The method for data recovery from hard drives depends on the type of failure the hard drive is facing.

Logical Errors

Logical Failures (including user errors such as accidental formatting or data deletion): In this case, the drive is cloned using a specialized device, and the clone of the drive is analyzed for deleted data.

The analysis of the clone is performed with state-of-the-art hardware devices, whose quality is obviously far superior to software available on the internet.

Additionally, if necessary, the data recovery engineer assigned to the case will intervene as needed and modify the analysis parameters to achieve the best possible result.

Electronic Failures

Electronic Failures (including PCB failure): When there is an electronic failure in a hard drive, the golden rule we apply is to investigate whether the cause of the PCB failure also caused internal damage to the hard drive. In other words, we need to determine if the overvoltage that caused the PCB failure has also affected the drive’s interior, burning the head preamplifier.

If this has happened and an inexperienced technician replaces the drive’s PCB without tackling the preamplifier damage, there is a serious risk of causing irreparable damage to the drive (SA zap) making it 100% unrecoverable.

If it is determined that the preamplifier is intact, then and only then is the PCB replaced, transferring the unique adaptive information of each drive from the old PCB to the new one.

In modern drives, this process has become more complicated, but generally, data recovery in these cases has a very good outcome.

Mechanical Failures

Mechanical Failures (including damaged heads, stuck motor, etc.): In cases of mechanical failures (which are the most common in our labs), data recovery involves the following stages:

  • Extensive inspection of the hard drive’s interior for possible alterations/damages (surface damage, head slaps, broken ramps, detached sliders, etc.)

  • Assessment of possibilities, search for available spare parts and client notification about the results of the inspection.

  • Checkpoint: Waiting for client’s approval.

  • The hard drive then goes inside the Clean Room of Northwind Data Recovery for the procedure.

    The heads will be replaced with compatible ones from a donor drive, and any necessary actions will be taken to ensure the success of the procedure. It should be clear that this process is conducted in a Clean Room, under stable and controlled environmental conditions, and by engineers with many years of experience.

  • The hard drive is then connected to specialized equipment to begin imaging its data.

    At this stage, the firmware of the drive is appropriately modified so that we can successfully read as many healthy parts of it as possible.

  • The file-list of the recovered data is extracted.
    The list is sent to the customer for review and approval.

  • Checkpoint: Waiting for client’s approval.

  • If the result satisfies the customer, the recovered data is extracted to a new hard drive and the data is delivered to the client.
  • The customer is happy. They give us 5-stars on Google :)

Firmware Failures

Firmware Failures (including defective drives that usually take a lot of time to be recognized / ID’ed or read very slowly or are slow-responding or do not ID correctly, etc.): These are the most complex failures, requiring very careful handling as any mistake can be fatal. This category of failures is where Northwind Data Recovery has absolute success rates approaching 100%!

In these failures, it is very important that the diagnosis is carried out by an engineer with very good knowledge of the subject.

Subsequently, and after customer approval, the failure is resolved and the drive is immediately set up for imaging / cloning.
The range of these failures is very large and their handling must be done with great care.