Norwich Data Recovery — No.1 External Hard Disk & SSD Recovery Specialists

With 25+ years’ experience, Norwich External Hard Disk Data Recovery provides professional recovery for all external hard drives and portable SSDs, across every major brand, interface and file system. We offer free diagnostics and, when time-critical, an optional priority service (typically ~48 hours).

Top 20 Manufacturers & Popular External Models

1. Seagate — Expansion Portable/Backup Plus/One Touch, Fast SSD

2. Western Digital (WD) — My Passport/My Book/Elements, WD P10/P50

3. Toshiba — Canvio Basics/Advance/Ready

4. Samsung — Portable SSD T7/T9/X5 (TB3)

5. SanDisk / SanDisk Professional — Extreme Portable SSD V2, G-DRIVE / G-RAID

6. Crucial — X6/X8 Portable SSD

7. Kingston — XS1000/XS2000, DataTraveler Max (high-perf USB)

8. ADATA — SE800/SE900G, HD650/HD710 (rugged HDD)

9. Sabrent — Rocket XTRM-Q (TB3), EC series NVMe/SATA enclosures

10. LaCie — Rugged, d2, 2big/6big (RAID)

11. HGST (Hitachi) — Touro external (legacy), G-Technology (now SanDisk Professional)

12. Intel — 660p/670p in third-party USB-C enclosures (common DIY)

13. PNY — Pro Elite Portable SSD / Elite-X Portable SSD

14. Corsair — EX100U, Voyager GTX

15. TeamGroup — PD1000/PD1000L Portable SSD

16. Transcend — StoreJet (HDD/SSD), ESD370C

17. Silicon Power — Armor A60/A80 (HDD), PC60/PD70 (SSD)

18. Verbatim — Store ‘n’ Go Portable HDD/SSD

19. OWC — Envoy Pro FX/Elektron (USB4/TB)

20. Buffalo — MiniStation/DriveStation (HDD/RAID)

(If your model isn’t listed, we still recover it.)

Interfaces We Support (Consumer, Enterprise & Legacy)

• ATA family: SATA I/II/III, PATA/IDE (40/44-pin), mSATA, ZIF PATA

• PCIe/NVMe: NVMe over M.2 (B/M keys), U.2 (SFF-8639), U.3, PCIe AIC

• SCSI family: SAS 3/6/12 Gb, Parallel SCSI (Ultra/160/320), SCA backplanes

• External/bridge: USB 2.0/3.x/3.2, USB-C, Thunderbolt 1/2/3/4, eSATA, FireWire 400/800

• Enterprise interconnects: Fibre Channel, mini-SAS (SFF-8087/8643/8654), SATA DOM, RAID backplanes/enclosures

What Goes Wrong — And How We Fix It (Lab Detail)

Golden rule: We stabilise first and acquire a read-only forensic image. All repair and file-system work is performed on the clone, never your original device.

1) Mechanical Issues (HDD)

• Head crash / clicking / not mounting
  Diagnosis: SMART/terminal access, head current traces, service-area (SA) read tests.
  Resolution: Matched donor head-stack swap (model/firmware/micro-jog matched), adaptive ROM parameters verified, per-head imaging with strict timeouts and low-speed passes.

• Spindle or motor seizure / beeping
  Diagnosis: Inrush/current profile, platter free-spin check.
  Resolution: Chassis/motor transplant with servo alignment tooling; confirm SA readability; zoned imaging prioritising safest tracks.

• Platter damage / surface wear
  Diagnosis: Read-error map, head-to-surface correlation.
  Resolution: Head-map imaging; skip-range strategy; outer-to-inner radial passes; partial-image file carving for damaged regions.

2) Electronics & Firmware (HDD)

• PCB failure / TVS short / surge damage
  Diagnosis: Rail checks, diode inspection, MCU/driver thermals.
  Resolution: PCB repair or donor PCB with ROM/adaptives transfer; regain SA, image.

• Firmware corruption (“slow issue”, translator faults)
  Diagnosis: Vendor terminal logs, SA module integrity, translator/G-list size.
  Resolution: Patch SA modules, rebuild translator, disable background scans; image per head/zone.

3) Media Degradation (HDD & SSD)

• Bad sectors / weak heads (HDD) → Adaptive imaging with escalating retry budgets; targeted re-reads after cold rest periods.

• SSD NAND wear / retention loss / read-disturb
  Diagnosis: SMART, controller logs; instability under load.
  Resolution: Temperature-controlled imaging; read-retry/voltage stepping; if controller unstable → chip-off NAND reads and FTL reconstruction (ECC, XOR/scrambler, die/plane/interleave).

4) Controller & Power (SSD)

• Controller failure / stuck in boot-safe
  Diagnosis: Identify controller family (Phison/SMI/Maxio/Indilinx/Realtek/Alcor), check loader modes and NVMe admin cmds.
  Resolution: Attempt vendor loader export; failing that, BGA chip-off per-die dumps; rebuild logical address space from metadata/WAL.

• PMIC/LDO failure → Replace regulators; if still no init, proceed to chip-off.

5) Enclosure & Bridge Faults (External Drives)

• USB-SATA/NVMe bridge failure (common on externals)
  Diagnosis: Drive OK bare-metal but not via enclosure; bridge VID/PID anomalies.
  Resolution: Bypass enclosure and attach direct; for TB3 enclosures, transplant the raw module to known-good bridge.

• 3.3 V “pin-3” issue on shucked WD drives
  Fix: Isolate 3.3 V pin or use correct PSU/cable; standard imaging follows.

6) Logical Faults (Any Media)

• Accidental deletion, quick/full format, partition loss
  Diagnosis: Partition headers, boot sectors, FS journals ($LogFile/USN, exFAT bitmap, APFS checkpoints).
  Resolution: Rebuild partition table; journal-aware recovery; directory tree rebuild; deep signature carving for large media (PST/VM/MP4).

• Unsupported/corrupt file systems – NTFS, ReFS, exFAT, FAT32, HFS+, APFS, ext2/3/4, XFS, Btrfs, ZFS
  Resolution: Repair metadata on the clone (e.g., APFS omap from checkpoints; NTFS $MFT/$MFTMirr; ext4 backup superblocks).

• Encryption (BitLocker, FileVault, LUKS, TCG Opal)
  Note: Requires valid keys/recovery keys. Workflow: full-disk image → cryptographic unlock → read-only export.

7) Software-Level & System Symptoms

• Drive not recognised / BIOS errors → Link-layer diagnostics, switch to safe PIO-like imaging, disable NCQ/UASP, image in small blocks.

• Overheating / throttling (SSD/NVMe) → Active thermal control; staged imaging with dwell periods; prioritise weak regions first.

• Failed rebuilds (RAID in external DAS like LaCie 2big/G-RAID)
  Diagnosis: Image all members; detect order/stripe/parity.
  Resolution: Virtual RAID reconstruction; then FS repair on the assembled image.

• CCTV “overwritten” data
  Reality: Once blocks are truly overwritten, they cannot be decrypted or read back. We focus on pre-overwrite space, unallocated segments, DB indices/journals, and cloud/NVR replicas for salvage.

Professional Recovery Process

1. Intake & Free Diagnostics
   Device ID, interface, symptoms, encryption status; anti-static handling and case logging.

2. Forensic Imaging First
   Hardware imagers with head-maps, adaptive timeouts, ECC controls; no writes to original.

3. Electronics/Firmware/Mechanical Work (as needed)
   ROM transfers, firmware patching, donor component swaps, or SSD chip-off/FTL rebuilds—only what’s necessary to obtain a safe image.

4. Logical/Data Recovery
   File-system reconstruction (NTFS, HFS+, APFS, ext, XFS, ReFS, exFAT, etc.), metadata repair, and format-aware fixes for DB/VM/video/photo libraries.

5. Verification & Delivery
   Per-file hash verification (MD5/SHA-256), sample-file testing, and secure data hand-off (encrypted drive or secure transfer). Optional recovery report.

Why Choose Norwich Data Recovery

• 25 years in business with thousands of successful recoveries

• Multi-vendor expertise across consumer, professional and enterprise HDD/SSD technologies

• Advanced tools & donor inventory to maximise recovery success

• Free diagnostics with clear recovery options before any work begins

• Optional priority turnaround (~48 hours) where the device condition allows

Ready to get started?

Contact Norwich Data Recovery today for your free diagnostic.
Whether it’s a portable HDD that clicks or a USB-C NVMe that won’t mount, we’ll stabilise it, image it safely, and recover your data.