With 25 years of data recovery expertise, Coventry Data Recovery is the UK’s leading authority in recovering lost, inaccessible, or corrupted data from Western Digital (WD) hard drives, both SSD and HDD. We have successfully recovered data from thousands of damaged or failed WD drives, including desktop computers, laptops, RAID systems, NAS units, external storage, and enterprise servers.
We handle everything from mechanical failures and firmware corruption to power surges and accidental formatting. Whether you’re a business user, IT department, or individual, we provide free diagnostics and operate on a no recovery, no fee policy.
Supported Western Digital Models
We recover data from all WD product ranges. Here are 15 of the top-selling Western Digital models we regularly work with:
- WD Blue (3.5″/2.5″) – Desktop & Laptop HDD
- WD Black – High-performance HDD
- WD Green – Power-efficient drives
- WD Red – NAS-specific drives
- WD Purple – Surveillance-grade drives
- WD Elements Portable – External HDD
- WD My Passport Ultra – Portable encrypted drive
- WD My Book – Desktop external storage
- WD Gold – Enterprise-class HDD
- WD Easystore – Portable backup drives
- WD VelociRaptor – High-speed HDD
- WD Blue SN570 – NVMe SSD
- WD Black SN850X – Gaming NVMe SSD
- WD Red SA500 – NAS SSD
- WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra – Personal NAS system
Interfaces and Systems We Support
We recover from any Western Digital drive with the following interfaces:
- SATA, PATA (IDE), NVMe, PCIe, M.2, U.2
- SCSI, SAS, eSATA, USB 3.0, USB-C
Compatible with all major systems:
- Windows, macOS, Linux, UNIX
- NAS (e.g., WD My Cloud)
- RAID systems, Desktop PCs, Laptops, External Drives
Top 20 Western Digital Data Recovery Faults and Technical Recovery Methods
Below are the most common WD drive issues we receive and how our engineers address each one:
1. Mechanical Failure
Symptoms: Clicking, grinding, drive not spinning.
Recovery: Drive disassembled in a cleanroom. Damaged heads replaced. Data imaged using controlled hardware tools (e.g., PC-3000).
2. Bad Sectors
Symptoms: Files cannot be accessed or copied.
Recovery: Sector-by-sector cloning using error-skipping tools. Data reconstructed using checksum and file signature analysis.
3. Firmware Corruption
Symptoms: Drive powers but isn’t recognised.
Recovery: Firmware modules rebuilt via vendor-specific terminal commands. ROM and SA (System Area) restored.
4. Logical Corruption
Symptoms: Files and folders missing, drive accessible but unreadable.
Recovery: Deep file system analysis. Rebuilds NTFS, HFS+, ext4, or FAT32 structures using forensic software.
5. PCB Failure
Symptoms: No power, or burning smell from circuit board.
Recovery: PCB replaced and BIOS ROM chip transferred to donor board. Voltage regulation restored.
6. Accidental File Deletion
Symptoms: Files permanently deleted or emptied from Recycle Bin.
Recovery: Non-destructive forensic scan of file system metadata and file carving to reconstruct deleted data.
7. Drive Not Recognised by BIOS
Symptoms: BIOS does not detect the drive.
Recovery: Diagnosis of power supply, firmware, and PCB. ROM reprogrammed or controller chip replaced if needed.
8. Power Surges / Electrical Failure
Symptoms: Drive won’t spin or smells burnt.
Recovery: PCB replaced, power circuits tested, and internal drive components assessed for cascading damage.
9. Head Crash
Symptoms: Repetitive clicking or grinding; serious physical damage.
Recovery: Heads replaced using donor parts in cleanroom. Platters imaged to minimise further wear.
10. Platter Damage
Symptoms: Unreadable sectors, scraping noises.
Recovery: Data extracted from undamaged areas. Damaged sectors mapped and bypassed during recovery imaging.
11. SSD Controller Failure
Symptoms: SSD detected but inaccessible.
Recovery: NAND chips dumped and reconstructed using controller-specific mapping algorithms.
12. NAND Flash Wear / SSD Degradation
Symptoms: Sluggish performance, system freezes.
Recovery: Raw NAND extraction and ECC (Error Correction Code) decoding for file system reconstruction.
13. Encrypted Drive Failures
Symptoms: Cannot unlock drive or retrieve password.
Recovery: Encryption module rebuilt; BitLocker, WD Security, or third-party encryption manually decoded.
14. Accidental Formatting
Symptoms: Drive formatted via OS or prompt.
Recovery: File system scanned for remnants, partition table rebuilt, and files recovered based on signature scanning.
15. Overheating
Symptoms: Drive disconnects after heating up.
Recovery: Thermal issues resolved, then non-invasive imaging performed to extract all available data.
16. Partition Table Corruption
Symptoms: Drive shows unallocated space.
Recovery: Partition table rebuilt using GUID/MBR backup recovery. Lost volumes reconstructed manually.
17. Unsupported File System
Symptoms: OS asks to format drive.
Recovery: RAW recovery performed. File system type identified and manually mounted using forensic tools.
18. Firmware/ROM Mismatch (e.g., WD Marvel Chip)
Symptoms: Spinning but not readable.
Recovery: Matching firmware from donor drive applied. SA rebuilt and translator recalibrated.
19. Initialisation Failure
Symptoms: SSD initialised by OS but files lost.
Recovery: NAND flash interrogated to reconstruct logical data paths using wear-leveling algorithms.
20. Read/Write Errors
Symptoms: File copy stalls or fails.
Recovery: Imaging with ECC and CRC verification. Errors logged and bypassed using block-level redundancy.
Why Choose Coventry Data Recovery?
- 25+ Years of WD Drive Experience
- Cleanroom Environment
- Success Where Others Fail
- Free Diagnostics & Collection UK-Wide
- Fast Turnaround with Optional 48hr Critical Service
- GDPR-Compliant Handling for Business & Personal Data