Data Recovery Case Studies

We have decided to provide some detail on particular cases of hard disk drive (HDD), solid state disk (SSD), server, RAID and flash memory data recovery. You may find a particular model of device which you own and that has failed; often we see particular failures in a certain batch of storage devices.

This section of the website will be updated each time we have an interesting data recovery case study to share.

HDD slider & head detached from head assembly

Detached slider/head stuck on the platter

BBC Radio 5 Live Elis James and John Robins

CDR credit on BBC Radio 5 Live broadcast

What are Micro-Jogs in WD HDDs?

ST31000528AS head-assemlby platter removal

Head-assembly swap: Seagate ST31000528AS

Advanced Memory Stick Recovery – Failure of ECC

GoPro Video File Recovery – why is it so difficult?

ST2000LM007 / ST1000LM035 – Is this the worst HDD ever made?

FreeNAS Linux RAID

Seagate 2TB Backup Plus – not detected

WD20NMVW mechanical failure

Data Recovery Scam Example – Inform yourself

Ransomware Locked MacBook Pro

128GB MicroSD counterfeit

Seagate ST4000DM000 4TB damaged platter

Detached read-write heads

WD 2TB My Passport Dropped on the Floor

WD 4TB CCTV Deleted video

How to recover Canon video files

When is a single SSD actually two SSDs? Samsung MZRPC512

Counterfeit memory stick – A case study

24 hour RAID disk data recovery

Toshiba MQ01ABF050 – skewed spindle

HDD Failure: Seagate “DM001” Grenada series

Buffalo TeraStation RAID data recovery

Western Digital DCM configuration – donor parts

Thecus N3200 – 3 Disk RAID 5 recovery

Samsung SSD 840 Pro – Microcode failure

HDD Failure: Toshiba MK3265GSXN – firmware or heads?

Counterfeit Memory Sticks

Apple XSERVE RAID Recovery – Unusual block ordering

Case study: Typical RAID-5 data recovery after multiple disk failure

WD3200AAJS – Pinnacle firmware failure

Fire and smoke damage – SAS HDD RAID Data Recovery

WD10EADS power surge smoke platter damage

Extreme power surge – PCB Failure – Hard Disk Drive

HDD Failure: WD10EZEX-07ZF5A0 – Motor bearing

HDD failure of the month – WD20EARX / WD1001FALS

Hard disk failure of the month – Samsung / Seagate ST1000LM024

DIY a hard disk circuit board failure?

December RAID follow up

HP/Compaq Servers – they’re not like other RAIDs

David Booth

09:10 18 Sep 24

John was incredibly helpful, reassuring and efficient in recovering footage from a formatted SD card. I cannot recommend him enough. Superb.

Andy Davies

15:33 06 Aug 24

I had an issue with the port on my external hard drive so made an enquiry as to how much it would cost to get the data recovered. I received a call very promptly saying that it looked like it was a... problem that I could solve myself instead of taking it in and gave detailed instructions on what to do and said that I could bring it in if I couldn't fix it myself.I followed John's instructions and was able to solve the problem without spending a penny. I really appreciated John's advice and I don't think there are many businesses who would offer this if it was in my best interest not to bring it in. Would highly recommend.read more

Adrian Stretton

17:20 30 Jul 24

I had just got back from a Japan trip and had been storing my trip photos and videos on a HDD that already had lots of data stored on it. When I got home and looked to backup I found I could no... longer access my drive. I had looked up and found various data recovery specialists and found many to have hidden fees even taking my HDD to another “specialist” before finding Cheadle Data Recovery. John was very clear and upfront with costs. He explained the damage done to my HDD and the work that had to be done. He retrieved all the data and I can’t thank him enough! Note to self have at least two backups.read more

David Wood

08:32 22 Jul 24

We used Cheadle Data Recovery to recover data from a NAS box which unfortunately had 2 drives fail in a RAID5 at the same time! John was incredibly knowledgeable, explained the process and quickly... turned round the work for us. An extra bonus, everything from the NAS was fully recovered and we are now back up and running.read more