment and method — clean-air bench for anything opened; firmware-level imaging hardware rather than desktop copying; the original media never worked on after imaging. Return of data — on new media we supply or media you provide, encrypted; and yes, a secure download link is available for smaller recoveries where the client prefers it. Trade handling — reports written to be forwarded, your client relationship stays yours, and repeat trade terms exist for firms who send regularly.

Outcome

The client's data delivered through the referring firm, on time against the quoted band, with the paperwork they needed to close their own ticket. Professional buyers make this trade better: the enquiry that asks about process is the enquiry that compares like with like — and a lab confident in its process should be glad to publish it. Consider it published.

Our case files are drawn from genuine enquiries received by our laboratory over the past ten years, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery procedure our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.