Every badge, and the drive behind it
External hard drive manufacturers we recover. The name on the box is where we start, not where we finish.
Three companies make nearly every hard disk on the planet: Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba. Everything else on this page is a box built around one of their drives, and the box decides a surprising amount: whether the drive can come out, whether its USB socket is on its own board, whether that board scrambles everything it writes. So a LaCie, a Samsung and a Maxtor with the same Seagate drive inside fail the same way and are recovered the same way. Find your brand below. Whichever it is, one external drive is £300 + VAT after the free look, the figure in writing before any chargeable work, and on most jobs no data means no bill.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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Which badge hides which drive.
A to Z, every brand with a page.
Not on the list? Tell us the badge →Why we say the box matters more than the brand.
When an external hard drive fails it is nearly always the mechanics, the drive's own board, its firmware, or the USB board in the box that has stopped, and the platters underneath hold everything. The route back in is decided by the box: a drive in a plain enclosure comes out and is read on its own SATA connector; a native-USB drive is read through its own board or a donor carrying its ROM; a WD My Passport is read through its own board or not at all, because that board holds the encryption key.
So the pages here are organised by brand because that is what you know, and written around the drive inside and the board in front of it because that is what the bench needs. Each one names the models we see, the drive family inside, how the USB connects, whether it encrypts, and the failures that have been documented for that brand, with dates. Where nothing specific has been documented, it says so plainly and describes the general pattern instead.
One more thing worth knowing before the parcel is packed: the makers' own recovery offers. Seagate bundles a Rescue plan with many drives, which is worth checking before anything else; Western Digital offers no recovery of its own and wipes any drive returned under warranty, but keeps the warranty alive after a laboratory recovery confirmed in writing, which we provide as standard.
The questions that come up first.
My brand is not listed. Can you still recover it?
Yes. If it is a hard drive in a box, it is on this list in every way that matters. Tell us the badge and the model on the form; the free look identifies the drive inside.
Does the brand change the price?
No. One external drive is £300 + VAT after the free look whatever the badge. Two-bay sets start at £500 + VAT and larger arrays at £1,250 + VAT.
Which brands encrypt?
Western Digital's My Passport, My Book and easystore do, on their own board, whether or not a password was set. Elements does not. Verbatim's and Buffalo's secure models do. Most others do not unless you turned a password on.
Should I use the maker's own recovery service?
If your Seagate came with a Rescue plan that is still valid and you can wait, it is already paid for. WD has no recovery service of its own. Either way, the free look here costs nothing.
Not on the list?
Tell us the badge and the model. If it is a hard drive in a box, it is on the list in every way that matters, and the first look is free.