Laptop Data Recovery

At Hull Data Recovery we’ve been rescuing laptop and notebook data for over 25 years. Our friendly team of specialists in Hull can handle any brand or model and any file system – from NTFS, exFAT and FAT32 on Windows to APFS/HFS+ on Mac or ext4 on Linux. We even restore encrypted volumes (BitLocker, FileVault, etc.) and RAID-configured laptop drives. In practice, the largest players in the hard-drive market are familiar names like Seagate, Western Digital (WD) and Toshiba, and we can recover drives they manufacture as well as SSDs from Samsung, Intel, Crucial, Kingston, ADATA and many more. Leading laptop makers (by UK/global market share) include Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple (MacBooks), Asus and Acer, and we work on drives from all of them (as well as brands like Toshiba, Samsung, Sony, Microsoft Surface, Fujitsu, MSI, etc.). Whether it’s a 2.5″ SATA drive in a Dell Inspiron or an M.2 NVMe SSD in an Apple MacBook Pro, our experts have the tools and experience to fix it.

Top Drive Manufacturers and Brands

• Seagate Technology – one of the oldest, offering 2.5″ HDDs and SSHDs with up to multi-TB capacities.
• Western Digital (WD) – known for WD Blue/Black/Red HDDs and WD SSDs.
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• Samsung – leading maker of SSDs (e.g. 870 EVO, 980 Pro).
• HGST (Hitachi) – now part of WD, famous for very durable enterprise HDDs.
• SanDisk (WD) – compact USB/SSD specialists, also make SSDs under WD brand.
• LaCie (Seagate) – rugged/external drive brand for professionals.
• Intel – maker of SSD controllers and drives (including X25, Optane) used in many laptops.
• Micron / Crucial – SSDs and memory (Crucial is consumer SSD brand of Micron).
• Kingston – memory and SSD manufacturer, common in notebooks.
• ADATA – Taiwanese company making SSDs and external drives.
• Transcend – Taiwanese brand for laptop SSDs and flash.
• Patriot – US brand offering SSDs and flash memory.
• PNY – SSD and flash card maker (often sold under OEM labels).
• Lexar – flash memory specialist (SSDs and SD cards).
• Mushkin – boutique SSD maker (often for performance PCs).
• Silicon Power – Taiwanese storage brand (drives, cards).
• Apacer – SSD/memory brand.
• Corsair – known for gaming SSDs.
• Team Group (TEAM) – SSDs for desktops/laptops.

We recover from drives made by any of these manufacturers, plus others as needed. In short, if it’s a laptop or notebook, we can retrieve the data – regardless of the brand or technology.

Main Hard Drive Connection Types

Modern laptops connect drives in a few standard ways. SATA (Serial ATA) is the most common interface for 2.5″ HDDs and SSDs, replacing the older PATA/IDE connectors (found in very old laptops) from around 2003 onward. Today you’ll also find M.2 modules inside many laptops – these slim SSDs plug directly into the motherboard. M.2 drives come in two flavours: M.2 SATA (using the SATA protocol) and M.2 PCIe NVMe (using a faster PCIe interface). NVMe M.2 SSDs are much faster than SATA ones, taking advantage of the PCIe bus and NVMe protocol to achieve read/write speeds impossible on older SATA interfaces.

Experienced engineers working on a laptop hard drive (photo by Athena). We support 2.5″ SATA drives, older mSATA cards, M.2 SATA/PCIe NVMe SSDs, U.2 SSDs, as well as external USB/eSATA/Thunderbolt enclosures.

Other connectors include mSATA (an older mini-SATA for SSDs, mostly replaced by M.2) and U.2 (SFF-8639) in some high-end notebooks. On the outside, many users plug drives into USB or eSATA ports, or use Thunderbolt docks (which can carry PCIe to an external NVMe box). Rest assured that we can recover data from drives attached through any of these interfaces, internally or externally.

Common Laptop Hard Drive Failures – Causes & Fixes

1. HDD Mechanical Failure (motor/head). In many cases a laptop HDD won’t spin up because the spindle motor has failed or the read/write heads are stuck. This often causes whirring or clicking noises. In our ISO-5 cleanroom lab we can replace or repair the failed motor or head assembly and then image the platters to rescue the data.
2. HDD Head Crash. If a laptop is dropped, the heads may crash onto the spinning platter, causing irreversible scratches and immediate failure. We solve this by replacing the head stack with a donor from an identical drive, then carefully reading the intact data tracks.
3. Stiction / Spindle Lock. Older HDDs can stick (the head merges with the platter) or the motor can seize after being powered down for years. Our technicians free the stuck heads and repair motor failures so the drive can spin again.
4. Platter Damage. Severe head crashes or impacts can scratch the platters. In such cases we image any undamaged areas. Often we can still recover most files from the undamaged parts of the disk.
5. PCB (Controller Board) Failure. A surge of current (from lightning, bad charger or ESD) often fries the drive’s electronic board or its chips. We diagnose the burnt component and either transplant a matching donor board or even re-solder the drive’s unique BIOS/ROM chip onto a replacement. This restores the drive’s electronics so the data can be read.
6. Firmware Corruption. The drive’s firmware (stored on its platters or flash) can become corrupt due to bugs or power loss. This makes the drive “invisible” to the system even if electronics are fine. We use special tools to reinstall or fix the firmware so the drive is accessible.
7. Bad Sectors / Media Defects. Over time, sectors on the disk can fail (become unreadable), causing data errors. We perform multi-pass imaging and use advanced software to skip bad areas and reconstruct files from the remaining good sectors. Our lab can often recover data even from drives with many bad sectors.
8. File System Corruption (Logical Error). Crashes, improper shutdowns or software bugs can corrupt the NTFS/FAT/exFAT/APFS filesystem. The drive spins and is recognized, but files seem scrambled or missing. We image the drive and use forensic tools to rebuild the directory structure and retrieve your files.
9. Partition Table / MBR Loss. If the partition table or MBR (on Windows disks) or GPT (on newer disks) is erased or damaged, the OS sees the drive as unpartitioned. We can often rebuild the table by scanning for known file signatures or copying metadata from the image, restoring access to the lost partition.
10. Operating System Crash / Boot Failure. The laptop won’t boot but the drive itself may be fine (for example, a Windows BSOD or Mac kernel panic). We simply remove the drive, image it on a working system, and recover the files from the image.
11. Accidental Deletion. Files or folders accidentally deleted from a laptop HDD/SSD can often be recovered if not overwritten. We run specialized undelete and file-carving software on the disk image to recover deleted content (photos, documents, emails, etc.).
12. Accidental Format or Initialization. When a drive is formatted or re-initialised, the data isn’t immediately gone—only the filesystem structures are wiped. Our tools can rebuild the filesystem table from remnants on the disk and retrieve the previous data state, recovering files lost to formatting.
13. Ransomware / Malware Encryption. If a virus or ransomware has encrypted files, we first isolate the drive to prevent further spread. In many cases we can remove the malware and decrypt files (especially if no new keys were created). Sometimes, if a decryption key exists, we can recover files that seemed lost under an encryption lock.
14. Drive Encryption Lockouts. Issues with BitLocker (Windows) or FileVault (Mac) can make data appear inaccessible. If you have the recovery key or password, we can unlock the encrypted volume and retrieve your data. If no key is available, we can remove the drive and attempt data extraction at the image level (note: strong encryption may make full recovery impossible without the key).
15. Power Surge / Voltage Spike. Sudden power surges (e.g. lightning, unstable mains, wrong adapter) can instantly fry a drive’s electronics. We’ve seen drives completely dead on arrival with charred PCBs. Our engineers can often repair or replace the damaged components so that the drive’s platters become readable again.
16. Overheating / Thermal Damage. Laptops that run extremely hot can warp or damage components. In these cases we replace any heat-damaged parts (often on the PCB) and then recover data.
17. Liquid / Spill Damage. Coffee, water or other liquids on a laptop can corrode the drive’s board. We clean the board in a special bath and repair corrosion-induced shorts, allowing the drive to be powered on safely for data imaging.
18. Fire / Smoke Damage. If a laptop has been in a fire, soot and heat can damage the drive. We have recovered drives from fire-damaged machines: we carefully clean or replace the affected circuitry and often still salvage the data.
19. Shock / Physical Impact. Dropping a laptop can cause internal shifts – often leading to symptoms similar to a head crash. We apply the same clean-room fixes (head/motor replacement) to recover data from shock-damaged drives.
20. Electrostatic Discharge (ESD). Static electricity (e.g. from fabric or carpet) can zap sensitive drive chips. Our lab’s strict ESD protocols (and component-level repair skills) let us replace any fried controller ICs.
21. SSD Controller Failure. SSDs have controllers (like CPUs) that can fail. If a laptop’s SSD appears dead or unresponsive, we may perform a chip-off operation: removing the NAND chips and reading them with specialized readers. We then reassemble the data, bypassing the dead controller.
22. NAND Flash Wear / Degradation (SSD). SSD cells wear out with age. When many cells fail, parts of the data may become inaccessible. Using chip-off techniques, we extract as much data as possible from the surviving NAND chips and reassemble the lost data.
23. SSD Firmware Glitch. Certain SSDs have had firmware bugs (for example, early Samsung 840 EVO drives had a known read-speed bug). If a firmware bug corrupts access, we apply the correct firmware patch or use manufacturer recovery tools so that the data on the SSD can be read again.
24. TRIM Activity (SSD). If TRIM was enabled and the drive kept operating after files were deleted, some data is truly erased. We advise that unpowered SSDs (before booting the OS) have the best chance of recovery, as once TRIM runs, deleted data cannot be recovered. If TRIM was active, we still attempt a chip-level analysis, but recovery success may be partial.
25. Partition Encryption / Hidden Areas. Some enterprise laptops use special encryption or hidden partitions (e.g. hardware-locked). We identify and unlock any hidden secure areas. If a partition is “encrypted” by software, we use the original OS to decrypt, or keys if provided, to access the data.
26. Cable / Connector Damage. A broken SATA cable or M.2 connector can make a drive fail to be seen. We examine the drive’s physical connector and can solder a new one if needed, or connect the drive via alternative means (like a USB adapter).
27. BIOS/Interface Issues. Sometimes a laptop simply stops seeing the drive in BIOS. This can be due to power issues, jumper settings, or UEFI bugs. We bypass these by cloning the drive externally or imaging it on another system.
28. Unexpected Shutdowns (Data Corruption). If a laptop loses power mid-write, files can be scrambled. We scan the disk image for intact file fragments and reconstruct corrupted database entries (useful for recovering photo galleries or document archives with minor corruption).
29. Dual-Drive or RAID Error. On rare laptops with dual drives (e.g. two M.2 in RAID0), a failure in one drive can make the array unreadable. In such cases we image each drive independently and rebuild the RAID offline, recovering the combined data.
30. Operating System Compatibility. Problems like Windows hibernation files or Mac CoreStorage volumes can hide data. We have tools to interpret these special structures and extract your personal files.

Each of the above is a real issue we’ve seen and fixed at Hull Data Recovery. Our decades of experience mean we’ve encountered virtually every kind of laptop drive failure – mechanical, electrical or logical – and know the right solution.

Contact Hull Data Recovery today for a free, no-obligation diagnosis of your failed laptop or notebook drive. Our friendly UK-based experts will diagnose the problem (at no charge) and recover your data securely. With 25 years of experience, competitive rates and a strict “no data, no fee” policy, we’re the trusted laptop hard drive recovery service in Hull and the UK.