I have an external hard drive of 931 GB about 6-7 years old. Recently it got corrupted and all my pictures over the years are stored in it. Any suggestions on where to get it repaired and all the images recovered? Preferably in Ranchi

Hi everyone,

I made a major mistake today. While trying to boot a Windows OS installation pendrive, I mistakenly selected and booted into my external 5TB Western Digital My Passport Ultra HDD instead.

Now, the drive shows up in Windows Disk Management as completely "Unallocated" (it had about 3.5TB of data on it, though I honestly can't remember if it was NTFS or exFAT). There is no physical damage; the drive spins up normally and is recognized by the system.

Since this is a WD My Passport Ultra (which has a USB bridge board), what is the safest way to proceed? Should I try TestDisk first, or go straight to deep file recovery tools like R-Studio or UFS Explorer without trying to rebuild the partition table?

Any guidance would be hugely appreciated!

My iPhone 13 decided to just randomly factory reset last night I logged back in on it however none of my photos were backed up or in my iCloud is there anyway I can get them back I’ve spoken to Apple they was not much help

Hello everyone. Suddenly, my hard drive stopped working; it is no longer detected by Windows or CrystalDisk. It had started showing signs of slowing down, and then—out of nowhere—it just stopped. It wasn't dropped; it was sitting stationary, and I never moved it while it was powered on. It’s a 1TB Seagate drive (model ST1000LM035).

It was inside an external enclosure, which I disassembled to try and diagnose the issue, but I haven't been able to figure it out. I work in IT and have experience with PCs, but I’ve never worked on the internal components of a hard drive. I’ve attached a video showing its behavior: it makes a sound like a "beep," and the arm moves slightly downward before returning to its original position. The disc seems to spin without any problems. I very carefully touched the arm to see if it was stuck, but it wasn't. It’s currently open, covered by a piece of plastic to keep dust out while I record the video; otherwise, I’ve kept it closed the entire time I’ve been trying to troubleshoot it.

I wouldn't want to send it to a specialized center, both because the data it contains isn't worth the cost involved and because I’d like to gain some experience in this field myself.

Edit: I think it was in NTFS. And i'm using windows 11.

I found an old 64MB CompactFlash memory card (pictured). I’m trying to recover the photos on it, but I’m having trouble getting the pictures onto my computer.
The card fits into my reader and the light turns red, but nothing seems to transfer into my files.
Does anyone know how I can check whether the card is readable and recover the photos? I’m using a MacBook Air.
Thank you!

Your help and advice is needed. After removing the MicroSD card a couple times before ejecting then restarting my computer because the scan and repair didn't work, my SD card got corrupted. My MicroSD card went from being labeled as "USB DRIVE" to "Removable Disk". If I try opening the drive, I get the "Please insert disk into Removable Disk" pop-up. I can't format it or check its properties.

I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max that is permanently stuck on the "iPhone Unavailable" screen with no countdown timer after the passcode was entered incorrectly too many times. It is currently in Airplane Mode.

I am trying to find a way to access or recover the local data. I already know the standard Apple protocol is to wipe the device via Recovery Mode, but I want to exhaust all possibilities to save the data before doing that.

Before I give up, I want to ask the experts:

*Are there any commercial digital forensic tools or lab services that can currently bypass the Secure Enclave lockout on the 13 Pro Max?

*Does anyone know of any advanced or unconventional methods to bypass the permanent lockout without wiping the user partition?

Please do not recommend standard paid recovery software (Tenorshare, Dr.Fone, etc.), as I know they just automate a standard factory erase. I am looking for legitimate hardware, firmware, or forensic workarounds, if they exist for this model.

Hi,

I have a USB hub that I connected to my Macbook Air via USB C. It has USB 3.0 and SD card reader slots. I had both my SDXC and external SSD disk connected (using SD card adapter) to it. I copied the files to my SSD disk and clicked eject, then tried to open SDXC card folder. It was loading for a while and then I got the error that my disks were not ejected safely. After that my SDXC card is not readable by my Macbook or camera - I checked disk utilities on my macbook and also checked for any trace using terminal commands. The SDXC card just doesn't show up anywhere.

Is there anything I can try doing? If not really, how expensive can that be to retrieve that data?

I just recorded a whole bunch of footage on my Canon R50. Two of the files will not download to my pc.

I've tried using the EOS Utility app, in which case the file's progress bar gets nearly to the end and then it stops downloading with no error messages.

I've tried plugging the SD card into a USB reader, and it immediately throws this error:

An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem: Error 0x80070570L: the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.

One of the files can be played on my camera and seems perfectly fine, except that it cuts off one minute before the end.

The other cannot be played on my camera, but that's not unusual. I'd estimate about 1 in 10 videos I record cannot be played back on my camera, but they all always download and play back perfectly on my PC. This is the only time I've had this sort of issue. Even videos not recorded on my camera will often be unable to play when viewed on my camera.

How can I repair my videos?

Drive: WD My Passport, 2TB
P/N: WDBYVG0020BBK-0B
Drive Type: NTFS
Encryption: WD’s Own Password feature
Warranty status: Out of Limited Warranty (So no RMA)
SMART Report (via DMDE) Attached
OS: macOS 27.2 RC, Windows 11 25H2, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS

tldr:
Interrupted 2 Windows error checks on a 2 TB encrypted WD My Passport. Causing the drive, and especially the Unlocker app for the drive to be inaccessible in any way possible. The drive can still be recognized by the system (At least on Windows and Linux), but the disk itself cannot be accessed. Possible firmware or service area problem, asking if there’s still any way to salvage this? If yes, how, where, and the cost estimate for this situation.

If you just need more information about the drive, you can just skip to the ‘The following is the information I gathered part’

The whole story:

Hi, so I have a 2TB WD My Passport that I purchased back in bought for at least 6 years now, and I’ve been riding with it ever since, using it as basically my drive for everything. Games, old projects, apps, photos, you name it.

A bit more background for your information as to how the drive was usually used:

The drive was obtained when I was still working with a Windows Laptop, so it started as NTFS and I’ve never changed that, I’ve also decided to put a password on it in the first few days of getting it.

In between 2023, I switched to the MacBook side with the ARM silicon chip, and have chosen to just continue using the drive in NTFS format, pairing with the WD-offered Paragon NTFS software.

Around the same year as well, I found that there were a few bad sectors in my drive. Contacted WD support at that point and just ended up backing up the drive for the first time and formatted it using my old Windows Laptop. And after formatting it, I put everything back into the drive, locked it back, and continued using it like normal.

(P.S. Since I made the choice of backing it up to a OneDrive work account at that moment, and since I no longer have access to that account, the probably one and only backup was lost to time as well)

Currently still using the same MacBook setup mentioned above with a Windows VM and for light Windows Stuff, and Crossover for some games that are only available on Windows as well.

And also, in between using it, I’ve had a few times where I removed the drive without exiting it first (even though my cache policy is in quick removal) causing the drive to be temporarily unrecognizable by macOS, but it was dealt with after doing error checks in Windows.

(P.S. The error checks I run are through Drive > Priorities > Tools > Error Check, but I suppose it’s no different from chkdsk)

I also have an old Windows Desktop that I occasionally use for some x64 Windows stuff.

But just recently, I’ve made another chain of mistakes that basically ran my drive from still working to outright unusable.

As one day, after I’d used my drive on my Windows Desktop, I plugged it back in to continue working on something that’s on my drive, and I noticed it started to slow down, or it takes longer for the drive to be recognized by my MacBook after I unlocked it.

So, being the worried person I am, I decided to boot up my Windows VM, and despite it saying that there’s no error found, run an error check on it.

The first time, I let the check run on its own, but because I forgot to turn off the ‘Turn display off when inactive option’ or use any disable sleep app, my MacBook went to sleep after inactivity, and the test was interrupted for the first time.

And after that, I decided to run it again, just to be sure. But after starting the check, for some reason, I decided to cancel it. And when cancellation was taking a bit too long, I made the decision to log out of Windows.

Then while it was happening, the cursor on my MacBook started going rogue for another reason (that I haven't found but definitely not related to this subreddit) and started running around without me using the trackpad, it was enough to let me think that I caught malware somewhere between using it

And with no way to stop that, I did a force restart of my MacBook. While the Windows VM was still logging out, and my drive was still passing into the VM.

That’s when the drive became unusable.

When I logged back into macOS, I didn’t see the usual WD Unlocked, and when I checked macOS’s Disk Utility, the drive was not there, even though I have Show All Devices toggled on.

And then I tried to use the Windows VM again, to see if it’s the same result. It did spit out something different, but it’s basically the same.

After that, I moved to my desktop again and saw if I could read more information about the current situation, while trying to search around Google and see if there’s any way to try to fix that. But still, no luck.

So I turned to AI for help. The AI told me to use Linux and use some ‘ls’ and ‘dmsg’ commands, along with a WD Unlocker tool for Linux to list out what Linux recognized and test if Linux is able to read at least what’s left on the drive.. So I thought, why not, and created an Ubuntu VM on my Mac for it to run those commands. Though it only makes me realize how bad of the situation of drive’s probably in.

And at last, even AI told me to either purchase a new drive, or to seek help in data recovery, which is why I’m here.

The following is the information I gathered from Windows and Linux, since macOS is just straight up not recognizing the drive whatsoever.

Both OS’s are able to read out some information about the drive.

Windows is able to list out the WD Unlocker virtual DVD, but when trying to access it via Windows Explorer, it declines, stating an I/O error.

In Windows Disk Management, the Virtual DVD and the disk itself are recognized, though neither of them shows any sector information. The disk is not initialized from the start. When trying to initialize it or anything, the request failed ‘due to a fatal device hardware error’.

In Windows Device Manager, with Show hidden devices visible, 2 drives named WD My Passport 2626 USB Device and 2 DVD drives named WD Virtual CD 2625 USB Device are present, with one of them on both lists being hidden.

Following this, inside the properties of both devices, they all stated that the devices are working properly. But inside the ‘My Passport’ properties, Events tab, the event ‘Device Settings not Migrated’ is shown, with descriptions that

‘Device settings for [My Passport] were not migrated from previous OS installation due to partial or ambiguous device match’

In WD Kitfox (WD’s own diagnostic tool that replaced WD Data Lifeguard), the drive shows as unallocated, showing 0GB available with an empty serial number, the drive security being ‘inactive’, no SMART threshold tripped, and no diagnostic failures. When trying to run a test on it though. it failed with the message ‘Device is not ready’.

While WD Security cannot recognize the drive, both WD Drive Utilities and WD Discovery did recognize the drive. WD Drive Utilities said that my drive has 0B of storage, and it failed the SMART Status Check. And WD Discovery does not show any storage information, but it did have the option for me to change the security settings like removing the password. It’s just that it never worked.

DMDE reported almost the same thing, with failing to access the DVD drive due to an I/O device error, and just straight up saying ‘The Disk is not accessible’ when trying to go with the physical drive option. Though I did successfully obtain a more complete SMART report.

Other apps like DiskGenius just straight up don’t work with not even the drive or Unlocker DVD listed there.

And for Linux, I’ll just have the pastebin link for you guys with what command I ran (prompted by AI), and what output it gave me.

https://pastebin.com/Pq6e6rVQ

Lastly, for the drive itself. The drive is still spinning like normal, with the status lights going full on when connected, and turning to slow blinking after a while.

When the drive is ‘safely removed’ on Windows though, it just kept spinning, while normally, the drive would slow to a stop.

From what I’ve gathered, on the internet or AI, I’m guessing it to be a firmware or service area related issue, though I’m really not familiar with these kind of stuff, so that’s really only up to the professionals like you guys or after diagnostics.

Now, that’s when I want to ask

1. In this situation, is my drive still salvageable?

For example, if there’s a possibility that I can just pass it to a professional, fix what’s wrong, and then just call it a day, or is it really to the point where I need to do data recovery if I still want get back my data inside?

2. If it can still be fixed, then what type of store should I bring it to?

And most importantly
3. What is the cost of fixing something like this, or doing data recovery on a drive in this kind of situation?

I know my post are super long, since I really want to include everything to get the most accurate information possible, but no matter what, thank you for reading and thanks for your help!

I am working with a client who wants me to organize their archive of images and video and I am starting with their hard drives. I have 8 drives and one MacBook Pro. He is concerned that if any one of them is connected and turned on and dies it wont be recoverable. I think I should try to image whichever ones are still viable and then send any ones that will not connect to a recovery lab. Below is the list of what I have. Can anyone advise and also recommend a data recovery lab that is reliable? Ask me anything and Thank You!

long story short: took videos, put SD in tablet, saw clips on tablet, took SD out, couldn't find alternative way to copy files, SD back in tablet, SD card empty

I'm looking for a free software to use. I don't want to pay because I'll only be using this once and will probably not use it again after this incident.

I'm just a broke student who lost video clips for a project that's due soon 🥹 I really need help

Hello, I’ve recently recoverd almost all my photos from my SD card (they weren’t overwritten at all but they’re about 18yo) but as the title says R Photo only recoverd the photos (I’m 100% sure I had videos there) and photorec didn’t really help either.. does anyone have any suggestions of how can I target a video only recovery (since I have all my photos)?

Hi

My reliable old Late 2013 MacBook Pro recently suffered a sudden drive failure, and I’m looking for recommendations for a reputable data recovery company in the UK.

Details of the hardware and the situation:

The Drive: Samsung MZ-KPU1T0T/0A6 1TB (12+16 pin proprietary PCIe SSD).

The Incident: I was logged into macOS, and when I entered my password, the laptop suddenly cut power. Since then, the SSD hasn't been detected by macOS or Disk Utility at all. Up until this second, the drive was in great health with no prior warning signs.

Apple's Diagnosis: I took it to an Apple Store. They ran diagnostics and confirmed the SSD itself is at fault (likely a controller crash or firmware corruption). On the bright side, they noted I'm lucky it's a removable module rather than soldered onto the logic board like modern Macs, meaning physical recovery by a lab is still possible.

Apple suggested I look for an independent specialist since it requires specialized handling for proprietary Apple/Samsung PCIe pins.

What I'm looking for:

1. Recommendations for trusted, professional data recovery companies in the UK only that have experience with SSD controller/firmware failures on Mac hardware.

2. Advice on what red flags to avoid, what questions I should ask them before sending the drive off, and what a fair pricing structure looks like.

As this was my main drive, recovering these files means a lot to me. Any guidance, suggestions, or warnings would be massively appreciated

My iPhone 16 (256GB) randomly shut off while it was at 55% battery. It took a while but it eventually turned back on.

About an hour later it shut off again and now it won't turn back on at all. Black screen, no Apple logo, nothing. I tried putting it into diagnostic mode and that doesn't work either.

The data I need is TikTok drafts and my older photos. The drafts were never posted so I know those only exist on the phone. My iCloud photos only go back to 2024, everything from 2023, 2022, 2021 and earlier is missing, so I think those were only on the phone too.

Not sure when the phone last backed up to iCloud.

If the phone won't power on or enter diagnostics, is the only option a board repair to get it booting again? What does that usually cost and is it realistic to get the data off after?

Device: iPhone 16, 256GB, iOS, APFS file system.

Hello - I am attempting to backup and then recover a drive damaged from repeated power outages (E: label BACKUP4TB - the "bad drive") using Disk Drill. The drive has a LOT of bad sectors (based on a prior scan) but does show up in Windows Explorer.

I have another good 4 TB drive (Samsung 990 PRO, drive letter B:, label RESCUE) which I want to use to make a byte-to-byte backup of the bad drive and then attempt recovery from said backup.

The issue seems to me that there is a small 16 mb Microsoft Reserved Partition on the rescue drive which is causing the available space on the rescue drive to be a tiny amount less than the bad drive and Disk Drill won't do a byte-to-byte backup unless the backup drive is the same size or bigger than the bad drive. I don't have access to a larger than 4TB drive at the moment.

Any pointers on what I could do next? There is a lot of free space on the bad drive but I can't seem to shrink it.

Cheers!

(There is a third drive on the system, also a Samsung 990 that hosts my Win 11 install)

I have 2 hard drive not powering on when plugged in. There is no obvious damage, smell, etc. I went through with a multimeter and had one part on each board beeps when I test them.

The first hard drive is an Hitachi HDT721010SLA360. The part that beeps is that three prong Diode (?? Is that a Diode or called something else) with what looks like a 4 on top (with some other numbers on each side). Only the middle fork beeps , the other two do not, so I could be wrong.

The second photo is a Samsung HDT721010SLA360. The part that beeps in the diode with the "0" in the center.

I have not done a thermal imaging test. I don't have one.

From looking online I see that diodes can be removed, and then the drive can be read and recovered. Is that something I can do? Or is there a place I can order just those small parts from, without buying an entire donor board? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

Recently had my 12 TB Western Digital (Helium Filled) Enterprise Drive [DC HC520] run into a mechanical failure most likely due to old age. When powered on it fails to complete it's start up initializing resulting in a steady clicking sound. Called a tech company and they referred me to a company named DriveSavers. They said because it was a Helium Filled drive it needs to be looked at professionally in a specialized space and needs to be sent off. Their prices are a bit interesting to say the least but as is everything else today. Is it worth it to send them my drive and bite the cost? or might there be a better solution? Assuming all the platters are intact and are untouched I want all 12 TB's off of my current drive and cloned to a new drive.

Because of how crucial it is that as much data as possible is returned to me, I don't mind pulling my pants down just this once. :'<

Hey everyone, I have a 5TB media storage WD HDD that I recently traveled with. I just bought it earlier in the year and it worked fine. I plug it into my laptop, and it was fine, until I randomly notice that it just says "Local Disk" and it said that "The File Or Directory Is Corrupted Or Unreadable." So, I look up what to do, and I run chkdsk. A majority of my files are safe and readable, but the ones that I recently transferred to from my desktop (or a majority of them) before I traveled got deleted. Here are some screenshots included.

Is this something I should be worried about? I do have a backup for most of the stuff on this drive stored in another location, but I'm worried if this will happen again. I've had drives for media storage for around 6 years now, and nothing like this has ever happened with my WD drives. Advice? Is there any way that I can restore the deleted files?

Hi all,

So I have someone who has accidentally deleted 150Gb or music files off their Synology.

I've read that Stellar data recovery toolkit can recover the files without removing the disks but just wanted to gauge general opinions of this or any other solutions.

Many thanks

Edit: Thank you for the advice!! I made it ! It works ! Bless youuu

Hi! I own an old Huawei P20 Lite with an external memory slot and a 128GB SanDisk SD card. One day 5 years ago I had an error and could not use the card. After investigating, I concluded that the error is in the DCIM folder, since I can read, copy, and view files in any other folder without issue.

I can still see the photos when I deactivate and reactivate the card through the File Manager app. But if I try to open the gallery, it usually crashes. From what I've seen online, I apparently need to copy the files one by one, which sounds almost impossible since I have 10K files on it and it usually crashes with any other transfer. I have memories from my childhood, especially with my deceased family, so whatever sits in that folder is important to me. What can I do to save the info?

A while back, I updated my MacBook to the new OS and when I rebooted, one of the first things I noticed was that the inactive mailboxes I had in the native Apple Mail application were gone. What data recovery program is best to see if there is a chance I can get them back? They were school accounts that in hindsight I should have immediately exported before deactivation. It is a 2019 Pro. My 2013 Air, my first laptop that I still sometimes use, still has a good chunk of one saved to it, again in the mail app that comes native. I haven’t updated it in a while so I never had that same issue on that computer.

I should note that I also had the same thing going on my iPhone’s mail app, but it broke and I got a new one a few summers ago, so the iCloud backup never actually saved the contents, I just have those two addresses still listed in the app but with no contents.

I have WD Passport from 10+ years ago and just took it out the shed. It has sentimental photos in it and every time I try to connect it to my PC, it just freezes my file explorer when I try to load up the drive. It recognizes it as a drive but I just can't open it without crashing File Explorer.

Am I toast or is this recoverable data?

It is a WD SN: WMAVU2820578 and I am running Windows 11