In 2003 Hitachi purchased IBM's hard disk drive business and then renamed it to HGST; later in 2012 that business unit was sold to Western Digital. A drive has characteristics of the era it came from, which will determine nearly all actions taken with respect to that drive.
IBM's drive division was sold to Hitachi in 2003 and became HGST, and Western Digital purchased HGST in 2012. The family lines continued on as such, which is the reason we can do donor matching at all, and also the reason we must be so precise with our donor matches.
Hitachi drives, and the HGST range which came later, after the Western Digital purchase, have a well-deserved reputation for reliability. What reaches our bench reflects this: these are generally not drives that died early. They are drives that operated for a decade before wearing out.
The failure profiles are also quite different. Motor and bearing failures are occurring more often than head crashes, and many of these drives are coming from equipment (laboratory instruments, industrial control systems, old NAS units) that have never had any reason to be replaced.
The main constraint is not the technique used, but donor sourcing: Deskstar and Travelstar lines were discontinued, and finding a fifteen-year-old drive with matching firmware revisions takes time.
Deskstar HDS721010, HDS722020 These are the 3.5-inch desktop and NAS duty versions of the family. More often than not they fail due to motor/bearing issues as opposed to head failures.
Travelstar HTS541010, HTS545050 These are the 2.5-inch laptop versions of the Travelstar line. They continue to show up in older computers which have been in service far longer than expected.
Ultrastar HUA722010, HUS724040 This refers to enterprise SAS and SATA array members that were once part of an older server estate.
HGST-branded Deskstar NAS The post-acquisition line. Effectively WD's internal design under the HGST name on later models.
Touro externals A simple USB case. Bridge failures are common; the disk behind the bridge is normally OK.
Legacy IBM Deskstar The pre-2003 line of IBM Deskstars. Now rare, and almost always from industrial or lab equipment.
A Hitachi recovery is usually technically straightforward, but it frequently takes time in terms of logistics since a suitable match from years past has to be located for the original family using both hardware configurations (heads) and firmware revisions.
The laboratories and industries around here continue to produce the older families, so we keep reserves of those specifically for situations like this. Where a specific version needs to be supplied, the diagnostic will advise on the most likely timeline rather than you discovering it later.
Generally yes. Age affects donor availability, but in terms of recoverability it does not matter; these disks are typically well built. The data they contain is often irreplaceable simply because of its age.
Common. If the machine will need to be put back into operation, tell us: instead of returning the recovery as a folder of files, we can return it as a bootable clone on current media.
Firmware/service area related issues rather than mechanical failures. There is no physical damage and no software will affect it. Frequently a positive result.
The timeframe depends upon the family type: days to a couple of weeks. We provide a realistic estimate during the diagnostic process rather than providing an overly optimistic estimate.
Costs start from £300 +VAT, with costs being fixed in writing. While sourcing a suitable donor impacts the timeline, the cost remains the same.