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MHDR / Common faults / Water & fire damage

Flooded, damp or fire-damaged

Water and fire damage, Maidenhead. The drives that come back are the ones nobody dried.

Very few drives are finished off by the water or the heat itself. Almost all of the ones that are lost are finished off in the hours after the drive has been damaged, when someone puts one on a radiator or tests if it's working using power. Whether they were soaked by river water, a burst pipe or water coming through a ceiling, the recovered drives will be the ones that have not been touched. Simply seal your drive while it is still wet and get a quote first, by phone or with the form, then post it from Maidenhead today, tracked and insured, to the Guildford intake lab, or drop it off there (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed).

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs Diagnosis free, then a fixed quote Get a quote, then post it in from Windsor, Slough or anywhere else

Describe the fault to an engineer
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Water and fire damage: what each sign means.

None of these? Run the triage →
The signsThe likely causeStart here
It is dead after being soakedThe water took out the electronic components but most probably left the recorded information intact on the surfaces behind the sealsSealed damply in a plastic bag. Get a quote first, and then post it.
If you connect it, the socket or PSU gets knocked outThere is a short circuit on the board, and the surge goes through the preamp every timeLeave it alone
A powdery coating develops on the contact pointsCorrosion that is still continuing todayDo not let it sit
You have recovered a drive from a fire and the case is still sealedThe recording surfaces are inside so if a board gets burned it's just something that needs to be replacedHandle with care and keep it sealed
There is black residue over the connector and the ventAcidic, abrasive deposits; when one spins it up, the surfaces are scored immediatelyNever clean it or test it
Saltwater got to itChloride will destroy your magnetically coated film; there is no other substance as destructiveSeal it in a bag while it is still wet, now
If you wish to post it: first obtain a quote for your item via either of two methods: by telephone or by completing the online form. Then you can post the item to us using a tracked and fully insured postal service that will take it directly to our secure intake laboratory in Guildford. Alternatively, if you would rather drop it off at the Guildford laboratory personally, this is possible Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, and no appointment is needed; either way, we will cover the return postage costs. From a laptop, PC or Mac, send the drive on its own (storage soldered onto the circuit board, as in T2 and Apple silicon Macs or soldered laptop flash memory, is not taken on; if you're unsure which kind you have, please call us first). RAID drives require removal from their casing and labelling by bay number, and server disks will similarly need removing from the server and labelling by bay number. NAS disks need the same procedure if they can be removed; if not, send the entire NAS unit. An external drive must be posted whole, complete with its cable and power supply. If you wish to check the packaging before posting, an engineer will talk you through every item on the telephone. Every stage of this process is detailed on the posting page.

What water and fire damage actually reach.

What immersion doesVery little damage is done to the platter itself; it is contained within its own sealed environment and remains unscathed from being submerged. The damage is to the outer exposed electronics (a board, a connector or contact strip) which can be repaired or replaced.
What the heat destroysThe circuit board is damaged by heat; the hard drive platter has no direct experience of the heat. After a fire, the burnt circuit board is replaced with one donated from another drive. Your original ROM chip is moved to the replacement circuit board.
Three grades of waterThere are three types of water involved in flooding: water from a burst main is the mildest; river floodwater contains silt and anything else that has been carried through the sewers; saltwater is worst, since it corrodes the magnetic coating itself. Drives soaked in any of these three types of water will be transported in sealed bags and wet.
Soot after the flamesFire will do additional damage when it cools down. This damage includes leaving behind an acidic and abrasive film that enters each crevice in the case of the device. If this device is spun at this time, the abrasive film will rub against its own recording surfaces causing further damage. In order to restore functionality, cleaning must occur prior to applying power.

What happens between arrival and return.

The most recent cases →
01

Booked in, then assessed at no cost Free

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.

Diagnosis at no costOne fixed quote, in writingNothing signed
02

Contained, not dried

All wet drives arrive wet. They arrive in sealed plastic bags to prevent the drive from drying up during transit and depositing anything the water may have picked up onto its own surfaces. Dry or sooty fire damage arrives as such.

Damp when it arrivesBagged and left shut
03

Cleaned up, then rebuilt

The dirty deposits are cleaned off; the contacts are brought back to a clean surface. The matching donor circuit board is installed along with your original ROM chip, which has been removed from your original board.

Deposits liftedOriginal ROM carried across
04

Image it inside the window

Corrosion resumes immediately after treatment ceases; therefore, imaging of the data begins as soon as possible. Once a complete image exists, your original drive is decommissioned.

Imaged inside the same windowThe original is stood down
05

Opened, verified, and sent home

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.

You approve the list firstReturned on fresh mediaThe return post is ours

What tends to show up first

  • Not Monday, but today: The corrosion process on a damp board does not pause for the weekend. Obtain a quote before posting a package containing a damaged drive and make sure it is posted while it is still wet.
  • A single moist start-up has been charged twice: The short circuit has taken out the board, and the impulse has gone through to the head pre-amp. Thus the 'cleaning' job turned into a new head job.
  • All water is not created equal: River flooding contains silt and organic matter, and salt water harms the magnetic coating itself; therefore, drives exposed to either must be sent sealed and wet.
  • Fire burns down things sequentially: Plastics and PCBs go first before burning down to the platter; thus, the work is to rebuild the replaceable portion around the portion that can't be replaced.

Most of these cases are decided by two choices: Was the power button ever depressed? How many days did the drive sit there before it was sent? Both have been determined prior to opening the package at our bench. Most of the work done here is from home damage (burst pipes, appliances failing, ceilings down after a leak), and those drives are returned as routine if they arrived sealed and un-tested. One second of electricity on a wet board turns a simple board fix into a head fix as well.

From the casebook, lately.

MH · MHD-2026-6652ON RECORD ✓

A burst pipe over a home office, and a wet drive that was never switched on

There was never any electricity applied to anything, which ultimately saved the unit; the drive was placed in a sealed plastic bag while still damp and posted on the same day. Once received, we simply cleaned the electrical contacts on the board, installed a spare board (which had been populated with the ROM from the original), and ran a complete image of the disk within a week. Twenty years of family photos went home.

100% recovered4 days from arrival

Before it comes to the lab.

Do these now

  • Turn everything off, do not turn anything back on when you have wet electronics (laptop, tower or NAS)
  • Seal your drive in a plastic bag or ziplock bag while it is still damp
  • Let us know where the water came from (river/sea/mains)
  • Obtain a quote first, then post your drive today, since rust takes no holidays

Things best not done

  • Using rice is ineffective because rice cannot penetrate into the sealed case of a hard disk to affect the moisture causing the corrosion, and simply gives the corrosion more time for each day it sits there
  • Warm radiators, blow dryers, warm cupboards, low ovens
  • Testing it one time to determine if it still works
  • Do not clean or wipe away dust/soot; do not open your drive

Questions we are asked about water and fire damage.

Is a drive that spent time under water recoverable?

Usually yes, assuming power was never applied to wet electronics and the unit arrives at the laboratory promptly. Water usually damages the PCB and not the disks, allowing replacement of the PCB.

Should I put it in rice?

No. Hard disk drives are completely sealed units, therefore rice will not be able to contact the moisture within the unit that causes corrosion. The only thing rice leaves behind is starch and grit. As long as the unit remains in contact with rice the corrosion process continues unabated for as many days as it remains in contact.

Are drives pulled out of a fire worth sending?

Yes, most of the time. The recordable media is located within a sealed alloy housing. Burnt components may also be repaired. What usually ends a case is warping due to heat or soot that has been able to pass through the breather filter. Therefore you should first get a quote, either on the telephone or with the form, then send it just as it came out; i.e., closed, uncleaned and disconnected. Post it tracked and insured to the Guildford intake lab. Alternatively you can drop it off at the Guildford intake lab (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, no appointment needed).

Is it better to dry it before posting?

No, although it seems counter-intuitive. Drying will leave the dissolved materials behind as crystals upon contact and platter surfaces. So, bag it while still damp and retain this state during transit.

More of the jobs we've closed.

Fitted drives → NAS recovery → Dropped & damaged drives → Media we work with →

Switched off, it keeps every chance it has.

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.

0800 6890668

Ask for a free diagnosis Posting it to us