Leicester Data Recovery – No.1 PC & Computer Data Recovery Specialists (25+ Years)

Leicester Data Recovery provides professional desktop PC and laptop data recovery across Leicester, Coventry and the wider Midlands. We handle everything from accidental deletion to complex mechanical, electronic, firmware and NAND/flash failures on consumer and enterprise systems.

We Recover From All Major Desktop PC Brands

We work with every manufacturer. Below are 20 leading desktop-PC brands in the UK with representative popular models/series we frequently see (examples, not an exhaustive list):

1. HP – Pavilion Desktop, Omen 25/30L, EliteDesk/ProDesk

2. Dell – XPS Desktop, OptiPlex, Alienware Aurora

3. Lenovo – ThinkCentre M-series, Legion T5/T7, IdeaCentre 5

4. Acer – Aspire TC, Veriton, Predator Orion 3000/5000

5. ASUS – ROG Strix G10/G15, ProArt Station, ExpertCenter

6. Apple – iMac (24″/27″), Mac mini (Intel/Apple Silicon)

7. MSI – MAG Infinite, MEG Trident, Creator P-series

8. Razer – Tomahawk (SFF)

9. Corsair – Corsair One (i200/i300)

10. Gigabyte / AORUS – AORUS gaming desktops, BRIX mini

11. Medion – Erazer Engineer/Enforcer, Akoya

12. Fujitsu – ESPRIMO D/E/P-series

13. Intel – NUC 11/12/13 (mini PCs)

14. MINISFORUM – UM690/UM790 Pro (mini PCs)

15. Beelink – SER5/SER6, GTR5 (mini PCs)

16. ASRock – DeskMini/DeskMeet (SFF barebones)

17. Chillblast (UK) – Fusion/Origin series

18. PC Specialist (UK) – Vortex/Infinity prebuilds

19. Scan 3XS (UK) – 3XS Workstation/Gaming systems

20. Overclockers UK – OcUK Gaming/Infinity prebuilds

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

Storage, Interfaces & Platforms We Handle

• Storage & interfaces: 3.5″/2.5″ SATA HDD/SSD, M.2 NVMe (PCIe), M.2 SATA, mSATA, U.2, PCIe add-in SSDs, USB-SATA bridges, eSATA.

• File systems: NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, ReFS; APFS/HFS+; ext3/ext4, XFS, Btrfs, ZFS.

• Encryption: BitLocker, FileVault 2, LUKS, VeraCrypt (recovery requires valid keys/credentials).

• Virtualisation/RAID/NAS: VMware/Hyper-V (VMDK/VHDX), mdadm/LVM, RAID 0/1/5/6/10, SHR, JBOD.

Our Professional Process

1. Diagnostics & stabilisation – Electronics/firmware triage, safe-mode access, ROM/adaptives read.

2. Imaging first – Hardware imagers (PC-3000, Atola, DeepSpar) with head-map, power-cycle and selective LBA strategies.

3. Reconstruction – File-system rebuild, partition repair, RAID order/stride discovery, virtual-disk repair, decryption with valid keys.

4. Verification – Hash checks and spot-validation of critical user data.

5. Handover – Clean, organised data set.

50 Desktop-Computer Data-Loss Faults & How Professionals Recover

Mechanical / Head–Platter / Spindle (HDD)

1. Head crash – Sliders contact media; scoring. Fix: donor head stack, precise alignment; per-head conservative imaging.

2. Stiction – Heads stuck to platters. Fix: controlled release to ramp; assess heads; immediate low-stress imaging.

3. Weak/degraded heads – CRC/timeouts. Fix: head-map imaging, reduced speeds; donor heads if needed.

4. Spindle seizure – Bearings lock; no spin. Fix: platter/hub transplant to matched chassis; then image.

5. Servo track damage – Can’t lock servo. Fix: donor heads + adaptive tuning; servo-assisted imaging.

6. Bent actuator/pivot play – Poor track-follow. Fix: donor actuator; recalibrate adaptives; resume imaging.

7. Load/unload ramp damage – Mis-park. Fix: ramp replacement, slider inspection; head-select imaging.

8. Helium leak (He drives) – Unstable channel. Fix: short duty cycles, parameter tuning; donor heads if required.

9. Contamination – Particulates from impact/opening. Fix: cleaning protocol; donor heads; ultra-conservative passes.

10. Off-track writes (shock) – Metadata incoherence. Fix: per-zone imaging; logical rebuild from coherent regions.

Electronics / PCB / Power (HDD & SSD)

11. TVS diode short (surge) – Dead/low resistance. Fix: isolate/replace TVS; verify rails; power-safe imaging.

12. Motor driver short – Spins then cuts. Fix: donor PCB/driver swap; validate spindle currents.

13. Controller IC failure – No enumerate/erratic. Fix: donor PCB with ROM/adaptives transfer; firmware access; image.

14. Preamp failure (HDD) – Spins, no read. Fix: head swap (preamp integrated); adaptive calibration.

15. Liquid ingress corrosion – Oxidised pads/tracks. Fix: ultrasonic clean, micro-jumpers, ROM migration.

16. PSU over-voltage cascade – Multiple IC damage. Fix: staged board repair; current-sense checks; firmware triage; image.

Firmware / System Area (HDD)

17. SA module corruption – Fails init/abnormal ID. Fix: alternate-head boot; patch SA modules; rebuild defect lists/translator.

18. Translator damage – Broken LBA map. Fix: regenerate from P/G-lists; recalc zones; image.

19. Media cache bugs – Freezes under load. Fix: disable features; firmware patch; controlled imaging queues.

20. SMART/log overflow – Slow init/loop. Fix: clear logs; suppress background tasks; image.

21. Adaptive mismatch (after PCB swap) – Spins, no access. Fix: move unique ROM; re-lock microcode; image.

22. Failed/downgraded microcode – Brick/erratic. Fix: safe-mode loader; re-flash modules; regain access.

Media / Sector-Level (HDD)

23. Bad-sector storms – URE spikes/timeouts. Fix: multi-pass imaging (soft→hard), dynamic head-map; disable look-ahead.

24. Pending/relocated sector saturation – Severe slowdowns. Fix: skip windows; targeted re-reads; late fills.

25. Thermal asperities – Heat-related stalls. Fix: cool-down cycles; short duty windows; conservative heads.

26. LBA0/boot sector damage – Disk seen, won’t mount. Fix: image; rebuild boot sectors from mirrors/metadata.

SSD / NVMe (NAND, FTL, Controllers)

27. Controller failure – 0 MB/no detect. Fix: PCB swap + ROM transfer (where possible) or direct NAND read & FTL reconstruction.

28. FTL corruption – Device IDs, no data. Fix: vendor/test mode; dump translation tables; rebuild mapping.

29. NAND wear/read-disturb – Uncorrectables surge. Fix: ECC-aware reads; voltage/temperature tuning; soft-decoding.

30. DRAM-less cache collapse – Hangs/timeouts. Fix: safe-mode load; emulate cache flush; rebuild mapping.

31. Power-loss during write – Metadata loss. Fix: controller repair; journal/cache recovery; remap and extract.

32. Over-provision area damage – Wear-levelling breaks. Fix: factory/vendor mode; rebuild tables from remnants.

33. NVMe namespace corruption – Present, no volume. Fix: rebuild namespace; logical recovery from intact blocks.

34. PCIe link instability – Intermittent enumeration. Fix: stabilise link width/speed; NVMe reset flows; image.

Logical / File-System / OS

35. Accidental deletion – Files/folders removed. Fix: image first; carve metadata (MFT/APFS snapshots); journal replay.

36. Quick/full format – New FS over old. Fix: deep scan for earlier structures; rebuild trees.

37. NTFS MFT/MFTMirr corruption – Missing records. Fix: reconstruct from $LogFile/$Bitmap; recover orphans.

38. exFAT allocation/meta damage – Lost chains. Fix: infer from directory entries and boundaries.

39. APFS container/b-tree damage – Broken fsroot/extents. Fix: parse checkpoints; rebuild trees; resolve clones.

40. HFS+ catalog/extent issues – No directory tree. Fix: rebuild from extents & journal.

41. ext4 superblock/JBD2 – Unmountable. Fix: alternate superblocks; inode/journal repair.

42. XFS/Btrfs metadata loss – Inode/leaf errors. Fix: b-tree/leaf repair; chunk map rebuild.

43. ZFS pool import failure – Label/txg problems. Fix: label scan; txg roll-back/forward; partial dataset recovery.

44. Boot/EFI/BCD corruption – Won’t boot. Fix: image; repair BCD/EFI to mount; export data.

45. Virtual disk damage (VMDK/VHDX) – Header/extent issues. Fix: fix descriptors/footers; map extents; mount & extract.

RAID / NAS / Controllers

46. RAID metadata loss – Unknown order/stride. Fix: analyse parity/signatures; reconstruct layout; image members; virtual rebuild.

47. Degraded/failed RAID 5/6 – Multiple bad disks. Fix: per-disk imaging with defect handling; parity rebuild; FS repair.

48. On-board SATA/NVMe controller faults – Random resets. Fix: migrate to stable HBA; image; then logical work.

Security / Encryption

49. BitLocker/FileVault/LUKS locked – No access. Fix: with valid key/password/TPM protector: decrypt the image, then reconstruct FS.

50. Hardware-encrypted USB bridges – Bridge failure hides data. Fix: repair/replace identical bridge to present plaintext; then image.

Packing & Drop-Off / Post-In

Please package your drive or PC storage device in a padded envelope or small box, include your contact details inside, and either post it to us or drop it off in person during business hours. This minimises transit shock and speeds intake.

Why Leicester Data Recovery?

• 25+ years of specialist desktop and PC recoveries

• Advanced hardware imagers and vendor-specific tools

• Expertise across modern file systems, RAID, virtualisation and encryption (with valid keys)

• Clear communication and rapid turnaround options