Data Recovery from a hard disk with a firmware corruption.
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Alert: Seagate 3.5" 7200.11 SD15 Firmware problem
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Seagate Barracuda 7200.11, ES.2 and DiamondMax 22 hard disks have a known firmware corruption issue where the hard disk will stop being detected or may report an invalid size (e.g 0mb capacity). Most of these hard disks are 500 GB, 750 GB or 1TB in size.
We were the 1st Australian data recover company and the 1st Data Recovery company in the World (with the exception of Seagate's own data recovery service on the USA) able to recover data from this new type of problem since November, 2008 while at the time all other Australian data recovery firms were unable to fix this problem. We have seen hard disks mainly with Firmware versions SD15, DE12, SD36 and HP24 printed on the label of the hard disk suffer a sudden failure.
In 95% of cases, all of the data can be recovered. In some rare cases, the hard disk may also have a secondary problem internally with the heads. Using Seagate Terminal mode commands, we manually repair the firmware of these hard disks and recover all possible data quickly and without any data loss in most cases. We have recovered over data from over 100 hard disks like this successfully since November 2008 since this problem was 1st discovered. Note: Some hard disks may have a secondary problem (e.g bad sectors, damaged head, file system damage).
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If your hard disk is powering up, sounds normal (spinning with no unusual clicking or buzzing sounds) but is not detected in the BIOS or Windows Device Manager/Apple Disk Utility or is detected as an incorrect size or reports a SMART status Bad, it's possible the drive has a firmware corrption. This type of problem is our specialty.
We can test your hard disk drive for you for free and confirm the problem and give you a quote within 24 hours.
The method we use to recover data from a hard disk with a firmware problem is safe and has a very high success rate. We use hardware based tools to repair firmware modules individually or using terminal commands directly to the drive. The most common drives we see with Firmware problems are Seagate, Maxtor and Western Digital. We recover the data that others can't! 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 Symptoms of a firmware problem:
- BIOS Reports incorrect model name or size
- Not detected in BIOS but the disk sounds normal.
- SMART status bad report in BIOS, Press F1 to resume.
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.g damaged heads), there is 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 $600 inc GST for our Economy Service which will take 7 days 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 $1100 inc GST and we will recover the data as quickly as humanly possible (This can take 1 or 2 days on average depending on the number of size of the disk and any other. 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 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.
This process is made up 6 steps:
- Correctly identify the fault (To confirm if the drive has a firmware problem).
- We will email you a quote to let you know if the disk has bad sectors. This will be for $600 inc GST for our Economy Service of $1100 for our Priority Service. If you approve the quote, we ask you to reply to our email.
- We will make some modifications to the firmware then use hardware based tools which may temporarily repair your hard drive for long enough for us to backup all of the data before it fails again. In many cases, once 1 problem is fixed (firmware problem fixed) we may discover other problems such as a bad sectors, a damaged head or a file system corruption. If this is the case and additional work is required we will ask for your approval before we proceed. In over 90% of cases we see, once the firmware problem 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 $600 or $1100 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: $600 or $1100 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 PCB, heads or other parts to fix problems for our other customers in future.