Western Digital data recovery We get it back.
Every day we recover data from faulty Western Digital hard drives, SSDs and NAS systems — with the necessary knowledge and the right technology.
- In-house clean room
- Never outsourced
- Our lab
- Transparent & fair
Every WD series, one lab
From the classic desktop HDD through external My Passport drives to NVMe SSDs and NAS systems — we know the series and their typical weak points, and we have the right tooling for each of them.
Western Digital
Whether logical or physical — in most cases the memory is still intact. The diagnosis shows what exactly is wrong.
Deleted or formatted
The data is usually still present — only the reference to it is missing.
Mechanics & head crash
Clicking or grinding after a drop — opened only in the clean room.
Electronics & firmware
Drive not recognised, electronics defect or firmware error on the board.
RAID & NAS
Failed arrays and multi-drive systems — analysed and rebuilt.
Why this takes so much effort.
No jargon for its own sake — the reasons from which price, duration and prospects of success follow.
Three product worlds, three routes
Western Digital covers mechanical hard drives, SSDs and network storage — technically three different tasks. With a hard drive it is about mechanics and firmware, with an SSD about electronics and the internal translation table, with a NAS about reconstructing an array from several drives. The brand name says nothing about that; the design does.
External drives: the enclosure belongs with them
On My Passport and My Book models there is a bridge board between the USB port and the drive — and on quite a few series exactly that board encrypts the content. Anyone who removes the drive and connects it directly therefore sees nothing but garbage, even though mechanically everything is fine. Always send external drives in complete, with the enclosure.
NAS: please do not rebuild
If a WD network storage device reports a drive failure, the array is without reserve. The rebuild it offers then reads every remaining drive under full load for days — exactly the drives you are completely dependent on at that moment. Shut the system down, label the bay order, remove the drives one by one.
Large drives, overlapping tracks
At high capacities, overlapping written tracks and helium-filled enclosures come into play. Both increase density and make recovery more demanding: such drives tidy up in the background on their own and have to be prevented from continuing to work during imaging.
Every WD series, one lab.
Details for your storage medium.
Hard drives / HDD
WD Green, WD Blue, WD Black, WD Red, WD Red Pro, WD Purple, WD Gold (SATA und SAS) sowie Ultrastar DC HC310, HC320, HC330, HC530, HC550 und HC620 — und alle weiteren WD-Festplatten.
External drives
WD Elements Portable, My Passport, My Passport Ultra, My Passport for Mac, My Book, My Book Duo, My Passport Wireless Pro, My Passport SSD, My Passport Wireless SSD, My Passport Go SSD sowie SanDisk Extreme und Extreme Pro Portable SSD. Bitte immer mit Gehäuse einsenden.
SSD
SATA: WD Blue 3D NAND, WD Green, WD Red SA500 NAS. SAS: Ultrastar DC SS530 und SS540. NVMe: WD Black SN750 und SN850, WD Blue SN500 und SN550, WD PC SN730, Ultrastar DC SN640 und SN840 — und alle weiteren WD-SSDs.
NAS & network storage
My Cloud, My Cloud Home, My Cloud EX2 und EX4 sowie Eigenbauten mit WD-Red-Bestückung. Bei ausgefallenem Verbund bitte keinen Rebuild starten — Details auf der RAID- und NAS-Seite.
Before you do anything.
Bring the medium in or send it to us. The Economy diagnosis is free — you find out what is possible before anything costs money.
Take the medium out of service immediately — every further use can accelerate the loss.
No recovery attempts with tools from the internet.
Do not open the device or medium yourself.
Take it to a reliable data recovery specialist — analysis first, then a quote.
Prices follow the medium.
What a recovery costs depends on the medium and its fault pattern, not on the brand. You will therefore find the prices on the page for the medium itself.
Hard drive / HDD
We have already recovered hundreds of thousands of gigabytes from faulty hard drives — in our own clean room lab in Frankfurt, with a diagnosis before the recovery and your approval before anything happens.
Prices
SSD
We recover data from logically and physically damaged SSDs of all kinds — using techniques that go far beyond ordinary data recovery software.
Prices
RAID, NAS & server
A RAID survives the failure of one drive. What it often does not survive is the attempt to recover from it. Please do not start a rebuild.
Prices
Our diagnostic tariffs.
You set the pace. Shipping both ways is included in every tariff — from Standard upwards we collect from you. And you always get a written quote before we start the recovery.
Economy
0 €
free diagnosis
- Diagnosis
- approx. 5 working days
- After approval
- Regular queue
- Updates
- By email
Written quote · free shipping both ways
Standard
99 €
incl. VAT · per medium
- Diagnosis
- within 2 working days
- After approval
- Scheduled with priority
- Updates
- Email and phone call
Written quote · free collection and return
Emergency
249 €
incl. VAT · per medium
- Diagnosis
- next working day
- After approval
- Moved to the front
- Updates
- Named contact
Written quote · express collection and return. Arrives before 12 noon: diagnosis the same working day.
The Economy diagnosis is free of charge. With Standard and Emergency the diagnostic fee applies even if you decline the quote — it is not offset against a later recovery. Either way, you decide freely after the quote whether we continue.
Four steps to your data.
- 01
Send it in or drop it off
Order online or hand it in without an appointment in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen.
- 02
Diagnosis
We examine the medium and send you a written quote.
- 03
Approval & recovery
We only begin the recovery once you have approved it.
- 04
Your data back
On a storage medium in the parcel or via an encrypted cloud download.
Where even we reach a limit
This page claims no partnership with Western Digital. It says which series end up on our bench and what is typical about them.
Magnetic layer worn away over a large area
A clicking drive that was left running for hours wears away its own data surface.
The encrypting enclosure is missing
If an external drive was removed and the enclosure discarded, the content can stay unreadable — even though the drive is flawless.
A rebuild already started
An aborted rebuild has overwritten parts of the redundancy with values based on incomplete data. That is often still recoverable, but more work.
No matching donor
With very old or rare series, sourcing a suitable donor drive can fail.
Answered briefly.
What does data recovery cost?
We work with transparent fixed prices based on the fault pattern — depending on the medium from €99, €299 or €499; in cases of total damage individually. Before every recovery you receive a written quote and decide freely whether we continue.
Do I pay even if no data is recovered?
The Economy diagnosis is free — if you decline afterwards, no costs arise. With Standard and Emergency the diagnostic fee (€99 or €249) applies even if you decline; it is not offset against a later recovery. The recovery itself is only charged after your approval.
How long does it take?
Depending on the tariff, the diagnosis takes about 5 working days (Economy), 2 working days (Standard) or one working day (Emergency) — with Emergency, the same working day if the medium arrives before 12 noon. How long the recovery itself takes depends on the fault pattern and is stated in the quote.
Is my data safe with you?
Yes. We work in line with the GDPR, pass nothing on to third parties and never outsource. Your data is stored exclusively on our encrypted server and completely deleted after handover.
Can I send the medium in?
Yes. Shipping both ways is included in every diagnosis tariff; with Standard and Emergency we collect the medium from you. Or you come to our lab in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen without an appointment.
Should I remove the drive from my My Passport and send it on its own?
Please do not. On many of these models the bridge board in the enclosure encrypts the content — without it the drive is unreadable even when it is mechanically flawless. Send the complete device.
My WD NAS offers me a rebuild. Should I let it?
If the data matters to you and there is no current backup: no. The rebuild is the riskiest measure at exactly the moment when there is no reserve left.
Are you an authorised Western Digital partner?
No. This page describes which series we work on — there is no official partnership.
What about SanDisk drives? They belong to Western Digital.
We treat the portable SanDisk SSDs like the other external drives. For SanDisk cards and sticks there is a page of its own.
Data Recovery Professionals
A worldwide group of independent, owner-run data recovery companies. Members share methods from professional data recovery, forensics and software development — so on rare damage patterns the knowledge of the whole group stands behind your medium.
Every hour counts. Let us talk.
Bring the medium in or send it to us. The Economy diagnosis is free of charge.
Wasserweg 8–10 · 60594 Frankfurt am Main