The symptom · it never appears
Go through those three questions in order. Can the BIOS see the drive? Is there an entry for the disk in Disk Management? Will Explorer let you open the volume? Where it drops out tells you which part failed: the electronics, the firmware or the volume. None of these are where your files are stored. We see drives from all over Berkshire with the same problem statement: my computer does not see my drive. This describes circuit failure. It doesn't describe your data. There is no cost to take a look. One drive is £300 + VAT, and the quotation is in writing before any work starts.
An engineer answers, and looking is free
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| What you notice | What is likely wrong | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| Disk Management calls it Unknown, Not Initialized | The drive shows up, but there is no valid signature and no usable partition table | Say no to that prompt |
| The prompt ending “…before Logical Disk Manager can access it” | Confirm it and an empty partition map replaces the existing one | Refuse it, then unplug |
| No Media in Disk Management | Only the controller is answering. This is a hardware issue, and not a logical issue, because there's no way to reach the storage behind it. | Leave it disconnected |
| No entry in the BIOS at all | Electronics or firmware: board failure, a shorted protection diode, or service-area code that will not load | A component-level fix |
| A 1TB hard disk listed as 0 bytes in the BIOS | Firmware or translator damage, which is why the reported size is nonsense | Needs firmware tools, not software |
| Power goes in and nothing happens | The supply side of the board has died and the TVS diode has shorted | Almost always recoverable |
A case number is assigned to your device when we receive it. An engineer then finds the real fault (free) before anything else occurs; you will be advised clearly of what will be returned and what will not, along with a single written price. Charges cannot begin until you have read this and accepted.
Nothing is dismantled and nothing is left running. A moment in the BIOS and a quick look in Disk Management and Explorer determine whether the job is repairing electronics, rebuilding a service area or mending a file system on the copy.
A shorted TVS diode is removed and replaced with a new one. If the board is beyond saving, a donor board replaces it, but your own ROM chip is moved across, because the adaptive values burned into it were measured against your platters and would not work on any other drive.
When the drive responds, the sector-by-sector copy is taken. Everything after that happens on the copy, while your drive rests on a shelf, untouched.
You look at the file list first and make a decision about what to do. We will never invoice anything until you have said yes, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. All of the information that we recover will be put on new media purchased by us specifically for this job, and our company pays the cost of postage back to you. The case stays open on the bench until you tell us the files open on your own machine.
Worth holding on to: nearly every drive that cannot be seen by its computer has some sort of electrical or firmware problem. Those parts are there to handle communication between your computer and your disk; they do not hold your data. When a drive will not appear, all it is doing is telling you about its own hardware, which is why this type of fault usually works out better than many others, and why the assessment that tells you which it is costs nothing.
The mains failed overnight, and by morning the desktop showed one disk where there had been two. The WD was silent and didn't show up in the BIOS, and the fault turned out to be the TVS diode on its board. Its own ROM was moved onto a donor PCB, and the complete image was off two days after the parcel arrived.
Generally, yes. A failed board can be fixed or replaced, and whatever caused the failure will typically never make it further than the electronics onto the platters or NAND behind them. Drives with absolutely no signs of life are generally among the more predictable jobs we get here.
Never. That box writes a blank partition map directly over the one recording where your data resides. Say no, unplug it, and have an engineer take a look before anything else touches it.
No. When the BIOS doesn't find anything, the disk has simply lost its ability to introduce itself, not the material stored on it. The problem lies either in the electronics or in the firmware stored in the service area, and neither of these places holds your files.
Most likely. The protection diode absorbs the spike, because it is fitted to short out before everything behind it. So what you lost is electronics, and your data is where it always was.
There is no charge for the look. You then receive a list of the files that opened, those that did not, and a fixed amount to complete the job. Keep it switched off until you have received that in writing.