G-DRIVE · G-RAID · ArmorATD · G-Technology · SanDisk Professional
A failed G-DRIVE is recovered here for £300 + VAT for a single-drive unit; two-bay G-RAID and G-DRIVE Project units are from £500 + VAT, and the four- and eight-bay Shuttles from £1,250 + VAT. These drives were sold as G-Technology until 2021, as SanDisk Professional from May 2021, and as G-DRIVE again from February 2026, after Western Digital separated its flash business. The desktops contain Western Digital's Ultrastar enterprise drives, which fail less often and more politely; the ArmorATD is a 2.5-inch WD drive in a rugged shell. 3–4 days at the bench.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668
| Family | Models | Drive inside, and how it connects |
|---|---|---|
| ArmorATD, G-DRIVE mobile | Portables | WD 2.5-inch, USB bridge, bus power |
| G-DRIVE desktop | Single-bay, USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 | WD Ultrastar 3.5-inch behind a bridge, mains |
| G-DRIVE Project 2, G-RAID | Two-bay | Two Ultrastar drives, RAID 0 or 1 |
| G-RAID Shuttle 4 and 8 | Transportable | Four or eight Ultrastar drives, RAID 5 by default |
| What you see | The usual reason | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| One bay light red or amber | A failing member | Image it; no rebuild |
| Volume missing, drives shown as new | The controller has lost its configuration | Do not initialise; set rebuilt from the images |
| One drive clicking, volume gone | A striped set with a failed member | Member imaged on the bench; stripe rebuilt |
| Everything dead | Power supply or the controller board | Drives read directly |
A case number goes on it the day the parcel is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually failed before anything else happens. A drive that clicks or beeps is not powered again; one that spins is read on our own imaging equipment, never in a computer that will retry and time out and retry. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.
Every external drive is two things: the drive, and the USB board that talks to it. The board is checked first, because a failed bridge, a snapped socket or a dead regulator is the whole fault on a good share of jobs, and because on WD's encrypted drives the board holds the key. Where the drive itself has stopped, it comes out of its case onto the bench.
Stuck or failed heads are replaced with a matched set from a donor, seized spindles freed, and firmware faults corrected in the drive's service area from the terminal. The drive is not repaired to be used again; it is made to read once, in a single careful pass, and that pass is planned before it begins.
Nothing is worked on live. The whole drive is imaged once, head by head and weak areas last, with reads timed to what the platters can stand, and the file system is put back together on the image. Encrypted volumes are unlocked there too, with the original board's key or the password you supply, and never on the original.
What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
The failed drive's own board had a blown regulator after a surge on location. It was repaired, both drives imaged, the stripe reassembled from the images, and the ProRes files verified by opening them before anything was invoiced.
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine caseYes. The same range was renamed SanDisk Professional in 2021 and G-DRIVE in February 2026; the drives inside are the same.
WD said existing SanDisk Professional hard drive products keep their support and warranty under the new name.
Yes, from £1,250 + VAT, with every member imaged and the set rebuilt from the images.
£300 + VAT for a single-drive unit; from £500 + VAT for two bays; from £1,250 + VAT for four or more.
Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the drive unplugged.