Hard drive data recovery

Which hard drives and file systems do we recover from?

• 3.5″ desktop HDD recovery (ATA, P-ATA, S-ATA, S-ATAII, SATAIII)
• 2.5″ laptop HDD recovery (ATA, P-ATA, S-ATA, S-ATAII, SATAIII)
• 1.8″ laptop HDD recovery (ZIF, LIF)
• SAS
• SCSI hard drive recovery
• 1″ micro-drives
• SSD (Solid State Drive) data recovery
• External enclosures/storage (USB, FireWire, eSATA, etc.)
• All brands, types, and models
• Any generation: old or new
• Any operating system (Windows, Linux, macOS, etc.)
• Every kind of data loss: from simple to complex; fire or water damage, malware/ransomware,
  accidental deletion, file corruption, system crashes, hardware failure, etc.
• FAT, exFAT, NTFS, ReFS, HFS+, APFS, EXT2/3/4, XFS, F2FS, ReiserFS, BtrFS, VMFS, UFS1/2, ZFS, DHF4.1
• WFS0.x (video/camera recorders)
• VM — virtual machines and images

Warning signs and sounds that may indicate impending HDD failure/data loss:

• Strange, unusual noises or scratching/grinding sounds
• “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD)
• Bad sectors
• Slow response, slow copying, freezes or stalls during copy
• Operating system starts slowly or with difficulty
• SMART warning at boot

What to do if you notice a failure?

• Power off the computer (or external drive) immediately or disconnect power. Further operation can damage the hard drive (sometimes multiple drives) and greatly reduce the chances of a successful recovery.
• Do not restart the computer or external drive!
• Do not attempt a reinstall or start a repair from an installer disc/USB!
• Do not shake or disassemble a suspected-damaged drive; untrained handling can cause more harm!
• Do not experiment with recovery utilities on the damaged files!
• Never operate a visibly damaged device!