Before assuming the worst, work outward: the power adapter, the cable, a different port, a different machine. A meaningful share of completely dead drives are completely fine drives with a failed power supply — and where the fault is genuinely inside, it is usually electronic, which leaves your data untouched.
$ cdr diagnose /dev/sda → Device: Seagate ST3000DM001 · 3 TB → Status: NO SPIN-UP — shorted PCB / blown TVS diode → Client: confidential · Newmarket, Cambridgeshire $ cdr engineer-working → Donor board matched: from stock · 0 days wait → ROM / firmware: transferred to donor PCB → Imaging: 2.61 TB / 3.00 TB (87%) $ cdr verify → ✓ family_photos — 96,402 files → ✓ documents — 12,880 files → ✓ everything else — powered back up
Each takes two minutes and each resolves a meaningful share of the enquiries we take on this.
Almost always electronic. A shorted component on the board, a failed regulator, or surge damage. The disk inside is usually entirely untouched, which makes this the cheaper end of the work.
Either a seized spindle or stiction — the heads bonded to the platter surface after a long spin-down. Mechanical, and clean-air work.
Firmware. The drive cannot load the modules it needs at start-up, so it never reports itself properly to the machine. No physical damage, and no software can touch it.
This is the advice that circulates online and it destroys drives.
Buying an identical board from an identical drive and swapping it over almost never works on a modern disk, because each board carries adaptive data unique to the drive it shipped with — calibration values for that specific head stack and those specific platters, stored in a ROM chip on the board.
Fit a board carrying another drive's adaptives and the heads are being told to behave in ways that do not match the hardware they are attached to. At best it does not detect. At worst it writes incorrect calibration back and makes the original fault considerably harder to undo.
The correct procedure is to move the ROM chip from your board to the donor, or read the adaptives and transfer them. That is what we do, and it is why a board-class recovery is priced as work rather than as a part swap.
If somebody has already swapped a board. Say so at the diagnostic. It changes what we look at first and it is not a reason for embarrassment — it is the most commonly given piece of bad advice on the internet.
A drive that will not power on is from £300 +VAT. Electronic-class work sits at the lower end of what we handle, because no clean-air time is involved and the disk is usually intact behind the failed board.
Where the fault turns out to be stiction or a seized motor, that is mechanical class and carries the 50% deposit. You are told which applies at the diagnostic, before agreeing to anything.
Usually better than clicking. Silence normally means the board rather than the mechanics, and electronic faults are among the more recoverable classes because the platters are untouched.
It will not work on anything modern and may make things worse. Each board holds calibration data unique to its own drive. The chip has to be transferred, which is a soldering job, not a swap.
Surge damage through the board is common and frequently the whole fault. The disk behind it is usually fine. Do not keep trying to power it — if a component is shorted, repeated attempts spread the damage.
Different fault entirely. That is firmware or file system rather than power, and it is often among the more recoverable presentations. Do not initialise it when prompted.
Stop immediately and do not power it again. Something on the board has failed short. This is straightforward electronic work provided nobody keeps applying current to it.
Typically three to seven working days, which is quicker than mechanical work because no donor mechanics or clean-air time are required.
Behind every repair a 10,000-part store, a free written diagnostic to open, and no fix no fee on most jobs. Begin your recovery today.