We have just completed an incredibly quick and straightforward data recovery job involving a WD RWDBFJK0020HBK-EESN My Book external hard drive. The issue arose due to the client using the incorrect mains cable by mistake.
The client got in touch with us reporting they had accidentally used the power supply from their laptop with their external hard drive. Upon turning the power supply on, they heard a small bang and the drive powered off. With their data inaccessible, they brought their external hard drive into our data recovery lab. We booked the job in, and informed the client that it would be 24 hours before he received his free, no-obligation quote. As it happened, the data recovery was completed in a fraction of that time – just four hours!
Once booked in, we passed the hard drive on to our data recovery technicians, who removed the drive from the external casing. All work on hard drives is conducted in our Class 100 clean room, to ensure a moisture and dust-free environment, preventing further hard drive faults. Hard drives are constructed in these conditions, so it’s important to work in them when undertaking data recovery.
It was clear from the beginning what had happened, and opening the external hard drive confirmed that there was damage to the printed circuit board, or PCB. This is an incredibly common problem we see in the data recovery lab, and is chiefly caused by using the wrong power cable. Just because the power connector looks the same or fits into your drive, it doesn’t mean it will suffice. Power supplies are specific to drives, which require a certain voltage; over-voltage can cause damage to the internal components of a drive. Luckily, data recovery in the case of a damaged PCB board is easy to fix. For future reference, bear in mind what using the incorrect mains cable can do!
Our data recovery lab boasts a library of spare parts that we’ve acquired over the years, totalling 14,322. We sourced a compatible PCB board and installed it to the damaged drive. This wasn’t the end of the data recovery, however. Hard drives have code that is unique to them, located in a chip. We carefully removed the chip from the old drive and installed it onto the new PCB board. Once it was correctly installed, we examined the rest of the drive to ensure there were no other faults, and determined that it was now functioning correctly. We provided the client with a quote for the data recovery, which she accepted, and transferred her data onto a new external hard drive.
At Data Recovery Specialists, we aim to have a free file listing and no-obligation quote with you within 24 hours. At this point, you can accept or decline; if the data recovery isn't successful, you don't pay a penny. Our data recovery technicians have decades of combined experience and boast incredible rates of success. Our data recovery lab sees dozens of jobs every week, and we aim to provide a quality, cost-effective service to all of our clients. Have a data recovery job you need help with? Get in touch!
