Data Recovery

Are there any reliable data recovery services that don't charge a fortune? I have a WD external 4TB HDD with about 1.9TB data on it that stopped working. The WD software says 'no volumes found' and the IT guys at work couldn't help, either.

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

I have no recovery service suggestions, but you might try removing the drive from the WD enclosure and plugging it into a slot within your computer or another external enclosure to be sure that the issue is the drive and not the WD box power supply or interface board.

Mark L wrote:I have no recovery service suggestions, but you might try removing the drive from the WD enclosure and plugging it into a slot within your computer or another external enclosure to be sure that the issue is the drive and not the WD box power supply or interface board.

Thanks for the suggestion, Mark! I took it to the IT guys at work and they confirmed that the drive failed and that a recovery service might be the only option.

Axel Hildebrandt wrote:Are there any reliable data recovery services that don't charge a fortune? I have a WD external 4TB HDD with about 1.9TB data on it that stopped working. The WD software says 'no volumes found' and the IT guys at work couldn't help, either.

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

Since it says no volumes found I assume HD is recognized by computer hardware.
You can try to get R-Studio software if you're on PC (Mac version is also available but I don't know if it'll recover
anything from new OS) and try recovery yourself.
R-Studio is one of the best recovery applications.

Andrew_5488 wrote:

Axel Hildebrandt wrote:Are there any reliable data recovery services that don't charge a fortune? I have a WD external 4TB HDD with about 1.9TB data on it that stopped working. The WD software says 'no volumes found' and the IT guys at work couldn't help, either.

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

Since it says no volumes found I assume HD is recognized by computer hardware.
You can try to get R-Studio software if you're on PC (Mac version is also available but I don't know if it'll recover
anything from new OS) and try recovery yourself.
R-Studio is one of the best recovery applications.

That just means that the computer facing part of the control electronics are still intact, it does not mean that the drive heads are OK, that the disk control logic is OK or that the disks are even spinning.  It's worth a try but unlikely to work.

I have to ask, why not just recover from a back-up?  If you aren't backing up, this is what happens, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

Andrew_5488 wrote:

Axel Hildebrandt wrote:Are there any reliable data recovery services that don't charge a fortune? I have a WD external 4TB HDD with about 1.9TB data on it that stopped working. The WD software says 'no volumes found' and the IT guys at work couldn't help, either.

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

Since it says no volumes found I assume HD is recognized by computer hardware.
You can try to get R-Studio software if you're on PC (Mac version is also available but I don't know if it'll recover
anything from new OS) and try recovery yourself.
R-Studio is one of the best recovery applications.

The hard drive doesn't mount, and I'm on a Mac, thanks for the suggestion, I might give this a try first. The HDD is still spinning but that is about it.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Andrew_5488 wrote:

Axel Hildebrandt wrote:Are there any reliable data recovery services that don't charge a fortune? I have a WD external 4TB HDD with about 1.9TB data on it that stopped working. The WD software says 'no volumes found' and the IT guys at work couldn't help, either.

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

Since it says no volumes found I assume HD is recognized by computer hardware.
You can try to get R-Studio software if you're on PC (Mac version is also available but I don't know if it'll recover
anything from new OS) and try recovery yourself.
R-Studio is one of the best recovery applications.

That just means that the computer facing part of the control electronics are still intact, it does not mean that the drive heads are OK, that the disk control logic is OK or that the disks are even spinning.  It's worth a try but unlikely to work.

I have to ask, why not just recover from a back-up?  If you aren't backing up, this is what happens, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

Thanks, E.J. This is a relatively new backup drive, which I did not expect to fail, it's actually the first time for me that a drive fails. Lesson learned as for two backups.

Axel Hildebrandt wrote:

Andrew_5488 wrote:

Axel Hildebrandt wrote:Are there any reliable data recovery services that don't charge a fortune? I have a WD external 4TB HDD with about 1.9TB data on it that stopped working. The WD software says 'no volumes found' and the IT guys at work couldn't help, either.

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

Since it says no volumes found I assume HD is recognized by computer hardware.
You can try to get R-Studio software if you're on PC (Mac version is also available but I don't know if it'll recover
anything from new OS) and try recovery yourself.
R-Studio is one of the best recovery applications.

The hard drive doesn't mount, and I'm on a Mac, thanks for the suggestion, I might give this a try first. The HDD is still spinning but that is about it.

If HD spins and you don't hear any clicking noise or scratching noise I'd definitely try R-Studio before spending few k on recovery services.

Andrew_5488 wrote:The hard drive doesn't mount, and I'm on a Mac, thanks for the suggestion, I might give this a try first. The HDD is still spinning but that is about it.



If HD spins and you don't hear any clicking noise or scratching noise I'd definitely try R-Studio before spending few k on recovery services.

There is no clicking or scratching sound and the LED first is steady and then flashes slowly. I tried R-Studio in Demo mode and it only recognized the internal SSD. Do you think I have to purchase the software to see if it can recover the files?

Axel Hildebrandt wrote:

Andrew_5488 wrote:The hard drive doesn't mount, and I'm on a Mac, thanks for the suggestion, I might give this a try first. The HDD is still spinning but that is about it.



If HD spins and you don't hear any clicking noise or scratching noise I'd definitely try R-Studio before spending few k on recovery services.

There is no clicking or scratching sound and the LED first is steady and then flashes slowly. I tried R-Studio in Demo mode and it only recognized the internal SSD. Do you think I have to purchase the software to see if it can recover the files?

Since you're on MAc go to Apple menu ->System Information (have to hold option key)
Click on USB on left side and see if your external HD is listed, it should look similar to screenshot below You should at least see Media category,Volumes most likely won't be listed.

All I see is this:

Axel Hildebrandt wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Andrew_5488 wrote:

Axel Hildebrandt wrote:Are there any reliable data recovery services that don't charge a fortune? I have a WD external 4TB HDD with about 1.9TB data on it that stopped working. The WD software says 'no volumes found' and the IT guys at work couldn't help, either.

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

Since it says no volumes found I assume HD is recognized by computer hardware.
You can try to get R-Studio software if you're on PC (Mac version is also available but I don't know if it'll recover
anything from new OS) and try recovery yourself.
R-Studio is one of the best recovery applications.

That just means that the computer facing part of the control electronics are still intact, it does not mean that the drive heads are OK, that the disk control logic is OK or that the disks are even spinning.  It's worth a try but unlikely to work.

I have to ask, why not just recover from a back-up?  If you aren't backing up, this is what happens, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

Thanks, E.J. This is a relatively new backup drive, which I did not expect to fail, it's actually the first time for me that a drive fails. Lesson learned as for two backups.

It's no consolation now, but the most likely time for anything to fail is very early in life or very late in life.  In QC circles it is called the bathtub curve.  By far the most important time to do a backup is early in life (and then later in life) but realistically, you should ALWAYS be backing up.

Axel Hildebrandt wrote:All I see is this:

That doesn't look good. If this is 3.5 " drive you can try to remove it from enclosure and connect through dock to your computer.
2.5" drives don't always have regular SATA connector so that could be hit or miss. In a lot of cases there's an issue with usb connector on board so removing drive from enclosure and connecting directly through dock let's you copy data but that depends on drive if it has
full SATA connector or not. IF not you won't be able to connect drive to anything.