Frequently asked questions
Answers to common questions about hard drive data recovery. For the full service details, see our Hard Disk Drive Recovery page.
Most hard drive recoveries cost from $375 to $1,750 on our Economy service (non-urgent service), whatever the size of the drive. Most hard drive recoveries come to about $880 including GST. Priority and Emergency are faster and cost more. Damaged heads on very large drives are the exception: donor drives for very large capacities are rare and much more costly, so these jobs are quoted individually, at a higher price, after your free assessment. A drive that has already been opened by someone else is also quoted at a higher price, because the chance of success is lower and the risk to us is higher. The cost will depend on the type of problem your hard drive has, how quickly you need the data back. We always offer a free assessment and quote.
Only after we test it can we determine what the problem is for certain. Once we know, we will give you a written quote before we start work. We will try to offer you the cheapest solution to help get all of your files back in a safe, professional way with a good result. About 90% of our jobs are no fix, no fee. Complex, low probability cases carry a non refundable attempt fee of $250 or $350. On hard drives, that applies to two categories of work: complex hardware issues such as a head replacement, and the recovery of files from a reformatted, re-imaged or factory reset hard drive, or deleted files. The attempt fee is part of the total price, not an extra: it is payable upfront, the rest is due only on successful recovery, and it is stated clearly in your written quote before you approve anything.
Most hard drives we see cost approximately $880 including GST in Australia.
Some problems cost less, in the range of $375 to $850.
Complex hardware issues can cost up to about $4,000 at most.
Clicking on spin-up usually means damaged heads, possible platter damage, or a mismatched circuit board from earlier tampering.
Drives fail from old age and wear. Ask whether anyone may have damaged it, for example by dropping it or spilling something on it. Family, children, pets, cleaners or visitors may have done so without telling you.
Check the cable, USB port, SATA cable and computer cables, and test it on a different computer with different cables.
If it is still not detected, listen to it. A healthy drive makes a constant smooth whir like a fan. If you hear no sound, a soft buzzing, faint ticking or beeping, unplug it straight away, leave it off and bring it to Payam Data Recovery.
No, there’s a good chance you can get your data back. All the data is still on the hard drive platters. We just have to try and temporarily get it working, bring it back to life just for long enough to copy the data off there for you.
Yes, it’s possible. The hard drive may have a logical (software) problem or a hardware problem.
There’s a good chance we can recover the data.
Yes, of course. There’s always a chance we may be able to recover the data even if someone else hasn’t.
If you bring it to us, please be ready to give us some background and be as honest as you can about what the original problem was. Then tell us what the other data recovery company told you.
Make sure the other company has given you back all the original parts of your hard drive, especially the PCB and the ROM chip. The most common issue we find is that some computer shops don’t return the original PCB or ROM chip, or mix them up and replace them. Those parts are unique to your drive, and we need them to recover your data.
A clicking drive that was dropped usually has damaged read heads. Damaged heads are one of the faults we work on every day: we replace them with heads from an identical donor drive in our ISO 5 laminar flow cabinet, then copy your data. Turn the drive off and keep it unplugged until it reaches us.
In over 80% of cases, data can be recovered from a hard drive that has been dropped. Stopping use matters, because if the platters are damaged it may not be possible to recover all the data.
If the drive is very unstable, we may use multiple sets of donor parts to make a sector by sector copy of it.
If a platter is damaged, we always attempt a partial recovery, for example about 75% of the data when one platter is damaged. In some extreme cases, the drive may be too badly damaged for any data to be recovered.
If it was powered off when it fell, the platters and heads were still, so it is probably okay to plug in.
If it was powered on and reading or writing, the risk rises sharply, and further use can scratch the platters and cut the chance of recovery.
If you hear ticking, clicking or grinding, or the computer lags, stop, check your backups and bring it in if the data is worth paying to recover.
The time needed to recover your data will depend on what the problem is and how the device responds to any temporary repairs (e.g. head replacement, firmware modifications or PCB repairs).
If your hard drive does not need a head replacement or other high risk work, the average time is 5-10 days or less for our Economy service (non-urgent cases). But if the heads are damaged, there is any damage on the disk platter/s, or after the drive is repaired it is working very slowly (during the disk imaging stage), it will take a lot more time. If you have a deadline you are working with, or need your data back by a set date, we recommend selecting the Priority or Emergency Service instead.
We will keep you informed of the time required and remaining. You can always upgrade from Economy to Priority or Emergency as needed. It is important to know that some data recovery jobs we work on can be done very quickly, while others can sometimes take weeks or months due to severe damage or rare spare parts needing to be ordered in.
How fast is the Priority and Emergency Service?
In some straightforward cases, it may mean you get your data back in 1-2 days. In other cases, it may mean you get your data back in 1 week instead of much longer. If you pay for the Priority or Emergency service, your data recovery request will be given #1 Priority in our lab, and our best data-recovery engineers will work 24-hours a day, 7-days a week to get your data back to you as fast as possible.
Most customers drop off or deliver in the morning and receive a quote the same afternoon.
Economy service averages five to ten days for sentimental data. Complex cases can take weeks.
In busy periods, allow an extra one to two business days for the assessment.
On most hard drives, if it was a quick format rather than a full format and nothing new has been written, the data is likely still recoverable.
The exception is some newer drives made after 2025 that use SMR, which may zero the data even on a quick format through a low level firmware command. Professional tools like PC3000 can sometimes still recover it.
File and folder names may be lost, giving a raw recovery, but photos and videos may still open.
If the format took more than an hour, it may have overwritten every sector with zeros, and the data is likely gone.
You can try a data recovery program that’s read-only and try to see if it can see the files or the partition. If it’s not a hardware problem, it could just be something simple like basic file system corruption or minor partition damage. You can try using data recovery software to read the data and save it to a different disk. But if your computer starts freezing or lagging or going very slow, or if the data recovery program reports any errors to do with input output (I/O) errors, read errors, bad sectors, unreadable sectors, or gives any kind of SMART status warnings, then stop using the hard drive immediately. It needs to go to a professional data recovery lab to do a sector-by-sector clone using hardware-based imaging tools or carry out internal repairs if the heads are failing.
Yes, there’s a very good chance we can help in those cases. We’ll test it for you for free to confirm what the problem is, and then if the problem is that the hard drive’s got read errors or bad sectors, we can apply firmware changes or repairs to the firmware to try and improve the success rate of cloning and prevent the drive reallocating bad blocks while we try and read them. And then once we have a clone copy, we’ll back up the data for you onto an external USB hard drive as part of our service.
Mostly yes, if you stop using the drive and the data has not been overwritten.
Newer SMR drives can securely erase data on delete, similar to TRIM on an SSD. Recovery then relies on PC3000 firmware work, with a low success rate.
Traditional CMR drives only overwrite deleted data gradually.
We can supply you with an external hard drive or SSD, or you can provide your own to us.
Your recovered files come back on an external drive. You can supply your own, or we can supply one from $180. The drive is formatted to suit the device the data came from: Mac format for Apple computers and Windows format for Windows computers, unless you ask for a different format when you approve the quote. Tell us which computer you will use the data on and we will format the drive to suit.
It is not always the heads scraping the platter. It could be a damaged head, a spindle motor that is not spinning smoothly, dried lubricant or another internal fault.
Stop using it, power it off and let a technician examine it.
Power it off immediately and stop using it.
Check your backups, including Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, business network shares, NAS units and Apple iCloud. Decide whether the data is important to you.
If you have no other backup, avoid powering the drive up and take it to a data recovery company to confirm the problem. Most offer a free assessment, and then you can decide whether recovery is worth paying for.
Keeping the drive powered on causes further damage, lowers the professional recovery success rate and can raise your cost if the problem gets worse.
If the drive isn’t spinning up and is making a buzzing noise, it usually means a problem called stiction. Stiction is when the hard drive’s heads have fallen and become stuck on the disc platter, usually after the drive was dropped or suffered a physical shock or impact.
The heads have to be unstuck very carefully, without damaging the platters, and then a clone copy of the drive can be made. If the heads or platters are damaged, the platters may need cleaning and the heads replacing. We have the experience, tools and spare parts to recover the data in that case.
Because the heads are stuck on the platter, the drive needs a cleanroom inspection, in a dust-free environment using a laminar flow cabinet.
The beeping noise is usually one of two different things. If you’re using it on a laptop or a front panel USB port on a computer, sometimes the USB ports don’t give those hard drives enough power, and the hard drive may not actually be receiving enough power to work properly. But you can try a different USB port at the back of a computer, for example the back of a PC, or without using a hub on an iMac or a MacBook to give it full power. If it’s not that, that usually means the hard drive’s heads are damaged, or the heads are stuck to the platter, which is a problem called stiction. That requires a professional data recovery lab to open the drive and carry out internal repair work to get the drive to work again.
In most cases there’s nothing to pay if the recovery fails. In some difficult cases, after the assessment and quote, we may charge an initial attempt fee upfront. That fee is paid at the start, so if the recovery fails there’s nothing more to pay and no additional charge at the end.
We’ll normally email you to explain why it failed and offer free return by post, collection from our office, or disposal.
If you chose the prepay option with the 5% discount, a failed recovery gets a full refund at the end.
No data no fee is an old fashioned model, used mainly by American companies for over 30 years. Australian costs and modern drive designs make it unviable for some services.
About 90% of our jobs are no fix, no fee, and every hard drive gets a free assessment and quote.
Complex, low probability cases that need donor parts, spare parts or a lot of technician time have a non refundable initial attempt fee of $250 or $350, which goes towards parts and time.
The majority of the cost is paid at the end, only if your data is recovered, and everything is outlined in writing with your free quote.
Yes, we can recover data from old IDE hard drives from the 1990s and 2000s.
We have all the cables, adapters and specialised hardware-based cloning tools for 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch IDE drives, as well as many other types, like 1.8 inch ZIF hard drives.
Yes, we can help with that. We’ll test it for you for free to work out what the problem is, if there is one. We’ll tell you what we find and give you a free assessment and quote before we start.
When a drive comes in, we record its model number and serial number in our database and put a job number sticker on it.
Then we test it and clone it.
Yes. Pack it in a cardboard box with plenty of bubble wrap on all sides and send it with tracking, signature on delivery and insurance. You can also drop it at one of our labs in Sydney CBD, Rhodes NSW, Melbourne or Brisbane, or at our secure drop-off offices in Perth and Adelaide. International customers are always welcome. If we recover your data and you pay, return delivery is free.
Complete the job form, then drop your device off or post it to us. You can drop it at our Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane CBD office and we’ll start as quickly as possible. We also have labs and drop-off offices in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Most recovery work is done at our main lab in Rhodes, NSW, and we never send your device to another company to recover.
Yes. We have specialised tools and equipment for this exact type of drive.
Where it helps, we can convert the drive from USB to SATA to make cloning more effective. On many WD My Passport drives the USB circuit board (PCB) decrypts the data on the fly, so simply swapping in a SATA PCB would leave the data encrypted. We know how to handle this.
We use specialised hardware such as the DeepSpar USB Stabilizer, DeepSpar USB Imager, Atola Insight Forensic and PC-3000 Portable Pro to clone USB hard drives sector by sector. This hardware-based method works where data recovery software would normally fail or freeze the computer.
Pack it like an egg, with at least 3 cm of bubble wrap or clean, unwanted padding around it.
Whether you post it or bring it in, please handle it gently.
Every job has three service levels. Economy is our standard service. Priority and Emergency are faster and cost more, because our data recovery engineers work on weekends and after hours and stop work for other customers to speed up your job. Your quote shows the price and turnaround for each level, and you choose.
If your hard drive is detected but no files are showing on your computer, it may be a software or a hardware problem.
If you bring it to us, we’ll test it for free and tell you what the problem is and how much it will cost to get the data back.
If you approve the quote, we’ll copy all the files and folders to an external USB hard drive or SSD, so you can access them on any working computer.
Usually yes, as long as the platters are not deeply scratched.
It needs a skilled head replacement using compatible donor heads with the correct preamp compatibility.
No. The majority of the time if the platters are scratched, the data cannot be recovered. But if there’s some damage to the platters that is not a deep scratch, we can often clean and buff and polish the platters and try and avoid reading the damaged area, and it may be possible to get a partial recovery or a partial clone if the damage is not severe.
Yes, in most cases we can.
Your best chance of getting your important files back is with Payam Data Recovery. We know what to do, how to do it and will always do it using the latest technology in a safe and professional way. We will try much harder, spend more time and put in more effort than anybody else to ensure the best possible result.
The most common problems that we see are hard drives with bad sectors/read errors, a damaged PCB, file system/partition corruption and firmware problems. In most of these cases, we can recover all the data in good condition.
If your hard drive is making a clicking/ticking/beeping sound, it’s very likely that your hard drive has internal damage to the heads or motor. This is a very common problem, and one in which we specialise.
Our chance of success is lower if the heads are damaged inside the disk (this is usually caused by shock to the hard drive) and there is any damage to the platter. As long as the platter is in good condition, we can usually recover your data even when the heads are damaged or there is a problem with the motor. We can even recover data if there is what we call level 1 or level 2 damage on the disk platter/s. If there is severe damage to the platters (we call this level 3), then the chances of success are very low, but we will try everything possible to at least recover your most important files.
In most cases of hard drives that do not have damage to the platters or have been erased and overwritten, the data can usually be recovered!
Data that is generally not recoverable from hard drives is usually due to a badly damaged platter or overwritten data (after it has been deleted or the device reformatted).
Once we start work on your disk we will keep you updated on what we are doing and what we find. We don’t want to get your hopes up, so if for any reason your data cannot be recovered, we will let you know the reason and provide you with as much information as we can.
Don’t risk giving your hard drive with important files to an inexperienced or unprofessional person who may destroy any chance of ever getting your data back. We have the best technology, training, and expertise in the world, with a proven track record of successfully retrieving data from all types of hard drive problems no matter how small or big.
We offer a free assessment and quote within 1-2 business days to inform you of the problem, cost and time required to recover your data. Our goal is to help you by offering you the cheapest and fastest method to get your important files back. We always do this in an honest, clear way that makes it easy for you to make an informed decision. We would love to get all of your photos, documents, and other files back for you today.
Discount codes, partner discounts and promotional offers apply to the attempt fee and the completion fee. They do not apply to a hard drive or SSD we sell as a destination drive. Promotional prices shown on a quote are valid for 14 days from the date of the quote.
We do not repair devices for ongoing use. We repair a device only as far as needed to recover the data, so most devices are not returned in working condition.
No, we don’t. We only need the internal hard drive.
We don’t need any cables or accessories, and we actually prefer not to receive them.
Yes, there’s a very good chance we can help. A power surge generally damages the printed circuit board (PCB).
We have a lot of experience and spare parts to temporarily fix your drive, then make a full backup of all the data on it for you.
Yes, there’s a good chance we can get your data back for you by doing a PCB swap, where we replace the printed circuit board and transfer any unique chips like a ROM chip, or any other firmware chips required to transfer it to a new PCB. And if there’s no other problems found, we’ll be able to get the drive temporarily working. We’ll make a copy of it and save all the files to an external hard drive for you.
If you have no budget and the data is not important, you can try it, and simple problems can work.
Never write to the source drive and always save recovered files to a different drive.
If a scan takes more than a day, the drive is likely faulty, so stop scanning, as it makes a failing drive worse.
Yes, we can. We’ll test it for you for free. We’ll see what the problem is, and if you approve the quote for our work, we’ll make a sector-by-sector clone copy using specialised data recovery hardware-based imaging tools. Once we have a clone copy, we use professional data recovery software or a variety of different programs until we find one that can get your files and folders back in good condition. Then we’ll copy it to a new hard drive for you.
Yes. If someone has the right tools, expertise and environment, a hard drive can be repaired anywhere, as long as they know what they are doing.
Yes, it’s just important to give us all the original components and parts, like the printed circuit board or the ROM chip. Try not to tamper with it any further, and let us have a look. If we get the hard drive in good condition, then there’s a better chance we can help you get the data back at the lowest possible price.
The most important thing to do is to power off the hard drive, stop using it and do not let anybody tamper with it, or to try and use any software that will scan or modify the disk. This will greatly improve the chances of your data being recovered successfully.
Your computer becomes really slow.
The hard drive activity light blinks or flashes even when nobody is using the computer, for example while it is asleep or you are away from your desk. That usually means the drive is reallocating bad blocks or bad sectors. Its SMART monitoring knows it is failing and is trying to fix itself.
That is fine on a new drive, but once the reallocated blocks pass the maximum, the drive struggles and loses data it cannot reallocate. This leaves unreadable sectors, so files become corrupted or cannot be copied.
Another sign is the computer freezing and needing a full shutdown. It may look fine after a restart, but it can be an intermittent hardware failure.
Yes. We work with Apple Time Machine backup drives and Time Capsules quite often. We first test the drive to find the problem, then make a clone copy and save all the files to an external USB hard drive. For a Time Machine backup or Time Capsule, we find it works best to copy the data back to an Apple formatted destination drive.
We see Windows backup drives less often, but we can help with those too. We offer a free assessment and quote, and we can either copy the files off the drive or extract them from the backup itself, even if the backup is corrupted.
Yes, we recommend working on the main one because it’ll have the most up-to-date data, and then if for any reason the cost is too high or the data cannot be recovered, we can always work on your backup one next, to compare the cost, and depending on when the last backup one was, you can decide if you want to go ahead with that one. Or if the data is different on both, we can definitely work on both for you.
Yes, we can. We offer a free assessment and quote. We’ll have a look and see what’s wrong with it. We’ll give you a free quote, and then after we recover your data, we recommend taking it back to get a warranty replacement because it shouldn’t be failing so early.
Most manufacturers will accept any work being done by a professional data recovery company. As long as a professional data recovery company can provide you a letterhead or a letter stating who they are and what they’ve done. Most data recovery companies are authorized and recommended, but generally they won’t allow a computer repair shop or a general IT support person to work on the hard drives. But you’re welcome to compare and shop around and make a decision on your own.
No, that’s not a service that we offer. It is technically possible with password cracking and hacking tools, but only in very limited circumstances with certain versions of software, firmware, and encryption. Most modern and new versions of WD encryption and BitLocker cannot be hacked or cracked by anyone.
Yes, we usually recover every single file that was there. We generally make a sector-by-sector clone copy of the failed drive. We copy every single file and folder, including all system files, applications, hidden files, user data as well. That way in case you forgot to ask us for something, you don’t have to come back and ask us. We give you everything initially, and anything you don’t want, you can always delete.
It depends on if the hard drive is actually powered on and making a spinning sound. If the disk platter is actually moving and the motor is spinning. If you hear the drive healthy, in the sense that it makes normal healthy sounds, then there’s a chance it’s a firmware problem or a failed head that’s caused the drive to reallocate too many bad blocks or bad sectors, causing a system area corruption in the firmware. Often we find it’s a combination of two things, a firmware problem and maybe one failing or a weak head inside the hard drive. Firmware problems don’t really occur on new hard drives. There was many old, like known firmware bugs that used to happen in the early 2000s, like between 2000 and 2005, but we haven’t really seen any strictly firmware-only problems on drives occurring in modern hard drives.
Yes, we can help with that. We’ll test it for you for free to work out what the problem is. We’ll work out if maybe the printed circuit board or the electronics are damaged, or if there’s some problem with the file system, maybe not mounting, or if there’s some other fault. So if we have a look at it, we’ll tell you what the reason is. We’ll give you a free assessment and quote explaining what the problem is, and the cost and the chance of recovery. But if you think it’s related to your computer, you can also just unplug it, try and test it on a different computer with different cables to eliminate that. And if it still doesn’t work, then bring it to someone like us to have a look for you.
Okay, that’s a good first troubleshooting step. The next step would be to bring it to us for a free assessment and quote. We’ll work out why it’s not being detected. The typical reasons are usually that the heads are damaged, or the heads have failed. Could be a firmware problem, could be the hard drive’s got read errors or bad sectors. It could be that there’s a problem, like a security issue, like there could be a password set. You need to be prompted and type in the password, or something else simple like a partition corruption.
Okay. Um, in that case, there’s two free, two programs you can buy and install on your computer. The one that we use in our company is called MacDrive version 12. That’s the current version. Or there’s another program, I believe, called Paragon APFS for Windows or Paragon HFS for Windows, something like that. Those programs are emulators. If you install them, they normally offer you like a 5-day or 10-day free trial. They’re usually fully functional. So once you install it, you can restart your computer. Then you can read and write to an Apple disk on your Windows PC. And after the free trial is over, they ask you to pay for it, but they’re usually very low-cost programs, and they’re definitely worth the investment.
Every file type. There is no restriction. We work with the drive’s file system, such as Windows NTFS or Apple HFS, which records every file and folder that was on the drive. So if a file was there, we can usually get it back, whatever type it is.
If you are looking for deleted or lost files of a special or custom type, for example files made by specialist software, we may ask you for a few sample files. We analyse their header, footer and file signature, then configure our tools to search for that file type.
Yes, it depends on the problem. Most consoles and TV recorders use a normal hard drive inside, but they may have a different file system, encryption or proprietary storage that standard data recovery software can’t read. That’s why we always offer a free assessment and quote.
If the hard drive has failed and you approve the quote, we can make a sector-by-sector clone so you can put it back in the unit and use it the way you used to. That’s the preferred method for a hardware failure.
If you no longer have the unit and just want the data, we can often recover the files and folders. Some units, like Foxtel boxes, use security measures and encrypted file systems designed to protect copyrighted movies and TV shows, so we generally can’t recover data from them.
With Xbox and PlayStation we can often recover the data, especially saved games and photos on an external USB hard drive that was plugged into the console. The console’s internal drive may not be readable for the same copyright reasons, but we can always have a look and try.
Yes, we can. Most old iPods have a tiny 1.8 inch hard drive inside. We can test it, give you a free quote and back up all the files. Usually you’ll find music and sometimes photos on them. If it’s a newer iPod that looks like an iPhone, we can also recover it in a similar way to how we work on iPhones.
Yes. You can upgrade to Priority or Emergency at any time by contacting us, and we will confirm the new price.
Yes, the majority of the time file names and folder names are recovered successfully.
In rare cases the folder structure or file names may be damaged or lost. There are usually only two scenarios for this.
First, if the drive was reformatted and a new partition or file system was written over the old one. Depending on the file system, the file and folder names can sometimes still be recovered, but you may lose the top level folder structure.
Second, if files were deleted or the drive was reformatted on a different file system, such as Linux or Apple. In most of these cases the files lose their names and are sorted into folders by file type and date.
If your hard drive has simply failed or stopped working, 99.9 percent of the time you get all your file names and folder names back, and everything looks exactly the way it did before.
Yes, we can help with CCTV recovery. Most CCTV systems use specialised file systems.
If the hard drive has failed, for example with a damaged PCB, bad sectors, a firmware problem or damaged heads, we fix the problem temporarily and give you back a sector-by-sector clone. You can then put the clone back into your DVR or NVR unit and use it with the original operating system and software.
If you no longer have the DVR unit or CCTV system, we use specialised data recovery tools that can read the CCTV file system, and we can export the video clips as files if required.
This usually means a hardware failure, and more use makes it worse. If it is stable enough, copy your critical files and then stop. If not, stop using it.
Also rule out the cables, USB ports and SATA connection. The cause could be a faulty USB port or failing heads, read errors or bad blocks.
Yes, we can. That’s a very common problem that we see often, and it usually means the hard drive’s starting to fail, potentially with read errors or bad sectors or a weak head. There’s a good chance we can help you get the data back.
Your external hard drive may have a file system corruption or some damage to the partition that could be causing that problem. But more than likely it could be that the hard drive is failing or has a physical fault. The typical problem we see is usually a hard drive with a bad SMART status or the SMART status warning, indicating the hard drive’s reallocating bad blocks, trying to fix itself, which causes the computer to freeze while it tries to mount it. Or it could have a failing head or bad sectors.
For most jobs, no. File system problems, firmware faults, damaged circuit boards, bad sectors and head replacement on standard drives cost the same whatever the size. Damaged heads on drives larger than 6TB are the exception, because donor drives for very large capacities are rare and cost more, so those jobs are quoted individually after your free assessment.
Yes, we can. Cost to get the data back is higher because the cost of donor drive parts is very expensive for us to be able to get those drives working. But once we test it, we’ll give you a free assessment and quote. We’ll weigh up the cost of one or two donor drives required if the drive has failed. But if it doesn’t require donor drives, we also see those large capacity drives developing read errors and bad sectors, damaged printed circuit boards and firmware problems, as well as just basic data corruption and deleted file recovery cases. We can definitely help with all of those cases.
When we recover your data, we give you a file listing and an explanation of the result, plus a video preview showing what data we recovered.
Prices are in Australian dollars and include GST unless the quote says otherwise. Return delivery after a successful recovery is free within Australia and to New Zealand. The only extra cost is a destination drive if you need us to supply one. We do not charge by the hour, so a job that takes longer does not cost you more.
We always recover as much data as possible.
If you believe there should be more and a file is missing, tell us what you are missing and we will do a second attempt free of charge.
A second attempt usually means a long or deep scan using a different data recovery tool, or several tools, to find hidden, lost or deleted files. This includes files that vanished because of an earlier attempt to repair the disk or file system before we received it.
We do not scan for lost and deleted items by default unless asked, because we do not want to bring back corrupted files that were deleted and overwritten long ago on purpose.
Sometimes Windows ScanDisk or CheckDisk has tried a repair before we receive the drive. If the drive was failing and that repair did not finish, some files and folders may be missing, or folders may be empty. A long scan on a second attempt can usually find them.
Just let us know before you accept the recovery and we will try this at no extra charge.
Yes, there’s a good chance we can help.
Yes, we keep a copy of your recovered data for two weeks in a secure place in our office. The only purpose is to provide another copy if there’s a problem with the first, or to help with technical support when you’re searching for files.
Normally, seven days after you collect your recovered data, we’ll email to ask if you need help and let you know we’ll erase the backup in another seven days. That gives you 14 days to contact us for another copy or a second attempt on the clone.
After two weeks we securely erase your data and never keep another copy, for your privacy and in line with the Privacy Act 1988.
Yes, we can. We can help with all types of hard drives and encryption.
We have a lot of experience, and the data recovery software and tools to handle it.
The most common encryption types we see in 2026 are Microsoft Windows BitLocker and Apple FileVault. If it’s something less common, like LUKS encryption on Linux, encryption on a NAS unit or proprietary enterprise encryption, we can work with it as long as you give us the software needed to remove the encryption.
If for any reason we can’t decrypt it, or if you’d prefer we don’t, we can give you a sector-by-sector clone instead. You can plug it into your computer or give it to your IT support team to unlock.
Yes. We offer three options, and every one of them comes with a certificate of destruction.
Free hard drive recycling: if the drive still works, we securely erase all the data free of charge. We keep the heads and PCB for our lab’s spare parts collection, which helps us recover data for other people.
Degaussing, A$5 per drive: the data is erased with a degausser, and the drive no longer works afterwards. This is usually ideal for a faulty drive that cannot be erased with software.
Physical shredding, A$5 per drive: the drive is physically shredded into small pieces.
Do not power it on. Check your backups first, then bring it to us.
Water usually causes more damage than fire, and water and fire brigade liquids carry contaminants onto the platters.
If the drive burnt completely with nobody putting the fire out, which is common in bushfires, the data is usually unrecoverable.
If the plastics are not melted and the drive is just dirty, there is about a 50 percent chance of recovery after cleaning and examination.
We do not provide forensic services, formal reports, chain of custody documents or expert evidence, except where a court orders us to attend.
We start with a visual inspection before opening the drive. If the label is intact and readable, the fire was likely not that bad and the drive may just be dirty.
Melted plastic on the circuit board means a very hot fire.
A dirty circuit board with unmelted plastic usually means it was put out with water or by the fire brigade, and the data is likely recoverable.
If the label is unreadable and the circuit board has melted, the chance of recovery is under 10 percent.
In Australia we call it a software problem. In the US it is called a logical problem.
With a software problem the drive is physically fine. It is recognised in the BIOS and Device Manager with its full model number, and Disk Management shows the correct capacity. On a Mac, Disk Utility shows the disk and volume, sometimes with a greyed out partition.
With a hardware problem, the computer may freeze when you plug the drive in, which can mean a damaged circuit board or a short. It may be very slow with a lagging mouse, which points to bad sectors or read errors. Or the drive is not recognised at all and ticks, knocks, spins up and down, or is silent if the circuit board is damaged or the heads are stuck.
When you approve your quote, we ask which computer you plan to use the destination USB drive on. You can choose to have the hard drive or SSD formatted for Windows (NTFS) or for Apple (normally HFS).
If you have a special requirement, we can also use exFAT, which works on both, or APFS. We do not use these by default because some older computers may not be compatible with them, so we normally stick with Windows or Apple formatting.
We prefer just the hard drive. If you can remove it yourself, or a computer technician or friend can do it for you, we only need the hard drive.
If you don’t have anyone to help, you can give us the whole laptop and we’ll remove the drive for you.
Phone 1300 444 800, Email help@payam.com.au or click on Contact us to complete a form, we’ll call you back.
Yes. You can pay by card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express), Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, PayPal or bank deposit (EFT). If you need more time, you can split the cost into instalments with Afterpay, Zip, Klarna or PayPal Pay in 4, using the account you already have.
For most jobs, payment is due at the end.
Once we email you a file listing and a video preview, we recommend paying on our website through a secure online form, which accepts Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
We also offer four different instalment options through credit providers if you would like to pay over a few instalments.
Or you can pick up from our office and pay in person by cash, EFTPOS or credit card. We also accept Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Please note: some of our services need an initial attempt fee upfront, which we will set out in your quote. In some special cases we may also ask for payment before we upload your data. For example, when we upload a backup to Apple iCloud for an iPhone, we may ask you to pay for the recovery first.
We will be honest, helpful and answer any questions you may have. We do the simple things well too, call us and we’ll speak with you. We believe in good old fashioned customer service, the Australian way.
We are your best chance of getting your data back successfully in good condition. We know what to do, how to do it and will always do it in a safe and professional way.
We are also the lab other businesses send their difficult jobs to. More than 2,000 computer shops and 500 mobile phone repair businesses across Australia send us work they cannot do themselves, around 5,000 jobs a year between them.
Data recovery labs overseas use us too. International customers are always welcome. In the past twelve months we have taken work from labs in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Dubai, China and Japan, and over the past ten years jobs have reached us from more than 50 countries.
We also hold our own spare parts inventory in our labs: over 30,000 donor parts, including around 20,000 donor hard drives, as at September 2026. When your drive needs a matching donor for a head replacement or a circuit board swap, the part usually comes off our own shelves the same day rather than being ordered in from overseas. That is often the difference between a job taking hours and a job taking weeks.
Established in 1998, as Australia’s longest established data recovery business, we have more experience and expertise in this field than anybody else in Australia.
We are much more likely to recover your data successfully than anybody else. We know exactly what to do, and how to do it in the most professional way with the world’s latest technology and tools.
We have specialised hardware to help recover data from drives that standard tools cannot read. Many of our customers are other data recovery companies and IT service companies..
Within Australia, if you don’t want to go ahead there’s no charge. You can pick it up from our office, organise your own courier to collect it, or pay $20 for return delivery, which covers shipping and handling to return it to you by Australia Post.
A quote is valid for 30 days from the date we send it, unless it says otherwise. Promotional prices shown on a quote are valid for 14 days from the date of the quote.
Yes. You tell us which files matter most. Before you pay for the recovery, we’ll send you a list of your recovered files so you can check them. If any of the files you listed are missing, tell us and we’ll search again.
If you want the device back, ask when you approve the quote. We repair a device only as far as needed to recover the data, so most devices are not returned in working condition, and opening it to test it can mark, crack or destroy the case.
The biggest cause is bad sectors on drives 5 to 10 years old, with worn heads, often in dusty, hot older computers that were never upgraded.
If you have tried Windows repair or safe mode and the drive keeps slowing down, it is usually dying of old age, and about 99 percent of these are recoverable.
The second most common cause is head failure from a shock, such as the drive being knocked over, bumped, dropped or damaged while moving.
Hard drives have more recovery tools and software and higher success rates, but they need more expertise. That includes circuit board repair, firmware repair, bad sector handling, and mechanical work such as head replacement or platter work in a clean room or laminar flow cabinet.
SSDs are purely electronic. Controller or NAND chip faults need reballing or controller replacement by highly skilled technicians.
Specialised firmware tools like PC3000 SSD are expensive and only found in professional labs.
Not really. You are paying for our skill, time, effort and expertise. What we do is recover your data and show you what we have recovered. If it is useful to you, you accept it and pay. If you are not happy with the result for any reason, you can decline it at the end of our work. It would not be fair for us to work for free, or to do the work and then have a customer change their mind.
Instead of a warranty, our assurance is that we show you what we recover before you pay. Make sure you are happy with the result first. If you would like to check or test any files before paying, you can do that remotely using AnyDesk remote viewing software, or in person on a computer at our office.
If you buy a replacement hard drive or SSD from us, it comes with the manufacturer’s warranty, which is typically two years.
We also keep a backup of the data we give you for two weeks after you collect it. If something happens to the device we gave you the data on, for example you lose it or drop it, we will give you another copy free of charge during that two week period.
Yes, you are welcome to keep our quote and get a second opinion.
Before you take the drive from our office, we recommend you read our quote, then contact any other company by phone or email. Describe the problem outlined in our quote and ask about their price and turnaround time, without letting them look at the device yet. Then make your decision.
We suggest this because once a drive is handed over, it can be damaged by further attempts. Some smaller data recovery companies may not like customers shopping around, and some companies charge a fee if you decline their quote, even after saying there is no upfront fee, and may hold your drive until it is paid.
Yes, you can send a trusted family member or friend.
Just let us know their name ahead of time. For your own protection, we may ask them to show photo ID, such as a driver’s licence, when they collect.
You are welcome to have it back.
If the drive is faulty or damaged, we do not recommend using it again. You can take it back, or we can dispose of it for you free of charge.
If we found no physical problem, only a logical or software issue, you can reformat the drive and use it again.
If the drive is already a few years old, we recommend installing SMART monitoring software such as CrystalDiskInfo. This lets you watch for early signs of failure, so the drive does not fail on you from old age or another cause.
We are happy to help everyone, from individuals to big companies, with problems big or small.
We only turn away jobs we cannot help with, or jobs that are illegal or unethical.
For example, we do not crack or bypass encryption on a drive when the password or key has been lost, because we have no way to do it.
We will also refuse to recover data from a device that does not belong to the person asking, or where the data would be used to breach someone’s privacy.
Before you send your drive, go to our website and click the green Start Your Recovery button at the top of the page.
Fill out the form to get a job number.
We remove the hard drive from whatever enclosure or computer it came in and examine it.
We put specialised cooling fans on it to keep it cool, then make a sector-by-sector clone of all the data onto a healthy hard drive. We then back up the data from the healthy hard drive.
Yes, we can. We’ll let you know how much data there is, and you can change the destination drive you’ve selected.
We normally recommend picking a drive that’s a similar size to the one you give us to recover. For example, if you send us a 2 TB hard drive, pick a destination drive that size or larger. Don’t assume you’ll need less, because most people have at least 50% of their drive full.
Yes, we will. We guarantee all our customers privacy and confidentiality, and our company privacy policy is on our website.
If you send us your NDA, we’re happy to review it, and if we’re satisfied with the terms, we’ll sign it.
You can, but only in special circumstances and by appointment.
Please call or email us first with your questions, as any of our staff can usually answer them. If you have a special request, or something only the technician working on your drive can answer, they’re happy to contact you directly.
In most cases, no, though there are some exceptions.
For most Windows computers, we don’t need the password if it’s just a Windows user profile login.
For Apple MacBook computers, we usually do need your user profile password, because Macs use FileVault encryption by default.
The only other time we need a password is if the drive uses Windows BitLocker or another form of encryption. For the majority of jobs, though, no password is needed.
Yes. We can help with hard drives that have failed in a RAID, or with multiple hard drives working together in any type of RAID configuration.
First published 21 October 2026, 11:21 PM AEDT. Last updated 23 October 2026, 10:25 AM AEDT.
The information on this page is provided by Payam Toloo, founder and owner of Payam Data Recovery. This content is copyright and may not be reproduced on other websites without written permission. You are welcome to quote or reference it with a link to this page.
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Phone: 1300 444 800 (within Australia)
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Email: help@payam.com.au
