WILDFIRE DATA RECOVERY
Expert Hard Drive Data Recovery Services
WELCOME TO OUR EXPERT HARD DRIVE DATA RECOVERY SOLUTIONS
Welcome to Wildfire Data Recovery, your premier destination for industry-certified, expert-driven data recovery services in the greater Brisbane region. With over six years of experience and a remarkable 98% hard drive data recovery success rate, we are your trusted partner in rescuing and recovering data from any internal desktop or laptop hard drive, external hard drive, or SSD (solid-state) hard drive.
Wildfire Data Recovery is a certified, Australian owned hard drive data recovery business
success rate of recovery: 98%
(average score from 11,435 recoveries)
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Upholding the Highest Standards of Data Security and Confidentiality: The integrity and confidentiality of your data are paramount. Our stringent security protocols and ethical standards ensure your data's safety throughout the recovery process. Our team's adherence to best practices in data security is backed by continuous professional development and certification in the latest data protection techniques, affirming our role as trusted custodians of your information.
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Beyond Recovery: Comprehensive Post-Recovery Support - Our commitment to your data recovery success extends beyond the retrieval process. Our post-recovery support, provided by experienced data management professionals, ensures a smooth transition to integrate the recovered data into your systems or workflows. This comprehensive support is part of our holistic approach to data recovery, designed to minimize your downtime and restore normal operations as swiftly as possible.
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Emergency Data Recovery Services: Ready When You Need Us Most - Recognizing the urgent nature of some data loss incidents, our emergency data recovery services are available 24/7. This rapid response capability is supported by a dedicated team of recovery specialists who are not only experts in the field but also committed to providing immediate, effective solutions. Our readiness to act in critical situations underscores our expertise and dedication to client service.
FREE DIAGNOSIS
$0 UP-FRONT FEES
24/7 CLIENT CARE
Our transparent service means you only pay if we can recover your data.
In today's digital age, data is more valuable than ever. Whether it's cherished personal memories, critical business documents, or essential system files, losing data can be a stressful experience. Our expert hard drive data recovery services are designed to address this exact challenge. With a focus on security, efficiency, and reliability, we strive to recover your lost data and provide peace of mind.
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PROFESSIONAL HARD DRIVE DATA RECOVERY SERVICES
"Our engineers always perform a FREE in-depth hard drive diagnosis to determine the best hard drive data recovery approach possible, at the best price."
WHY CHOOSE US?
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Original Information and Analysis: Our team of data recovery experts uses state-of-the-art technology and innovative techniques to recover data from hard drives suffering from physical damage, logical failures, or accidental deletions. Unlike generic solutions, we offer tailored recovery plans based on the specific issues and data types involved, ensuring a higher success rate and the preservation of your data's integrity.
Recovering lost or inaccessible data from a computer hard drive is a complex process known as hard drive data recovery. This process involves retrieving data that has been accidentally deleted or lost due to physical damage or software errors. Successful data recovery requires expertise, specialised tools, and a thorough understanding of file systems and data structures. Attempting to recover data without the proper knowledge and tools can cause further damage or even permanent data loss. It is highly recommended to use a professional Australian-certified data recovery service, like Wildfire Data Recovery, that employs experienced, highly trained data recovery engineers, who specialise in recovering data from different types of hard drives and handling various data loss scenarios. This can include physical damage to the device, physical impact, internal component failure, software corruption, formatting of data, and much more.
SUMMARY - OUR HARD DRIVE DATA RECOVERY SERVICES:
"At Wildfire Data Recovery we offer a comprehensive range of hard drive data recovery services, essential for a business to excel and meet the diverse needs of its customers."
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Physical Hard Drive Recovery: We provide expertise in recovering data from physically damaged hard drives due to mechanical failures, water damage, or other physical issues.
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Logical Data Recovery: We offer solutions for logical data loss, including accidental file deletion, corrupted file systems, and data format issues preventing user data access.
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External Hard Drive Recovery: We provide data recovery solutions for external hard drives, including those used for backups and storage purposes.
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Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Repair: We offer PCB repair services to address issues caused by faulty circuit boards on hard drives.
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Deleted File Recovery: We utilize specialized tools to retrieve data that has been accidentally or intentionally deleted due to human error.
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Corrupted Data Restoration: We offer solutions to restore data from corrupted files or folders, ensuring data integrity is maintained.
IS HARD DRIVE DATA RECOVERY POSSIBLE?
Yes! It is possible to recover data from a hard drive in the majority of cases. However, our WDR engineers have identified 3 key factors influencing success rates. The success of the recovery process depends on several key factors, such as the extent of the damage to the hard drive, the cause of the data loss, and the actions taken after the data loss occurred.
There are two contrasting scenarios that reflect the two broad categories of hard drive damage that often lead to data loss, these are:
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💻 Logical damage: Issues related to hard drives in this category are related to software and the way data is stored and retrieved from the file system. These problems can arise due to buggy firmware, driver issues, malware, reformatting, power outages, and other reasons. A hard drive that has suffered logical damage will function properly, but the data stored on it may not be accessible. This is a big problem for our clients, as their user data is trapped on the hard drive. This is where our data recovery engineers step in.
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🔨 Physical damage: On the other hand, if there is physical damage to the hard drive, it can cause issues that prevent it from operating correctly, or even turning on at all. These issues may include dead or torn heads, scratches on the platter, damaged motors, or environmental damage. You may notice clicking sounds or other noises as symptoms of these issues. It's important to address these problems before attempting to use data recovery software to recover any lost data. This is where our Wildfire Data Recovery engineers have to make physical restorations or repairs to the device in one of our clean rooms before user data can be rescued.
⚠️ EXAMPLE - "The Storage Locker"
Imagine you have a hard drive that stores all of your important files and documents, like a storage locker. However, one day, a physical failure occurs within the hard drive, making it impossible to access anything inside. This is similar to a broken lock on a storage locker, which prevents access to the contents inside.
Physical failure can occur due to issues with the hard drive's moving parts, like the tiny mechanical arm that reads and writes data on the storage disks. If this arm becomes stuck or damaged, it cannot function properly, and your files will become inaccessible. Additionally, damage to the storage disks themselves, like scratches or dents, can also cause physical failure and make it difficult for the hard drive to read the data stored on it.
When physical failure happens, your computer may not recognize the hard drive, and you may hear strange clicking or grinding noises coming from it. To fix physical failure, it's best to seek the help of a professional technician who specializes in data recovery. They have the tools and knowledge to repair or replace the damaged components and retrieve your important files, if possible. It's important to remember that physical failure is different from issues like accidental file deletion or a software glitch. It's like having a physical problem with the lock or shelves of your storage locker, making it impossible to access your belongings.
At Wildfire Data Recovery Services in Brisbane, we take a calculated approach to recover your data based on the category your hard drive falls into. It's crucial to consult with a professional data recovery service immediately after experiencing data loss to maximize the chances of successful data recovery. With our experienced WDR engineers, we'll assess the situation, determine the best course of action, and safely and effectively recover your data. Trust us to handle your data recovery needs with precision and expertise.
Main internal components of a 2.5" and 3.5" mechanical PATA hard drive.
THINGS TO AVOID IF YOUR HARD DRIVE HAS FAILED!
Now that we know the challenges we can face while recovering data from different types of drives, there are steps one can take at home to ensure the highest chance of success. Below our Wildfire Data Recovery, hard drive recovery team has listed a few minor things you should keep in mind when you hard drive has failed:
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❌ STOP USING THE DRIVE: The first order of business while recovering data from any form of storage is to stop using it. This is because drives have storage limitations and any new data can overwrite the space where your deleted data was initially present. If that happens, it becomes difficult to retrieve your files using data recovery software.
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❌ DO NOT FORMAT HARD DRIVE: If you have accidentally formatted your hard drive, recovery may still be pssible. However, you should not format the drive as it can make the recovery process complicated and you might lose some of your data forever through the process of overwriting.
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❌ DO NOT OPEN HARD DRIVE CASING: A single spec of dust is larger than this gap between the heads and the hard drive platter, so basically opening a drive outside a Class 100 Clean Room will result in dust settling on the platters, and creating media damage on the platters when the drive is spun up, this can lead to a drive not being recoverable.
If you suspect a hard drive failure, contact the experts at Wildfire Data Recovery Brisbane to get your data back as quickly as possible, time is of the essence.
COMMON SYMPTOMS OF HARD DRIVE FAILURE
"Each data loss situation is unique. At WDR we create a bespoke solution just for you."
💻 LOGICAL HARD DRIVE ISSUES:
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Accidental deletion: The user unintentionally deletes important files or folders, either by pressing the wrong key or using a faulty command.
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Formatting or repartitioning errors: Mistakenly formatting or repartitioning a hard drive can lead to data loss if the process erases existing data instead of creating a new partition.
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File system corruption: Issues with the file system structure, such as a corrupt partition table, damaged file allocation table (FAT), or Master File Table (MFT) corruption on NTFS drives, can render the data inaccessible.
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Operating system failure: Operating system errors, crashes, or updates gone wrong can cause data loss or make it impossible to boot into the system, preventing access to stored files.
NOTE:
⌛ Abrupt dips in file transfer speeds: If you notice a sudden and sharp decline in your file transfer speeds, chances are the HDD is on the verge of corruption and could aggravate into a click of death situation. This can turn a LOGICAL ISSUE into a very complex PHYSICAL ISSUE.
🔨 PHYSICAL HARD DRIVE ISSUES:
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Impact or physical trauma: Dropping the hard drive, mishandling, or subjecting it to physical shocks can damage the internal components, making the data inaccessible.
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Electronic failure: The electronic components of the hard drive, including the controller board, power supply, or firmware, malfunction or get damaged, preventing the hard drive from functioning properly.
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Mechanical failure: The hard drive experiences mechanical issues such as motor failure, head crash (when the read/write heads make contact with the platter), or spindle motor failure, making it impossible to read or write data.
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Water or liquid damage: Spilling liquid onto a hard drive or exposing it to moisture can cause electrical shorts or corrosion, resulting in data loss.
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Power surges or electrical issues: Sudden power surges, voltage spikes, or electrical failures can damage the hard drive's electronic components and render the data unreadable.
It is vital to understand that losing data from a physical hard drive can be a difficult task to recover without professional help. Therefore, it is advisable to reach out to a reliable data recovery service that specializes in physical hard drive failures. To reduce the impact of physical hard drive failures, it is essential to back up important data on a regular basis.
WILDFIRE DATA RECOVERY - CASE STUDY: Unusual Hard Drive Noises and Sounds
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YOUR HARD DRIVE MAKES UNUSUAL NOISES:
If your hard drive is making any unusual noises, it is indicative of PHYSICAL FAILURE. It is crucial to back up your data immediately if possible. Continued use of a hard drive that is making abnormal noises will lead to further damage and permanent data loss. Below are some of the most common sounds we come across here at Wildfire Data Recovery, what they could mean for your hard drive and what to do if you hear them.
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Clicking or Ticking Noise: A repetitive clicking or ticking sound often suggests a mechanical issue with the hard drive. It could indicate a problem with the read/write heads, actuator arm, or other internal components. This type of noise should be taken seriously as it may indicate an imminent hard drive failure.
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Grinding or Screeching Noise: A grinding or screeching sound may occur when the motor or the bearings within the hard drive are failing. This type of noise is concerning and should be addressed right away.
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Beeping or Buzzing Noise: Some hard drives emit beeping or buzzing sounds when they encounter errors during startup or operation. This can be related to power supply issues, firmware problems, or other internal malfunctions. It's important to diagnose and address these issues to prevent further damage.
Find our more about hard drive sounds by listening to some recordings made by our team in the above audio box.
Recognizing the Click of Death: Common Symptoms of a Clicking Hard Drive
The "click of death" is a term used to describe a specific type of abnormal clicking sound that occurs in failing or malfunctioning hard drives. It is a symptom of a serious hardware issue and often indicates imminent hard drive failure.
If you’re unsure whether the clicks from your hard drive are abnormal, check out the common precursors that can confirm your suspicions:
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📢 Click Amplitude: If the clicks you hear are pretty evident and resemble a metal-on-metal screeching, you must take caution. Alternatively, if the clicking sound is loud enough to interrupt a conversation, you’ve got a problem.
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💻 Boot Impact: If your hard drive makes a clicking noise and won’t boot, it indicates a malfunctioning hard drive. Additionally, if you notice a hard drive clicking noise on startup, you must immediately take action.
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⏩ Click Frequency: If your hard drive produces a clicking noise at a high frequency (many clicks in a short interval), it’s a problem.
If you suspect data loss, there are steps you can take to determine whether it's physical or logical. Firstly, check the physical connections and power supply of your hard drive to ensure it's properly connected and receiving power. If you notice any physical damage or unusual noises, it's likely a physical issue. However, if the system recognizes the drive but the data is inaccessible, it's more likely a logical issue.
"You may only get one shot at recovering your precious data...so choose wisely."
WE RECOVER FROM ALL THE BELOW HARD DRIVE MODELS AND TYPES
SUPPORTED HARD DRIVE BRANDS AND MODELS:
Here are some examples of common hard drive brands and models that we recover data from every day:
While we can help in many situations, unfortunately data recovery isn't always possible from all models of HARD DRIVE devices. Below are some of the most common models and brands we recover data from every day here at WDR. If yours is not listed, please contact our data recovery team ASAP.
If you don't see your specific hard drive model listed here, don't worry. Our data recovery experts are equipped to handle a wide range of hard drive models beyond this list. Whether your hard drive is from a well-known brand or a less common one, we have the expertise to recover data from various hard drive types and configurations.
DATA RECOVERY FROM ALL HARD DRIVE CONNECTOR TYPES:
MODERN INTERFACES:
The following interfaces can be found on hard disk drives of today's personal desktop and laptop computers, DAS and NAS appliances, as well as other mainstream products. Some of them are employed solely in advanced enterprise-level servers, workstations and storage arrays. Internal SSDs can have the same connector types as their mechanical counterparts, yet, the latest ones come with newer connection standards that allow taking greater advantage of the flash memory.
SATA
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Serial ATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or SATA) is a command and transport protocol that has replaced PATA hard drive within desktop computers and laptops, due to its much faster data read/write rates.
A hard drive SATA connector.
SAS
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SAS is the evolution of the obsolete parallel SCSI interface into the one that uses serial design and addresses its speed limitations. A SAS connector is compatible with both SAS and SATA hard drives, and can host up to 16 storage devices simultaneously. The SAS specification also offers inherent support for hot-swapping.
A SAS hard drive connector.
All other hard drive connector types we support
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M.2
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mSATA
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U.2 (SFF-8639)
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pCIE
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PATA
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SCSI
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APPLE SSD CONNECTORS
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USB
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nVME
Can't see your hard drive listed? Don't worry; Wildfire Data Recovery can recover from any type or brand of hard drive. Including eSATA, USB, Firewire, IDE, EIDE.
WHAT WE CAN AND CANNOT RECOVER DATA FROM
Our Wildfire Data Recovery, hard drive file recovery services come with a documented 98% success rate. Like all electronic devices with built in complexity, hard drives have limitations to what can be recovered. This of course depends on the issue and the complexity of the problem.
CAN
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Unintentionally deleted data from the hard drive
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File System Corruption
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Physical Impact (fall, throw or bump)
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Electrical hard drive issues or short
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Partition table corruption or deletion
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Complex internal component failure (damaged heads)
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File system corruption
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Accidental formatting/reformatting of drive
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Deleted or damaged partitions on hard drive
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Hard drive cannot be detected
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No power or drive cannot start
CAN'T
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Extensive physical damage to the hard drive device, such as fire, flood, or extreme impact
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Severe Data Overwritting
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Encrypted Data Without Recovery Key
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Bit Rot or Data Degradation
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Intentional Data Removal (inc. DoD data deletion)
It's important to note that each data loss scenario is unique, and the success of data recovery depends on several factors such as the severity of the damage, the expertise of the data recovery specialists, and the available resources and technologies.
CHANCES FOR DATA RECOVERY AND SUCCESS RATES
"The nature and complexity of the failure play a significant role in the success of a data recovery service."
HOW SUCCESSFUL IS DATA RECOVERY?
Overall, data recovery yields a very high success rate, regardless of the device. The average data recovery success rate at Wildfire Data Recovery is 95% across all devices. Data recovery success rates can vary based on several factors. Firstly, the nature and complexity of the reason for failure play a significant role. Simple issues like accidental deletion or formatting generally have higher success rates, as they involve minimal damage to the storage media. On the other hand, more complex failures such as physical damage to the storage device, severe corruption, or mechanical issues pose greater challenges and lower the chances of successful recovery. The time elapsed since the data loss incident is also crucial, as immediate action increases the likelihood of successful recovery. Additionally, the quality of the data recovery service provider, their expertise, available technology, and resources also impact the success rate. It's important to consult professional data recovery experts who can assess the specific situation and provide the best possible chance of recovering your valuable data.
"Overall, data recovery yields a very high success rate, regardless of the device. The average data recovery success rate at Wildfire Data Recovery is 98% across all hard drive devices."
CASE STUDY - DATA LOSS DUE TO DELETED HARD DRIVE DATA
Any deleted file remains on the storage until the storage space is reused by other data. After file deletion, the operating system may reuse the disk space to save a new file. Thus, even a minor piece of information written to the storage can cause permanent data loss. Using a web browser might result in overwriting deleted files through caching or saving cookies to the storage. If you install any software to the same drive, your data can be overwritten as well.
HOW FILE SYSTEMS IMPACT SUCCESS RATES:
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Another factor that affects the prospect of data recovery after file deletion is the file deletion algorithm of a file system. For the Windows NTFS file system the chances for a positive outcome are quite high
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The BSD UFS (Unix) file system destroys information about the file start, location and size permanently and together with a high degree of file fragmentation (typical for this file system) leaves few chances for successful data recovery.
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Other file systems (like FAT) provide average chances for data recovery. Here, the information is destroyed partly (like the information about file fragments), but the information about the file name, start and size remains on the disk.
CASE STUDY - RECOVERY AFTER HARD DRIVE FORMATTING
File system formatting refers to the process of preparing a storage device, such as a hard drive or a solid-state drive (SSD). When a storage device is formatted, the existing data on the device is typically erased, and a new file system is created. If a hard drive that already had a file system with files is formatted, the formatting process typically erases all the existing data on the drive. This means that all files, directories, and file system structures are effectively deleted and replaced with a new, empty file system. Until new data is written over the old data, there is still a possibility of recovering some or all of the previously formatted files using specialized data recovery tools and techniques.
"Recovery of wiped and then overwritten data is impossible due to the specifics of the mechanism of writing data."
DATA RECOVERY PRICING
PRICING SUMMARY:
Our prices START at $190, depending on the reason and complexity of the failure. All data recovery pricing is based on complexity. Therefore the more complex the issue, the higher the cost for data recovery and the longer it may take to recover. Our services also have faster Priority, and Emergency Service options which can have a higher cost in order to push your device at "the front of the line" to get faster results. These options are usually taken up by our business and corporate clients. In summary, cost will depend on the type of problem your hard drive presents to us with and how quickly you need the data back. We offer a FREE assessment and quote on all recoveries.
At Wildfire DATA Recovery we never provide an official quote until our engineers have had an opportunity to diagnose your hard drive within our workshop. While we can provide estimations based on our client's descriptions of their hard drive issues, these will most likely change once our engineers evaluate your hard drive.
CALL TODAY FOR A FREE CUSTOM QUOTE
We routinely recover inaccessible emails, texts, photos, contacts, videos and any other data types from Apple devices that have suffered file system corruption, physical damage, file deletion, liquid or fire damage. We can recover data from Apple’s entire line of products, including the latest models.
THE WILDFIRE HARD DRIVE DATA RECOVERY PROCESS
"It is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Our hard drive data recovery process is customised for every client."
1.
COMPREHENSIVE RECOVERY REPORT
Once we process and diagnose our client's device(s) we complete a comprehensive diagnostic report. It marks on the total costs (inc. projected costs) of the recovery, the chance of success, the issue with the hard drive and why it requires data recovery services and finally the expected date of completion. We offer our customers a comprehensive diagnostic report free of charge with our standard service, to find the root of the failure and allow our engineers to find the right path to recovery.
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ONCE DIAGNOSIS IS OVER...
Following the completion of our comprehensive recovery report, we complete our diagnostic and consultation services with our clients and provide a projected success rate for their particular device and failure (these success rates are based on thousands of recoveries). Once the diagnostics are completed buy our experienced data recovery engineers, and the data recovery options are clear, we provide a firm no-obligation price quote. This quote can always be rejected by our clients and they can take their device and shop around.
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ONCE THE JOB IS APPROVED...
Once our clients provide us with the green light and approve the quote and the comprehensive report, our engineers conduct the invasive hard drive repairs and if necessary, use custom-designed, in-house, tools to recreate file systems and partition table information our clients need to progress to the next level of hard drive data recovery. This step can take a number of days, to a number of weeks depending on the complexiety of the hard drive failure. For example, a LEVEL 1 Logic Hard Drive Data Recovery may take 2-5 days, while a LEVEL 4 Complex Mechanical Hard Drive Failure can take up to 4 weeks or longer.
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HARD DRIVE DATA RECOVERY - Frequently Asked Questions
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