Devices · laptop and desktop PCs
A machine that won't start and a drive that has failed are two different issues, with the first being far more common; when something fails on your PC, such as a screen, motherboard, or circuitry, it does so independently of your drive. Drives from laptops & desktops come in for recovery from all over Maidenhead, sent separately from their computers, and what we care about is getting back your data. Storage that is attached by soldering (T2 and Apple silicon Macs, soldered laptop flash) is not taken on, and if you are unsure whether yours is soldered, call us before sending anything out.
Describe the fault to an engineer
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| The symptom | The likely cause | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| HP: SMART Hard Disk Error (301) — Hard Disk 1 | The BIOS will not allow you to boot a disk which SMART data has condemned | This is considered terminal; take an image of it now |
| HP: Boot Device Not Found (3F0) | There are no bootable devices visible in the BIOS | A dropped connection or a dead hard drive |
| Dell: Error Code 2000-0142 | ePSA from Dell has determined your hard drive has failed; heads, usually | Don't repeat this test |
| Dell: Error Code 2000-0146 | Your hard drive error log has been filling up for a while now | This failure is not new |
| ThinkPad: 2100 — Detection error on HDD0 (Main HDD) | Nothing answers on that channel: loose cable or dead hard drive | Get the image first; then check all cables after |
| Disk read error — press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart | There is damage to the boot sector or the disk cannot be read | Restarting will not help |
| Reboot and Select proper Boot Device | Firmware does not see a bootable device | Locate the fault before reinstalling |
Nothing is chargeable until you say yes. Every item gets a case number of its own immediately upon receipt, an engineer determines what has failed, and you get a clear picture of which files have a real possibility of being recovered. The single quote that follows is fixed, written down and does not cost anything.
If the drive is removable, it comes to us on its own, taken out of the machine (any repair shop will do that), and the rest of the machine stays with you; storage soldered to the board (T2 & Apple silicon Macs, soldered laptop flash) is not taken on, therefore if you are unsure which type you have, call us first.
A failed disk goes into the hard drive/SSD queue; one that is sound but stranded in a broken machine needs an image and little else.
Profiles, desktops, documents and mail stores return in the same organisation as before, on new media, and you approve the listing before a charge can be raised.
You don't get charged anything until you've confirmed and authorised that everything is fine after seeing the entire list of what was recovered. Any recovered items are returned via brand-new storage media and the postage costs for these are covered by us. We do not consider a project complete here until we receive confirmation that you have been able to successfully access and review every item you received back.
What comes here confirms this as well: if the diagnostics from the original manufacturer are pointing towards a failure in the storage system, there is a high probability that the storage system did fail. Loose connections are relatively rare in such cases. Once this occurs, the disk can be treated as any other disk, and all procedures set out on our hard drive and SSD pages also apply here.
The disk began clicking, and the laptop itself was no longer serviceable. A donor head stack was installed, and the data was recovered slowly over a period of three days. She had five years of marking, reports and lesson plans back.
Disk alone. Where it simply clips/unclips out of the case, get a price quote first, then post it on its own. Postage is cheaper, and there is much less that can be damaged in transit. Most repair shops will pull one out while you wait. Storage soldered to the board (T2 & Apple silicon Macs, soldered laptop flash) is not taken on; call us before sending to find out if yours has this type of soldered storage.
Yes, most of the time. Laptops typically fail due to the screen, main board or power circuit rather than the storage. A good hard drive removed from a failed system is among the least likely to be problematic of the jobs we do here.
This makes no difference, provided that the password or recovery key accompanies the unit. We receive BitLocker units at our bench every week. The volume remains locked, exactly as Microsoft had designed, without the key. Please check your Microsoft account prior to posting.
Very possibly so. Any install will overwrite areas of the hard drive and leave other sections untouched. Everything that occurs after an install will decrease what remains. Set it aside.
Every additional power-up asks for even more of a drive that is already starting to fail. First open a case with us, and let the free diagnosis tell you how much remains.