Plymouth Data Recovery — No.1 External Hard Disk & Portable SSD Specialists (25+ years)

Plymouth Data Recovery delivers professional recoveries for all external hard disks and portable SSDs, across every interface and fault type. We provide free diagnostics and engineering-led workflows designed to maximise safe data extraction.

Top 20 external storage manufacturers in the UK & popular model ranges

(Representative ranges we most commonly see in the UK; if yours isn’t listed, we still recover it.)

1. Seagate — Expansion Portable, Backup Plus, One Touch, 2big/6big (DAS)

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

3. Toshiba — Canvio Basics, Canvio Advance, Canvio Flex/Ready

4. Samsung — Portable SSD T7/T7 Shield, T9, X5 (Thunderbolt)

5. SanDisk / SanDisk Professional — Extreme Portable SSD V2, PRO-G40, G-DRIVE ArmorATD/Enterprise

6. LaCie (Seagate) — Rugged (Mini/USB-C/Thunderbolt), d2 Professional, 2big Dock

7. Crucial — X6, X8 Portable SSD

8. Kingston — XS1000, XS2000 Portable SSD

9. ADATA — SE800/SE900G Portable SSD, HD650/HD710 (rugged HDD)

10. Transcend — StoreJet 25M3/25H3 (HDD), ESD370C/ESD380C (SSD)

11. Sabrent — Rocket XTRM-Q (TB3), Rocket Nano/Pro (USB-C), EC-series NVMe enclosures

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

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

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

15. Buffalo — MiniStation, DriveStation (USB 3.x)

16. OWC — Envoy Pro FX, Mercury Elite Pro, ThunderBlade

17. G-Technology (legacy; now SanDisk Professional) — G-DRIVE Mobile/ArmorLock

18. Intenso — Memory Case (HDD), Portable SSD

19. TeamGroup — PD1000/PD1000L, PD2000 Portable SSD

20. iStorage (hardware-encrypted) — diskAshur/PRO/DT/MD series

Interfaces we recover (consumer, pro & legacy)

SATA I/II/III, PATA/IDE (40/44-pin), mSATA, microSATA, SAS 3/6/12Gb, Parallel SCSI (Ultra/160/320), Fibre Channel, PCIe/NVMe (M.2 M-key, B/B+M key, U.2/U.3, AIC), USB 2.0/3.x/3.2/USB-C, Thunderbolt 1/2/3/4, eSATA, FireWire 400/800, mini-SAS (SFF-8087/8643/8654), proprietary bridges (Oxford/JMicron/ASMedia/Initio/Realtek/Genesys, etc.).

Our professional workflow (how we protect your data)

1. Intake & free diagnostics – Identify interface, bridge, encryption, symptoms and risk; document chain-of-custody if required.

2. Forensic imaging first – Hardware imagers with per-head zoning, timeout budgeting, ECC controls and head-maps (HDD); read-retry/voltage stepping and thermal management (SSD/NVMe). No writes to the original.

3. Targeted repair only if needed – ROM/adaptive transfers, firmware patching, donor component swaps (HDD electronics/heads), board-level power repairs (SSD/bridge).

4. Logical/data reconstruction – File-system repair on the clone: NTFS, ReFS, exFAT, FAT32, APFS, HFS+, ext2/3/4, XFS, Btrfs, ZFS, plus sparsebundle/VMFS/LUNs.

5. Verification & delivery – Hash verification (MD5/SHA-256), sample file testing, and secure data hand-off (encrypted return media or secure transfer).

Top 100 external drive faults we recover — and what we do in the lab

Rule #1: Stabilise, image read-only, reconstruct on the clone. Only the minimum necessary bench work is performed to obtain a complete image.

A) Mechanical HDD (1–20)

1. Head crash (clicking) → Diagnose via head current & SA access → Matched donor head-stack, adaptives checked, per-head imaging with short retries.

2. Stiction (heads stuck on platter) → Free HGA, replace heads if contaminated → Low-speed cold imaging starting in safest zones.

3. Spindle seizure / motor stall → Chassis/motor transplant with servo alignment → Verify SA readability, zoned imaging.

4. Media scratches/rings → Error heatmap by head/zone → Skip-range strategy; multi-pass outer-to-inner; partial file carving.

5. Off-track after shock → PES tuning and micro-alignment post HSA swap → Short-burst imaging with cool-down.

6. Preamp failure → Current signature abnormal → HSA swap; conservative imaging profile.

7. Grown defects (G-list bloat) → Vendor terminal slow-fix → Head-zoned imaging with background scans disabled.

8. Translator corruption (LBA↔PBA) → Rebuild translator / synthetic mapping → Image by zone/head.

9. Service-Area (SA) module damage → Alternate SA copy → Patch modules/CRC; regain normal access.

10. ROM/adaptives loss → SPI ROM dump/port → Re-flash; validate head map/micro-jog; image.

11. Bearing wear (vibration/whine) → Controlled speed imaging; increased ECC threshold.

12. Helium drive pressure loss → Temperature-stabilised short passes; isolate weak head.

13. Parking ramp damage → Swap HSA + ramp; recalibrate; image with head-map.

14. Contamination/ingress → Decontaminate HDA components; replace filter; new HSA; cold imaging.

15. Platter imbalance → Motor transplant; servo realignment; cautious imaging.

16. Head slap (impact) → Replace damaged HSA; adaptive gain re-tune; low-stress imaging.

17. Warped platters (heat) → Minimal passes during thermal sweet-spot; carve around unreadable bands.

18. Sticky spindle lubricant → Motor swap; adjust spin-up profile; image.

19. Ramp latch failure → Mechanical release; HSA replacement; imaging with dwell.

20. Head comb mispark (previous service mishandling) → Correct HSA install; recalibrate; image.

B) Electronics/Power (HDD & bridges) (21–35)

21. PCB failure / TVS diode short → Replace TVS/regulators; ROM transfer; boot to SA; image.

22. Power surge/ESD → Component-level repair (drivers/MCU rails); verify rails ripple; image.

23. USB-SATA bridge failure → Bypass enclosure; direct SATA attach; image.

24. Thunderbolt bridge fault → Transplant bare drive into good bridge; or attach raw module; image.

25. 3.3 V “pin-3” inhibit (WD shucked) → Isolate pin or proper PSU; proceed to imaging.

26. Damaged SATA power/data connector → Rework connector; reduce link speed; image.

27. Shorted pre-reg caps/inductors → Thermal find & replace; verify current draw; image.

28. Oxidised USB-C port → Clean/rework; bypass to SATA if needed.

29. Burned MCU/driver → Donor PCB + ROM; if preamp ok → image.

30. Backplane/cable CRC storms → Replace media path; PIO-like imaging (QD=1, small blocks).

31. ESD arrays blown on bridge → Replace array; throttle UASP; image BOT if unstable.

32. Under-voltage brownouts → Bench supply; soft-start; controlled imaging.

33. Wrong PSU polarity/voltage → Replace protection components; assess downstream; image.

34. Faulty power button / auto-spin policy → Force spin via SATA; ignore bad front-end logic.

35. LED/logic board parasitics causing resets → Disable non-essential loads; stabilise; image.

C) Firmware/Service-area (HDD) (36–45)

36. 0 MB/0 LBA capacity → Clear module flags; translator regen; image.

37. SMART log overflow “slow issue” → Vendor scripts; disable BG ops; per-head imaging.

38. Defect list corruption (P-list/G-list) → Rebuild lists; synthetic translator; image by physical address.

39. Head map incorrect → Patch head map in ROM; isolate failing head; image the rest first.

40. Adaptive tables corrupt → Recompute bias/gain; re-flash; verify SA; image.

41. Password/ATA security locked → Authorised unlock (proof of ownership); full image.

42. SA copy mirrored failure → Use surviving SA; patch directory; image.

43. Microcode mismatch (donor PCB) → Load compatible loader ROM; temp boot; image.

44. Self-test loop hang → Abort vendor test; set conservative timeouts; image.

45. Background media scan interference → Disable BMS; steady-state image.

D) Enclosure/Interface quirks (46–55)

46. Bridge-level encryption (some WD/Security) → Requires password; unlock, then image raw HDD.

47. UASP driver instability → Force BOT; reduce queue depth; image.

48. USB power-only cable used → Replace cable; verify 900 mA/1.5 A budget; image.

49. FireWire legacy bridge → Use native FW controller; otherwise transplant to SATA bridge.

50. 4Kn vs 512e mismatch → Normalise logical sector size in virtual model before FS repair.

51. Sleep/idle timers causing drops → Temporarily disable with vendor cmd; continuous imaging.

52. Bridge translation of SMART blocked → Attach bare drive to read SMART; continue imaging.

53. Bus-powered hub brownouts → Direct host port; powered hub only if stable.

54. Encryption suddenly enabled by OEM software → Obtain credentials; decrypt image post-acquisition.

55. Cable shielding fault → EMI resets → Replace with certified cable; clamp link speed.

E) SSD/NVMe (inside external USB-C/TB enclosures) (56–70)

56. Controller failure (Phison/SMI/Maxio/WD) → Attempt loader export; if dead → chip-off per-die dumps (note: many are self-encrypting; keys needed).

57. PMIC/regulator burnout → Replace PMIC; verify rails; if controller still dead → chip-off.

58. DRAM/HSR cache failure → Emulate cache where possible; else chip-off + offline FTL rebuild.

59. NAND wear/retention loss → Temperature-controlled imaging; voltage stepping/read-retry matrices; majority-vote page reads.

60. Read-disturb on TLC/QLC → Lower thresholds; idle cycles between reads; prioritise weakest dies.

61. Firmware safe-mode → Load recovery microcode; export raw namespaces; treat as disk image.

62. Namespace/metadata loss → Rebuild GPT from FS signatures; raw carve if needed.

63. Thermal throttling/link flaps → Active cooling; cap link speed (Gen3 x2/x1); staged imaging.

64. USB-NVMe bridge bug → Bypass to motherboard M.2; image direct.

65. M.2 pad/connector damage → Micro-wire to test pads; image on adapter.

66. SATA SSD controller RO mode → Image within limits; avoid writes; reconstruct FS.

67. Hidden OP/maintenance areas omitted → Include reserved ranges; rebuild logical address space before FS repair.

68. Vendor encryption (Opal/SED) → Full-disk image; decrypt with valid credentials only.

69. Bridge-firmware “secure erase” triggered → If executed, data gone; focus on backups/replicas.

70. Firmware update interrupted → Attempt rollback loader; else chip-off & FTL.

F) Logical/partition/filesystem (71–85)

71. Accidental deletion → Journal-aware recovery; restore metadata; carve unallocated/slack.

72. Quick/full format → Rebuild partition/boot sectors; use backup GPT/$MFTMirr; deep carve.

73. GPT/MBR corruption → Recreate from backups & FS headers; synthetic GPT; mount RO.

74. NTFS $MFT/$LogFile damage → Replay log; rebuild MFT; relink orphans.

75. exFAT bitmap/Upcase corruption → Repair on clone; rebuild chains; recover orphan clusters.

76. ReFS object table issues → Use integrity streams; export consistent objects.

77. APFS container/omap corruption → Walk checkpoints; rebuild object map; mount Data RO.

78. HFS+ catalog/extent B-tree → Rebuild trees; allocator-pattern carving for partials.

79. ext4 superblock/inode table loss → Use backup superblocks; offline fsck-like rebuild.

80. XFS journal corruption → Manual log replay; directory rebuild.

81. Btrfs checksum/subvolume errors → Select best superblock pair; tree-search roots; export snapshots.

82. Time Machine sparsebundle damage → Repair band files; export snapshots; carve band payloads.

83. VMFS/VHDX/VMDK on external → Rebuild descriptor/chain (CID/parentCID); mount and export.

84. BitLocker/FileVault/LUKS volumes → Image first; decrypt with valid keys; export RO.

85. Boot sector / partition signature collision → Fix disk signature; non-destructive mount on clone.

G) Software/system & operational (86–93)

86. “Drive not recognised” in OS → Link-layer tests; force PIO-like imaging; later FS repair on image.

87. BIOS/UEFI blocks USB mass storage → Use direct SATA attach; image; repair FS.

88. Driver conflict/UASP bug → BOT fallback; stabilise for imaging.

89. Antivirus/malware tampering → Forensic image; neutralise; export clean files.

90. CCTV/NVR circular overwrite on external → Recover pre-overwrite extents only; parse DB indices.

91. Cloud sync induced deletions → Recover from local caches/previous versions; verify timestamps.

92. Host power management sleep/hibernate corruption → Journal replay; rebuild open files; validate app stores.

93. TRIM after deletion on SSD → If trimmed, physical blocks are gone; focus on non-trimmed areas, journal remnants, app caches.

H) Environmental & mishandling (94–100)

94. Overheating/throttling → Active cooling; staged imaging prioritising weak areas.

95. Fresh water ingress → Rinse/neutralise; dry; do not power; proceed to electronics/mech triage then imaging.

96. Salt water ingress → Immediate neutralisation; corrosion mitigation; accelerated imaging window.

97. Fire/heat exposure → PCB rebuild; platter transfer if required; cautious imaging.

98. Severe shock/vibration → HSA swap/alignment; short bursts; skip damaged tracks.

99. Static discharge during handling → Replace blown protection; image.

100. Counterfeit/relabeled media → Capacity mismatch checks; recover real addressable space; advise on integrity limits.

Why Plymouth Data Recovery

• 25 years of continuous specialist practice with thousands of successful recoveries

• Multi-vendor expertise (consumer/pro/enterprise HDD, SSD, NVMe, bridges and NAS/DAS)

• Advanced tooling & donor inventory to maximise success rates

• Free diagnostics with clear options before any paid work begins

Ready to start?

Contact Plymouth Data Recovery for your free diagnostic today. We’ll stabilise the device, image it safely, and rebuild your data with forensic-grade care.