Data Recovery from a hard disk with Damaged PCB.
If your hard disk is not powering on (i.e you cannot hear any noises at all coming from the hard disk) or you smell a burning smokey smell coming from the disk, chances are the PCB is damaged. We can test your disk for you for free and confirm this problem and give you a confirmed quote within 24 hours.
If your hard drive has a damaged Printed circuit board (also known as a controller board or PCB), we can do component level repairs to get the hard drive temporarily working, in most cases without spare parts. If the PCB has a damaged motor controller chip, DIODE, resistor, capacitor (or switch capacitor), broken data/power cable connector - these are all problems we can fix with the use of a multimeter for correct diagnosis and a soldering iron, heat gun and infra-red rework station as needed for repairs to the PCB. For many modern hard drives, swapping PCBs no longer works, certain modifications need to be made to a hard drive due to unique firmware. We can swap firmware chips and copy the contents as required for transplants. We can recover data from all brands and types of hard drives with any operating system. No problem is too big or small, we love a challenge!
Common causes of PCB damage:
- Plugging in the wrong power supply.
- Incorrectly connecting the power cable.
- A power surge.
- Some metal object making contact with the PCB while the hard disk is on.
- Breaking off components while removing/installing your hard drive.
- Liquid damage.
- Overheating due to a malfunction on the PCB.
The good news is, in over 90% of the time - the data can still be recovered. As long as the disk platters inside your drive are not scratched and there are no other problems (e.d damaged pre-amp) once we fix the PCB fault, there is always a good chance that we can recover the data for you and copy it to another working hard disk to return the data to you. We can also provide you with a sector-to-sector clone copy if requested if the file system is not damaged. This is handy if the damaged disk is a bootable OS drive.
Cost:
The cost is $495 inc GST for our Economy Service which will take 2-4 weeks on average as we work on the Economy service jobs in our spare time and pass on the cheaper price to you or if you pay an additional $500 for our Priority Service this makes the cost $995 inc GST and we will recover the data as quickly as humanly possible (in some cases this takes 1-2 days or 3-5 days on average or longer if parts are required and based on the type of damage). This is a realistic time estimate, we don't false advertise fast time estimates to gain your business. We are always honest with you. If we cannot recover your data, there is no charge to you.
We have an electrical engineer on site at all 3 of our offices who can repair PCB faults on the spot, in-house. In over 90% of cases we repair the faulty PCB temporarily and do not need a new or spare PCB to get your data back. Our engineers will return your hard drive back to you in the faulty state and keep our spare parts for future use.
We always offer an obligation free, free of charge evaluation and Quote within 24 hours to test your disk, confirm the problem and give you a confirmed quote. Our prices normally start at $250 for a simple problem and up to $2400 for the most complex problems (i.e Damaged Heads or Damaged Motor). If there is any cheaper option we can offer you, we will always offer you this. The price for a damaged PCB is fixed, either $495 or $995 depending on if you choose our Economy or Priority Service option.
This process is made up 6 steps:
- Correctly identify the fault (To confirm if the PCB is damaged or not).
- We will email you a quote to let you know if the PCB is damaged. This will be for $495 inc GST for our Economy Service of $995 for our Priority Service. If you approve the quote, we ask you to reply to our email.
- We temporarily repair your faulty hard disk only for the purpose of data recovery.
- In many cases, once 1 problem is fixed (e.g the PCB is repaired) we discover other problems such as a firmware corruption, bad sectors/read errors or a file system corruption or internal damage. If this is the case and additional work is required we will ask for your approval before we proceed. In over 80% of cases we see, once the PCB is fixed, the data can be recovered at this advertised price.
- Once the data has been saved, we'll copy the data to another hard disk for you. We can supply an external hard disks at an additional or you can provide your own spare disk, of any kind.
- You can come to our office to examine/test any important data saved on a computer (or we can email you a file listing and some screenshots if you prefer then send it back by a courier) and if you are happy with the results, you pay the $495 or $990 inc GST due at this stage (+ the cost of an external hard disk if you would like to buy one from us). If for any reason the data cannot be recovered, you do not pay us anything.
Payment Plan option: $495 or $995 to recover data from a hard disk that's only worth $100-$200 can be a shock! If you cannot afford to pay the full price when the work is completed, we can offer you a monthly payment plan. We will request you provide us with your credit card details and we will charge you each month on your credit card. No interest or other charges. This is simply to help you. Note: You must ask for this Payment plan when you 1st approve the quote to begin work to take up this option. We normally offer a 3 month payment plan option only for this service. (i.e Pay 1/3 at the time of completion, 1/3 the next month then the final 1/3 another 1 month later).
Any cheaper option?
Yes, If you do not want your faulty hard disk back. We can offer you a $50 discount. Once you get your saved data back, we will keep your old hard disk here for spare parts. We can use the heads or other parts to fix problems for other customers in future.