Leicester Data Recovery – Leicester’s No.1 Hard Disk Recovery Specialists (25+ Years)

Leicester Data Recovery provides professional hard disk and SSD data recovery across Leicester, Coventry, and the wider Midlands. With over 25 years in business, we handle everything from simple accidental deletion to complex mechanical, electronic, firmware and NAND/flash failures across desktop, laptop, external and enterprise systems.

We Recover From All Major Brands & Model Series

We work with all manufacturers. Below are 20 leading brands in the UK market and representative models/series we commonly see in-lab:

1. Seagate – BarraCuda 2.5/3.5, IronWolf/Pro, SkyHawk, Exos, FireCuda (SSD).
2. Western Digital (WD) – Blue/Black/Red/Red Plus/Red Pro, Purple, Gold, Elements, My Passport.
3. Toshiba – P300/X300 (desktop), N300 (NAS), L200 (laptop), MG series (enterprise).
4. HGST (Hitachi) – Deskstar, Travelstar, Ultrastar (legacy/enterprise).
5. Samsung (SSD) – 860/870 EVO, 980/990 PRO (NVMe), T5/T7 Portable.
6. Crucial (Micron) – MX500, BX500 (SATA), P3/P5 Plus (NVMe).
7. SanDisk – Ultra 3D, SSD Plus, Extreme Portable.
8. Kingston – A400 (SATA), NV2 (NVMe), KC3000 (NVMe).
9. ADATA – SU800 (SATA), SX8200 Pro, XPG S70 (NVMe).
10. Corsair – MP510/MP600 (NVMe).
11. Sabrent – Rocket, Rocket Q, Rocket 4 Plus (NVMe).
12. PNY – CS900 (SATA), CS2140/CS3140 (NVMe).
13. TeamGroup – MP33/MP34, T-Force Cardea A440 (NVMe).
14. Transcend – 230S (SATA), 110S/220S (NVMe).
15. Patriot – Burst (SATA), Viper VP4100/VP4300 (NVMe).
16. Mushkin – Enhanced Source (SATA), Pilot-E/Gamma (NVMe).
17. Intel (enterprise SSD/legacy) – DC S/P series, P4510/P4610.
18. Micron (enterprise SSD) – 5300 (SATA), 7300/7400 (NVMe).
19. LaCie (Seagate external) – d2, Rugged, 2big/6big.
20. G-Technology / G-Drive (WD external) – G-Drive, G-RAID, G-Speed.

(If your drive isn’t listed, we still support it.)

Interfaces & Form Factors Covered

SATA, PATA/IDE, NVMe (PCIe), M.2 (B/M key), U.2, mSATA, SCSI, SAS, PCIe add-in cards, USB 3.x bridges (ASM/JMicron/Realtek), eSATA, Thunderbolt externals, RAID backplanes and NAS trays.

File Systems & Platforms

Windows: NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, ReFS
macOS: APFS, HFS+ (Journaled)
Linux/UNIX: ext3/ext4, XFS, Btrfs, ZFS, mdadm/LVM
NAS vendors: Synology SHR, QNAP, WD, Netgear, Asustor (RAID 0/1/5/6/10/JBOD)
Virtualisation: VMware/ESXi (VMFS/VMDK), Hyper-V (VHD/VHDX)
Encryption: BitLocker, FileVault 2, VeraCrypt, LUKS, TCG Opal/SED, WD/SanDisk hardware-bridge encryption.

Our Professional Recovery Approach (Summary)

• Stabilise first: Electronic/firmware triage, safe-mode access, ROM/adaptive reads, controlled re-initialisation.
• Imaging before repair: Hardware imagers (e.g., PC-3000, Atola, DeepSpar) for head-map reads, head selection, ECC-tolerant passes, selective LBA ranges, and power-cycle strategies.
• Targeted component work: Donor head stacks matched by micro-code/adaptives; preamp-aware procedures; PCB swaps with ROM transfer; NAND readout for SSD.
• Firmware & translator work: System Area (SA) module repair, translator regeneration, media cache handling, SMART and defect-list remediation.
• Logical rebuild: Partition/file-system reconstruction, journal replay, metadata merge, RAID order/stride detection, parity reconstruction, virtual block mapping (SSD FTL).
• Verification: Hash-based validation and integrity checks on recovered sets.

Top 50 Hard Disk/SSD Faults We Recover – With What They Are & How Professionals Fix Them

Mechanical / Head–Platter / Spindle (HDD)

1. Head crash / smeared lubricant – R/W sliders contact media, causing scoring. Fix: donor head stack, careful alignment, head-map imaging to minimise further damage.
2. Stiction (park failure) – Heads stuck to platter surface. Fix: controlled release, ramp re-seat, evaluate for head damage, immediate imaging.
3. Weak/degraded heads – Read channel marginal; UDMA CRC/timeouts. Fix: selective head imaging, reduced speeds, donor heads if required.
4. Spindle seizure / motor stall – Bearings lock from shock/contamination. Fix: transplant to compatible chassis/hub, then image.
5. Servo track damage – Cannot lock servo; frequent resets. Fix: head swap, adaptive tuning, servo-guided imaging with increased error tolerance.
6. Ramp issues / load-unload damage – Bent ramp or mis-park. Fix: replace ramp, re-park, inspect sliders, image by head.
7. Platter misalignment (post-impact) – Off-track read, seeking fails. Fix: precision alignment checks; in severe cases, multi-donor strategy and partial imaging.
8. Helium drive pressure loss – Altered aerodynamics; unstable reads. Fix: adjust imaging parameters; head swap if necessary; short duty cycles.
9. Contamination (particulates) – Elevated media errors after shock/opening. Fix: cleaning protocols, donor heads, ultra-conservative imaging passes.
10. Bent actuator / pivot play – Inconsistent track following. Fix: donor actuator assembly; recalibrate adaptives; resume imaging.

Electronics / PCB / Preamp (HDD & SSD)
11) TVS diode short (over-voltage) – Drive dead/low resistance. Fix: TVS isolation/replacement, verify downstream ICs, power-safe imaging.
12) Controller IC failure – No enumerate/erratic behaviour. Fix: donor PCB with ROM/adaptives transfer; rework; firmware repair.
13) Preamp failure (in HDA) – Spins but no ID/read. Fix: head swap (preamp integrated with heads), adaptive calibration, then image.
14) Corroded PCB / liquid ingress – Oxidised pads/tracks. Fix: ultrasonic clean, micro-jumper repairs, ROM migration.
15) Shorted motor driver – Spins briefly then cuts. Fix: donor board, driver swap or reball; confirm spindle currents.
16) Power-surge cascade – Multiple components blown. Fix: staged board repair, check current sense lines, then firmware access for imaging.

Firmware / System Area (HDD)
17) SA module corruption – Fails to init; ID anomalies. Fix: boot alternate head, patch SA modules, restore defects/G-list, re-build translator.
18) Translator damage – LBA addressing broken; slow or no access. Fix: regenerate translator from P-list/G-list; recalc zones; imaging.
19) Media cache / write cache bug – Drive freezes under load. Fix: disable media cache features; firmware patch; controlled imaging queue.
20) SMART overflow / log issues – Init loops/slow ID. Fix: clear/patch logs, disable background processes, proceed to image.
21) Adaptive mismatch after PCB swap – Spins, no access. Fix: transfer unique ROM/adaptives, re-lock microcode, then image.
22) Microcode downgrade/failed update – Brick or erratic. Fix: safe-mode loader, service commands, re-flash modules, then read.

Media / Surface / Sector-Level (HDD)
23) Bad sector proliferation – URE spikes; re-allocations. Fix: imager with head-map, multiple passes (soft→hard), read-look-ahead off.
24) Re-allocated/Pending sector storms – Timeouts. Fix: skip strategies, late-stage fills, targeted re-reads; firmware tweaks.
25) Thermal asperities – Heat-related slowdowns. Fix: short duty cycles, cool-down imaging schedule, conservative heads.
26) Off-track writes from shock – Metadata inconsistency. Fix: per-zone imaging, logical rebuild from partially coherent regions.
27) Grown defect lists saturation – Access stalls. Fix: defect list cleanup, translator rebuild, then image.
28) LBA 0 / partition boot sector damage – No mount. Fix: image first, rebuild boot sectors from mirrors/volume metadata.

Logical / File System
29) Accidental deletion – Files/dirs removed. Fix: image; metadata carve from MFT/HFS+/APFS snapshots, journal replay.
30) Reformat/initialisation – New FS over old. Fix: image; deep scan for old structures (MFT records, APFS containers, ext superblocks).
31) Corrupted NTFS MFT/MFTMirr – Inconsistent file table. Fix: reconstruct from $LogFile, $Bitmap, orphan file records.
32) exFAT FAT/meta damage – Allocation lost. Fix: infer chains from file boundaries and directory entries; carve.
33) APFS container corruption – Broken B-trees/snapshots. Fix: parse checkpoints, reconstruct fsroot, resolve extents/clones.
34) HFS+ catalog/extent corruption – No directory tree. Fix: rebuild catalog from extents and journal; recover orphaned data.
35) ext4 superblock/JBD2 journal damage – Unmountable. Fix: alternate superblocks, inode table rebuild, journal replay.
36) XFS log corruption – Metadata inconsistencies. Fix: log recovery, inode btree rebuild, directory leaf repair.
37) Btrfs metadata loss – RAID-like chunks. Fix: superblock set analysis, chunk map rebuild, tree root recovery.
38) ZFS pool import failure – Labels/vdev lost. Fix: label scan, txg roll-back/roll-forward, partial dataset recovery.
39) Virtual disk damage (VMDK/VHDX) – Broken headers. Fix: repair descriptor/footers, map extents, mount and extract.
40) Email/database corruption (PST/EDB/SQL) – App won’t open. Fix: binary repair or export via forensics tools after imaging.

Encryption & Access Control
41) BitLocker volume without key – Locked data. Fix: requires valid key/TPM protector/recovery key; with key, decrypt image & rebuild.
42) FileVault 2 (APFS) locked – Needs password/recovery key. Fix: with credentials, unlock and image decrypted volume.
43) VeraCrypt/LUKS header damage – Can’t unlock. Fix: header backup use or cryptographic header repair; with passphrase, decrypt then recover.
44) USB-bridge hardware encryption (WD/SanDisk) – Board failed. Fix: migrate/repair same-bridge PCB or decrypt after board recovery.

External Enclosures / Bridges / Connectivity
45) USB-SATA bridge failure (JMicron/ASMedia/Realtek) – No detect. Fix: bypass bridge, go direct to SATA/NVMe; if hardware-encrypted, repair matching bridge.
46) Connector/port damage – Intermittent power/data. Fix: rework port, new enclosure/bridge, then image.

SSD-Specific (NAND/FTL/Controller)
47) SSD controller failure – Drive dead or 0 MB. Fix: controller/PCB swap with ROM transfer (where supported) or NAND direct-read and FTL rebuild.
48) FTL (Flash Translation Layer) corruption – IDs but no data. Fix: vendor-specific mode, dump translation tables, reconstruct mapping, extract user space.
49) NAND wear-out / read disturb – Massive uncorrectables. Fix: ECC-aware read techniques, voltage/temperature read tuning, soft-decoding passes.
50) DRAM-less SLC-cache collapse / power-loss event – Hangs/timeout. Fix: safe-mode load, cache flush emulation, rebuild mapping, then export.

How Our Process Works

1. Free Diagnostics – We evaluate symptoms, interface, SMART/firmware state and initial accessibility.
2. Stabilisation & Imaging – We prioritise a safe, read-only image before any logical work.
3. Reconstruction – We rebuild file systems, metadata, or arrays as needed.
4. Verification – Sample open, hash checks and spot-validation.
5. Handover – You receive a verified copy of your recovered data.

Packaging & Drop-Off / Post-In

Please package your hard disk or SSD in a padded envelope or small box, include your contact details inside, and either post it or drop it to us in person during standard business hours. This reduces transit shock and speeds up intake.

Why Leicester Data Recovery?

• 25+ years’ specialist experience across HDD, SSD, RAID and NAS.
• Advanced hardware imagers and vendor-specific tools for complex failures.
• Expertise across modern file systems, virtualisation and encryption (with valid credentials/keys).
• Clear communication and rapid turnaround options.

Contact Leicester Data Recovery for Free Diagnostics Today

Leicester Data Recovery – Leicester’s No.1 Hard Disk Recovery specialists, serving Leicester & Coventry.
Prefer to talk first? Send a brief description of the fault and we’ll advise the best next step right away.