Apple Mac Data Recovery

Mac Hard Disk Drive Clicking.

Mac Hard Disk Drives that are making a clicking noise have generally been  subjected to a knock, drop or other shock, but can also happen due to normal wear and tear or just plain bad luck. Here at Datlabs we see many external and internal hard drives with physical/mechanical failures, the percentage only being beaten by the bad sector issues described earlier. Physical/Mechanical failures usually relate to a failure of the delicate internal read/write head assembly (HSA) which is responsible for writing, reading and amplifying your data to and from the magnetic platter surface.

Physical failures are more common in portable devices such as the MacBook and MacBook Pro, but can occur with any hard drive. Typical symptoms of such a failure are unusual noises such as clicking, knocking or beeping emitting from the hard drive. These noises occur when the hard drive is repeatedly attempting to read a vital area of the hard drive but a failure of one or more of the read/write heads prevents it from being able to do so.

Unfortunately recoveries from mechanical failures require the most complex and intricate processes and need to be conducted in a clean air and static safe environment by trained and more importantly experienced technicians. No software can fix issues of this kind and if you are confronted by such a failure we highly recommend you power off the device and give our specialist team a call.

Apple Deleted Data Restore.

Usually arising from accidental or unintended user action, deleted data refers to when data has been deleted from the drive or the drive has been reformatted or repartitioned. Here a Datlabs we employ industry leading software and other skilled techniques to recover data from such an incident. However if the desired files have been subsequently overwritten with newer data this would unfortunately render them unrecoverable. To avoid such an outcome we highly recommend that as soon as such an incident occurs, the device is powered down. Operating System processes are constantly making changes and could potentially be overwriting the data required. If you have experienced such a problem then please give us a call, even if it is simply for our free advice which could just avoid you losing your valuable data.

Mac Hard Drive Firmware Failure.

Although these issues are becoming less common, they can still arise with all types of hard drives. Electronic failures relate to faults with the hard drive’s printed circuit board (PCB), normally located on the underside of the drive. This board is tasked with managing all the data flows in and out of the drive and with communicating with the host computer, but another of its vital functions is to control and distribute the electrical power the drive needs. Any shorts, power surges or sudden power interruptions can cause damage to vital components and prevent power being distributed, preventing normal operation and access to the stored data. Typical symptoms of such a failure are an apparently ‘dead’ hard drive that makes no noise, is not detected by the host computer and displays no signs of normal operation at all.

Hard drive firmware relates to the drive’s unique built-in operating software that the drive uses to control all its internal operations, data flows and interactions with the host computer. This is a very complex and specialist topic, but it is vital that this coding remains accessible, correct and undamaged. Loss of access to firmware or firmware corruption can cause various symptoms, including unusual drive model, serial number and capacity information being displayed, partial or total loss of access to data or the drive not being recognised at all. Unfortunately without specialist equipment, diagnosis of firmware problems is very difficult, and rectifying such problems is not possible. Fortunately Datlabs Apple Mac Hard Drive Recovery labs  have the necessary equipment, skills and resources.