External Hard Drive Recovery

York Data Recovery: The UK’s Premier External & NAS HDD Recovery Specialists

For 25 years, York Data Recovery has been the UK’s leading expert in data recovery from external hard drives and NAS (Network-Attached Storage) drives. We specialise in overcoming the unique challenges posed by these devices, from the integrated USB bridge boards in portables to the complex RAID configurations and proprietary file systems in multi-bay NAS enclosures. Our engineers possess a deep, forensic understanding of the interplay between the drive mechanism itself and its external interface electronics. We support every major manufacturer and interface, recovering data from catastrophic physical, electronic, and logical failures. Our state-of-the-art lab, featuring a Class 100 cleanroom and an extensive inventory of donor parts and advanced tools, ensures the highest possible success rate. All cases begin with a free, no-obligation diagnostic.

A 25-Year Legacy of External & NAS Drive Expertise
A quarter-century in data recovery has allowed us to build an unparalleled knowledge base specific to external storage. We understand the evolution from simple USB-to-IDE bridges to the sophisticated USB 3.0/UASP and Thunderbolt interfaces of today, and the shift from single-drive enclosures to multi-bay NAS units running Linux-based MDADM or proprietary systems like Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR). This historical corpus includes the common failure points of specific external drive series (e.g., WD My Passport’s native USB interface, Seagate Expansion’s firmware quirks) and the recovery methodologies for hundreds of NAS models. This vast, accumulated knowledge is critical for efficiently bypassing the interface layer to access the core HDD or SSD, where the true recovery takes place.

Comprehensive Manufacturer & Interface Support

We recover data from all external storage devices, regardless of brand, interface, or form factor.

Top 40 External HDD/SSD Manufacturers & Popular UK Models:

1. Western Digital (WD): My Passport, My Book, Elements, Black D10 Game Drive

2. Seagate: Expansion, Backup Plus, One Touch, IronWolf (NAS), LaCie (see below)

3. Toshiba: Canvio Basics, Canvio Advance, Canvio Flex

4. Samsung: T5, T7 Shield, T7 Portable SSD

5. LaCie (Seagate): Rugged, Porsche Design, 2big, 5big, d2

6. SanDisk: Extreme Portable, Extreme Pro Portable SSD

7. ADATA: SE800, HD710 Pro, SD700 External SSD

8. Kingston: XS2000, NV2 External SSD, Datatraveler

9. Crucial: X6, X8 Portable SSD

10. Buffalo Technology: MiniStation, LinkStation (NAS)

11. Iomega (Lenovo): eGo (Historical, common in legacy recoveries)

12. Fantom Drives: GForce, GreenLine

13. OWC: Mercury Elite, ThunderBay

14. G-Technology (WD): G-DRIVE, G-RAID

15. Glyph Technologies: Atom, Blackbox

16. Transcend: StoreJet, M3, ESD350C Portable SSD

17. Verbatim: Store ‘n’ Go, Slimline

18. Silicon Power: Armor A60, A80, Slim S03

19. PNY: Elite-X, Pro-X Portable SSD

20. Sabrent: Rocket XTRM-Q, Eco External SSD

21. TeamGroup: PD1000, CX2 External SSD

22. Inateck: FE2005, FE2011

23. ORICO: 2.5″/3.5″ Transparent Enclosures

24. Seagate Maxtor (Historical): OneTouch, Basics

25. Hague: Rugged Drives, Solutions Drives

26. Century (CRU): ToughDrive, Sonic

27. Sonnet Technologies: Fusion Drive, Echo

28. QNAP (NAS): TS-233, TS-453D, TVS-872X

29. Synology (NAS): DiskStation DS223j, DS923+, DS1522+

30. Asustor (NAS): AS5304T, AS6706T

31. Netgear (NAS): ReadyNAS 212, RN212

32. D-Link (NAS): DNS-320, DNS-327L

33. Thecus (NAS): N2350, N8810

34. Terramaster (NAS): F2-223, T9-450

35. Lenovo (NAS): IX4-300D, PX12-450R

36. Drobo (NAS): Drobo 5N2, Drobo 8D

37. Promise Technology: Pegasus32, R8

38. Corsair: Flash Voyager, Flash Survivor

39. Lexar: SL100, SL500 Portable SSD

40. IBM (Historical): Travelstar (in external enclosures)

Supported Interfaces:

• SATA (Serial ATA): SATA I, II, III (via internal drive after bridge board bypass)

• PATA/IDE (Parallel ATA): (Legacy) via bridge board

• USB (Universal Serial Bus): USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1, USB 3.2 Gen 1/2, USB-C (connector)

• Thunderbolt: Thunderbolt 1, 2, 3, 4

• FireWire: IEEE 1394a (400 Mbps), IEEE 1394b (800 Mbps)

• eSATA (external SATA)

• NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express): Over USB-C or Thunderbolt (for external SSDs)

• Network Interfaces: Gigabit Ethernet, 2.5GbE, 10GbE (for NAS devices)

In-Depth Technical Recovery: 25 Common External HDD & NAS Faults

The external nature of these devices adds layers of complexity. Below is a forensic-level breakdown of common issues and the sophisticated recovery processes we employ in our lab.

1. Integrated USB Bridge Board Failure: The proprietary PCB that converts the drive’s native SATA interface to USB fails due to a power surge or component failure.

   • Technical Recovery: We cannot simply replace the enclosure. We must carefully dismantle the external case to access the native SATA HDD/SSD inside. For modern drives like the WD My Passport, the bridge board is often married to the drive’s firmware, requiring us to use tools like PC-3000 to either repair the original bridge board or reprogram the drive to work with a standard SATA interface, allowing us to image the drive directly.

2. Firmware Corruption on Native USB Drives: The drive’s firmware, which includes the USB translation layer, becomes corrupted, causing the drive to not be detected or to display incorrect capacity.

   • Technical Recovery: We use specialised hardware (e.g., PC-3000 with adapters) to place the drive into a utility mode, bypassing the USB interface and communicating directly with the drive’s processor via the SATA pins on the PCB. We then diagnose and repair corrupted firmware modules in the Service Area (SA), such as the translator or adaptive data, using our extensive firmware database.

3. Accidental Deletion/Formatting from a NAS: A user deletes critical data or formats a volume on a NAS device.

   • Technical Recovery: We do not attempt recovery through the NAS interface. We safely remove the drives from the NAS unit and create full sector-by-sector images of each one in our lab. Using advanced software like UFS Explorer RAID Recovery, we analyse the images to determine the RAID parameters (disk order, stripe size, parity rotation) and the file system (often EXT4 or Btrfs). We then construct a virtual RAID and perform a deep scan to rebuild the file system metadata and directory structure, allowing for precise file extraction.

4. NAS RAID Degradation & Failed Rebuild: One drive in a NAS RAID 5 array fails, and a subsequent drive develops issues during the rebuild, causing the array to crash.

   • Technical Recovery: We image all drives from the NAS. The recovery process involves a parametric analysis to determine the original RAID geometry. We then work with the set of drives in their pre-rebuild, degraded state. Using hardware imagers, we can often read past the Unrecoverable Read Error (URE) that caused the rebuild failure. The data is then reconstructed mathematically using the remaining parity and data stripes in our virtual environment.

5. Power Surge Damaging External Enclosure Electronics: A voltage spike destroys components on the external PCB but may also have cascaded to the internal drive’s PCB.

   • Technical Recovery: This is a multi-stage process. First, we diagnose and repair or replace the external bridge board. Second, we perform a detailed diagnosis of the internal drive’s PCB, checking for blown TVS diodes, failed motor drivers, or corrupted ROM. We perform a PCB transplant if necessary, transferring the adaptive ROM. Only then can we power the internal drive to assess the health of the heads and media.

6. Head Stack Assembly Failure in an External Drive: The read/write heads inside the portable drive crash onto the platters, often due to physical shock while powered on.

   • Technical Recovery: In our Class 100 cleanroom, we perform a head stack assembly (HSA) transplant. This requires an identical donor drive (matching model, FW, and sometimes DOM). The patient drive’s platters are cleaned of contamination. The donor HSA is installed with precision alignment. The drive is then connected to a hardware imager (e.g., DeepSpar Disk Imager) to perform a slow, controlled read, using custom read-head tuning to manage bad sectors and minimise stress on the donor heads.

7. Bad Sector Propagation: Media degradation causes unreadable sectors to spread, eventually making the drive unusable and causing file system corruption.

   • Technical Recovery: We use hardware imagers to create a sector-by-sector clone. The imager employs advanced read-retry algorithms, adjusting read thresholds and timing to read marginal sectors. For persistent bad sectors, we may use the PC-3000 to disable the drive’s internal error correction and attempt a raw read, applying our own software-based ECC afterwards to salvage as much data as possible.

8. Virus or Ransomware Encryption on an External Backup Drive: The external drive, used as a backup, becomes infected and files are encrypted.

   • Technical Recovery: We first attempt to identify the ransomware variant to see if a decrypter exists. We then perform a raw scan of the drive to search for unencrypted shadow copies (VSS), temporary files, or backup file system metadata (e.g., $MFT mirror for NTFS) that may contain pre-infection file information. For some types of ransomware that only encrypt file headers, file carving can be effective.

9. File System Corruption (e.g., exFAT, NTFS, HFS+): The file system on the external drive becomes corrupt, making the volume unreadable.

   • Technical Recovery: We work on a sector-level image of the drive. We attempt to repair critical metadata structures: for NTFS, we use the $MFT mirror and $LogFile; for HFS+, we rebuild the Catalog File; for exFAT, we repair the FAT and Cluster Heap. For severe corruption, we bypass the file system and use raw data carving techniques to extract files based on their headers and footers.

10. Overheating Leading to PCB or Drive Instability: Chronic overheating causes solder joint failure on the PCB or degradation of the drive’s internal components.

    • Technical Recovery: We inspect the PCB under a microscope for cracked solder joints (especially on the main controller and motor driver IC) and reflow them if necessary. For internal damage, we stabilise the drive in a temperature-controlled environment within our lab and use aggressive cooling during the imaging process to maintain stability.

11. Unsafe Ejection / Partition Mounting Errors: The drive is disconnected without ejection, leading to partition table or file system journal corruption.

12. Click of Death / PCB to Preamp Communication Failure: The drive clicks repeatedly as the system fails to load the heads or communicate with the preamp.

13. Spindle Motor Seizure in a Portable Drive: The motor that spins the platters in a 2.5″ drive fails, often due to bearing wear from frequent transport.

14. SSD Controller Failure in an External SSD: The main processor on an external SSD fails, locking access to the NAND flash memory.

15. NAND Flash Wear in an External SSD: The flash memory cells degrade from extensive use, leading to read errors and data loss.

16. Proprietary NAS Encryption Key Loss: The NAS unit fails, and the data drives are encrypted with a key tied to the original hardware.

17. Multiple Drive Failure in a NAS: More than the redundant number of drives fail in a RAID 5 or RAID 6 array.

18. NAS Configuration Loss: The operating system or configuration database of the NAS becomes corrupted.

19. Physical Damage to Enclosure and Drive: The external drive suffers from impact, fire, or water damage.

20. Platter Scratching from Severe Head Crash: The read/write heads physically score the platter surface, destroying data.

21. S.M.A.R.T. Errors and Drive Pre-failure: The drive’s self-monitoring system reports imminent failure.

22. Failed Firmware Update on a NAS or External Drive: A power loss during a firmware update bricks the device.

23. USB Port or Connector Damage: The physical USB port on the external drive is broken.

24. Accidental Initialisation or Repartitioning: The drive is mistakenly initialised, wiping the partition table.

25. Logical Bad Blocks in Critical Metadata Area: Unreadable sectors develop in the area containing the partition table or file system metadata.

Why Choose York Data Recovery?

• 25 Years of Specialised Expertise: Our deep knowledge of external and NAS-specific failures is your greatest asset.

• Direct Media Access: We bypass failed interface electronics to work directly with the core HDD/SSD.

• Advanced Tooling: Essential for successful physical interventions on portable and desktop drives.

• Free, Transparent Diagnostics: We provide a clear, detailed report and a no-obligation quote before any work begins.

If your external or NAS drive is failing, do not attempt to run chkdsk, rebuild the array, or use risky data recovery software. These actions can cause irreversible damage. Contact the expert engineers at York Data Recovery today for your free diagnostic assessment.