An endless grey screen on your computer, an endlessly flashing folder with a question mark, a chime and nothing more. A malfunctioning iMac has generally lost none of its documents, photos or music; we recover those from the removable storage contained within them (both halves of a Fusion Drive and simple SATA drives) for Apple users across York. This includes people who have been using their Apple computers out of studio space in the Minster quarter or front rooms in Fulford.
All Apple iMac jobs are diagnosed for free. A fixed, written quote will be generated before a screwdriver is ever lifted.
In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Chip level, electronic and mechanical repair is charged at 50% at start-up, and the other 50% only upon successful recovery of your data; all BitLocker, ransomware, forensic and CCTV/DVR recoveries are charged at start-up when you accept our fixed quote. More information can be found on the data recovery cost page.
The initial evaluation for every Apple iMac service call involves comparing the symptoms experienced by the user against the possible causes. After twenty-odd years, these twenty five failures cover virtually everything that comes through the door.
No bootable volume was detected: either the hard disk failed or the file system went haywire. Either way, we can recover the data; unfortunately, the folder icon doesn’t indicate which one occurred.
Your Mac boots up but fails to arrive at where it wants to be, generally due to a failing hard drive running extremely slowly. We image it before the slowdown becomes a standstill.
The SSD and hard drive have drifted apart so they can no longer share the same volume. They are each imaged separately, and then the relationship is restored in software.
Older big screen Macs have a standard 3.5 inch disk drive hidden behind glued glass, failing in the ordinary way. Out it comes, and the files on the disk go home.
Storage or firmware problems occur prior to logging onto the computer. Files are recovered first. Arguments about what went wrong come later, and the order always remains the same.
The installer crashed mid-flight and the computer has been circling an airfield. Down below, none of the users' folders were affected by the turbulence.
Apple's file systems each have their own way of failing. Native file system parsers replace all translation-based guessing.
It’s a single misread click in Recovery Mode. The data can usually come back if you do nothing with that volume (i.e., the computer stays turned off).
A short-lived drive fitted from 2009 to 2011 and failing young ever since. Our donor stock for them became permanent years ago.
The PSU and logic board died at the same time after a single power surge. The removable drive was unaffected. We’ll take care of the drive. Apple can cry about the board.
Fusion’s SSD typically dies before the spinner and leaves the combined volume stranded. Both are imaged and the shared volume is restored logically.
Once you provide credentials, an encrypted APFS volume opens and restores like any other volume. Write down your password and send it to us.
A creeping iMac can be a disk degrading in stages. The drive is captured while it still responds because the window really does close.
Home surgery grabs SATA and power cables much more frequently than any critical components. In general, the drive survives its release.
If a sick volume cannot surface even there, then your safest course of action is: remove the drive, image the drive, there is no other option worth naming.
The disks that are laptop class (inside post-2012 slims) have been running warm for several years, thus they develop bad sectors over time. Therefore, hardware imaging, and not waiting for the problem to go away, is the best solution.
Vanned, boxed, unboxed, ticking. The platters do not like to be moved around; donor parts and the head-swap bench settle the issue.
A sudden loss of power while an APFS write was in progress has left the journal for the volume in disarray; therefore, the volume will not mount. The volume is rebuilt from a full image.
The 3TB Seagate drives made during 2012 to 2013 carried a known defect, and plenty missed their swap window; we've had ample opportunity to develop a routine rescue procedure for them.
Damp rooms and excessive moisture cause corrosion at the edge contacts of the solid state drive (SSD) until it loses communication with your computer. Once cleaned and properly seated on our adapters, the SSD can be imaged.
Zero free space APFS will never self-boot or self-repair, and those snapshots hogging the room won't budge. This one is a full image, untangled peacefully.
Pre-APFS Fusion runs off of Core Storage, which has tearing issues that Disk Utility does not want to talk about. It gets re-stitched back together by hand using both halves.
You lose your phone, panic and lock everything down, and somehow your iMac gets erased in the process. What remains depends on FileVault, and we’ll give you a straight answer.
Faulty RAM corrupts files over months before anyone notices. The drive itself is healthy but the data can't be trusted, so our job is to audit your files instead of assuming they are good.
Your spindle bearing tells you it’s time to retire. It isn’t dead yet, but it isn't fine either. Image it while removal is still a relatively easy task.
Getting the drive out of an iMac can be a pain due to the glue holding the screen down. We don't extract drives from machines, so that part is left to you (or a local York repair shop). Ring us and we'll talk you through it. Once received: native reads for both HFS+ and APFS formats are possible on the bench; a clicking Apple disk gets the standard head-swap bench treatment; and a Fusion Drive is treated as the odd couple it is, one SSD and one hard drive combined into one logical volume. Each is then imaged separately and recombined in software.
The most important factor is whether the storage unplugs. An older 2009 to 2011 iMac using a 3.5 inch SATA drive? Yes, gladly. The Fusion-era models with both a hard drive and a blade? Yes. A T2-secured Intel iMac or any Apple Silicon machine? No, because the SSD is an integrated piece of the logic board that has been soldered and encrypted at the hardware level, so when that board dies so does all the user's data; we stopped soldered-Apple work around two years ago once the success rate was no longer something we could honestly charge for. Your model year is established with one phone call before anything is posted, the least expensive diagnostic available.
This is how the iMac process works. From the first adapter to the final handover, everything stays Apple-native.
These two pieces posted at the start are imaged separately. Once they have been imaged, they are joined together logically. Then the APFS or HFS+ volume on top is rebuilt from these images into everyday files.
Blades, Fusion pairs and standard SATA disks all connect directly into the imaging stack. No improvising here!
When a mechanical failure occurs on an iMac drive it follows the exact same donor head and firmware path as any other spinning drive in this building.
Apple's file systems are parsed natively, and Fusion logical volume reassembly is built in as standard.
Encrypted volumes from removable drives will open with your password and rebuild into plain, readable folders.
Volumes lost to a slip in Disk Utility or a failing update can be restored via carving, as long as that freed space has never been written to.
It all hinges upon one question: does the storage unplug? All SATA disks and Fusion pairs do, and the most predictable failures of that era have been the short-lived 1TB Seagates from 2009 to 2011, for which we always keep donors racked. We no longer take on T2 or Apple Silicon systems because these machines have the encrypted SSD bonded directly onto the board, and we retired that work rather than quote odds nobody honest would offer.
Get a quote first, by calling us on 0800 689 0668 or using our free online diagnostic tool. After receiving your quote, tracked and insured post is how nearly every job reaches us: it is the fastest and safest way to get your drive to our lab in Leeds. There's no collection service, so the parcel is yours to send, or you can hand it in at the Leeds lab's reception.
Is the hard drive or SSD still inside a machine, such as a laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV/DVR system or server? Please remove the hard drive or SSD from the machine first and then post just the bare drive by itself; we do not provide a service for removing drives from devices. For a server or RAID, send every disk, each clearly marked with its bay. For a NAS, send its disks labelled by bay if you can remove them, otherwise send the NAS itself. We cannot work on storage soldered to the motherboard (e.g. Apple Silicon Macs, T2 Macs and certain slim laptops): if it doesn't come out, it can't come in. If you are unsure whether your storage is removable, call us before sending.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Once you have your quote, send your package addressed to Leeds Data Recovery (about a 40 minute drive from York on the A64 & A1(M) or next working day if you want to send it using trackable post). We will contact you as soon as we have taken delivery of your package and put it in line to be worked upon.
Can't figure out what to pack? Ring 0800 689 0668 first, or try our free online diagnostic tool.
Free diagnosis, fixed written quote, and on most work you only pay if we recover your data. Start online or call our freephone.