Data Recovery in Perth

A hard drive that is starting to fail rarely stops all at once. It develops areas it can no longer read, and it keeps retrying them, which is why the computer freezes, slows down and throws errors. Mechanical drives often make noise as they go. The drive is still readable at this stage, but each hour of use damages it further.

We take the drive out and copy everything readable off it in a controlled way, carefully working around the damaged areas instead of hammering them the way Windows does. Then we check the recovered files open, and copy them to a new drive or a drive you bring. If we cannot recover your files, you pay nothing.

Our guide to the signs a hard drive is failing explains how urgent each warning sign is.

A drive that will not spin, will not mount or has disappeared from the computer needs more work than a failing one, and it is the advanced recovery price. It is still often recoverable: the fault may be in the drive's electronics or its firmware rather than the disks that hold your files.

We assess the drive first and tell you honestly how likely recovery is before starting. If we cannot recover your files, you pay nothing. Do not open the drive, freeze it or tap it, whatever the internet suggests, since each of those can turn a recoverable drive into one that is not.

SSDs fail differently from mechanical drives. There are no moving parts and no warning noises, and when an SSD goes, it can go suddenly and completely. Some fail into a read-only state, which is the good outcome, since everything on them can still be copied off.

Many SSDs also clear deleted data automatically in the background, so the sooner a problem SSD is turned off and brought in, the better the odds. An SSD that is failing but readable is the failing-drive price. One that has stopped responding is the dead-drive price.

The computer not working does not usually mean the drive has failed. A dead motherboard, a broken screen or a Windows that will not boot all leave the files where they were. We take the drive out and recover what is on it, whether or not the computer itself is worth fixing.

If the drive is healthy and only the computer has failed, it is often a straightforward copy, and we tell you when that is the case. If the computer is worth repairing, the laptop repair page covers that side.

Deleting a file removes the record of where it is, not the file itself, at least until something new is saved over it. On a mechanical hard drive, that gives a real chance of getting it back. On an SSD the odds are lower and time matters more.

Stop using the drive straight away, and do not install recovery software onto it, since that can overwrite the very files you want back. We quote it before we start, based on the drive and what happened.

External drives from brands such as Seagate, WD, Toshiba and Samsung are among the most common drives we recover from. Many are knocked off a desk while running, unplugged in the middle of a copy, or used as the only copy of years of photos.

Often it is the enclosure, the small circuit board that connects it to USB, that has failed rather than the drive inside, and the files are fine. We work out which, and recover the files either way. If the drive inside has failed mechanically, it is priced as a hard drive recovery instead, and we tell you before starting.

USB sticks and SD cards from cameras, dashcams and drones get pulled out mid-write, bent and worn out. When the computer says the card needs formatting, do not format it. The files are usually still there, and formatting makes recovering them harder.

We recover the photos, videos and documents and copy them to a drive you can keep.

The best data recovery is the one you never need. We set up automatic backup to Google Drive or OneDrive, choose the folders that matter, such as documents, desktop and photos, sort out storage so it does not fill up, and check that it is working before you leave. From then on it runs by itself in the background.

A backup protects you from the things recovery sometimes cannot fix: a stolen laptop, ransomware, a drive that has failed completely, or a house fire. If you only do one thing after a scare like this, make it this.

If the computer itself is worth keeping, a failing drive can be replaced with a new SSD and everything cloned across while the old drive can still be read. The computer starts up as before with all your files and programs, and runs much faster than it did on the old drive. The computer upgrades page covers SSDs in detail.

For a small business, lost files mean lost invoices, client records and hours of work. We recover business data the same way, at the same prices, and for businesses on our Business IT Support plans we audit backups and run a test restore every year, so you know the backup will actually work on the day you need it.