FE2004 · FE2005 · FE3001 · FD1003
Inateck external hard drive recovery. German-designed enclosures, usual bridges.
A drive out of an Inateck enclosure is recovered here for £300 + VAT, fixed in writing first. Inateck's enclosures are built around the usual ASMedia and JMicron bridges and fail the usual way; the drive comes out and reads on its own connector. 3–4 days at the bench.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668
Models we see, family by family.
Which kind of drive is it →| Family | Models | Drive inside, and how it connects |
|---|---|---|
| FE series | 2.5-inch enclosures | Any SATA drive behind a bridge |
| FD series | Docks | Any SATA drive |
What tends to go wrong on a Inateck.
Inateck symptoms, and how long each gives you.
Not listed? Describe it on the form →What the message means on a Inateck.
Describe yours to us →| What you see | The usual reason | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| Light on, drive spinning, not detected | Bridge chip failed | Drive read directly on SATA |
| A 3TB or larger drive shows as 746GB or 802GB | An older bridge without large-drive support | The drive is fine; read outside the box |
| Asks to initialise after moving between box and PC | The box used 4K sector emulation or its own translation | Imaged through the original box, or translated on the image |
| Clone or duplicate pressed on a dual dock | One drive written over the other | Tell us which bay was which; carve what survives |
From the box arriving to your files going back.
Work we have closed →Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free
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.
The enclosure and its board
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.
The mechanics, in clean air
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.
A full image, then the volume
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.
You see the file list before you pay
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.
From the bench
- Bridges from before about 2011 cannot address drives over 2.2TB and show them short. Nothing has been lost; the box cannot count that high.
- Send the box too. Some bridges present 4K sectors to the computer, and a drive formatted through one will not mount when connected directly, or the reverse. The data is fine; the geometry differs.
- The clone button on a dual dock has wiped more good drives than any fault we see. If it was pressed, say so, and say which bay was which.
What helps, and what harms.
Do this much first
- Send the drive in its box with the supply and lead
- Say no to Initialise
- Note which bay each drive was in on a dual dock
- Tell us if a clone or duplicate was started
What sets us back
- Initialising or formatting when Windows asks
- Pressing clone again
- Trying the drive in a third and fourth box
- Opening the drive itself
Questions answered before you commit.
Is the drive in my Inateck enclosure recoverable?
Almost certainly; the enclosure is the usual fault and the drive reads directly.
Which drive is inside a Inateck?
It varies by model and batch: Seagate, Western Digital or Toshiba on anything recent, sometimes Samsung or Hitachi on older units. The free look identifies it, and donor parts are matched to the drive, not the badge.
What does it cost?
£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look, fixed in writing before any chargeable work. On most jobs no data means no bill.
How long does it take?
3–4 days at the bench after the free look.
Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.
Nothing gets worse while it is unplugged.
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.