Devices · notebooks and desktop PCs
Two separate failures are described within one sentence. In most cases the failure is in the display, mainboard or charging circuitry, and the disk behind them is fine; occasionally, however, it is the actual hard drive that has failed, and then the work is different. Regardless of where in Plymouth the laptop failed, we just need the disk.
You will be talking to an engineer
0800 6890668
| What turns up | What that points to | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| HP 301: SMART Hard Disk Error on Hard Disk 1 | SMART declares the disk has failed, and the BIOS will not boot it | Believe it. Image the disk today |
| HP: Boot Device Not Found (3F0) | No bootable device is being seen | An unseated connector, or a dead disk |
| Dell: Error Code 2000-0142 | The ePSA test has failed the disk, typically due to bad heads | Do not put it through again |
| Dell: Error Code 2000-0146 | Problems have been recorded in the logs on the disk for some time | The trouble began well before today |
| Lenovo 2100: HDD0 (Main HDD) detection error in BIOS | That channel does not respond: either a cable or a dead disk | Image before you go looking at cables |
| A disk read error occurred, followed by Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart | Unable to read the boot sector, and probably other areas past that as well | Restarting it again changes nothing |
| Reboot and Select proper Boot Device | The BIOS can find nothing to boot from | Diagnose it before any reinstall |
Whatever is delivered is booked in using a unique reference (case number) on the date it arrives at the bench. The engineer will identify the actual fault at no charge. This gives a straightforward answer on what can be recovered from the drive and what cannot, plus one written quotation. There will be no further activity until you have read and accepted the quotation.
Take out the disk and send us only that, so no computer sits idle here. We do not take on laptops made with soldered flash. If you're not sure which kind you have, ring us first.
An HDD or SSD that actually failed goes into the normal queue. When the machine is done but the disk is good, the only job is to make an image of it.
Document folders, the desktop, email stores and entire user profiles get copied to new media, using exactly the folder hierarchy they were in. We don't bill anything until you've reviewed and approved the file listing.
Give yourself time to consider it. It costs you nothing. We list all of the files we recover for you before sending out an invoice, and we only ask for payment once you have authorised it. We also buy media specifically for your recovery and send it back to you, with the return postage paid by us. The case stays here on our bench until we have your confirmation that the files open properly on your own machine.
Every single disk sent to us from Plymouth, Tavistock and Truro shows a similar scenario: if a manufacturer's own diagnostic tests point to a problem with a disk, then the disk has almost certainly failed. You will rarely find the loose connection everyone hopes for. After that, normal drive work applies, as detailed in our hard drive and SSD sections.
The laptop was junk but the internal hard disk was only clicking. We fitted donor heads from a matching drive and did a slow copy of her data. She had five years of marks, reports and lesson plans back three days later.
Send only the hard disk. Postage is cheaper and smaller packages tend to arrive intact. Any local repair shop can pull the drive in a couple of minutes. If the flash is soldered directly onto the motherboard, we do not take the job on; if you're not sure which kind you have, ring us first.
Almost always. More often than not, laptops are put out of action by broken screens, dead motherboards and faulty charging circuits rather than by bad disks. Imaging a working disk taken out of a machine that will never run again is a pretty simple process (one of our easier tasks), and relatively inexpensive.
Only if there is no key. Place either the password or the 48-digit recovery key inside the package and an encrypted volume is basically routine work; we get several of these each week. If neither is included, it will remain locked (this is how it was designed). Find yours before posting.
Often, yes, a good deal. When someone installs Windows they don't wipe the entire disk. It goes over a portion of the disk, while the rest stays as it was. Everything else you do after that eats away at whatever remains, so simply turn it off, leave it alone and stop using the machine.
Diagnosis costs nothing. We give you a report listing which files can be read, which cannot, and what is needed to get them off. Do not connect the drive until then.