Hi, I'm a photographer/videographer and accidentally knocked my WD My Passsport 5TB hard drive off my desk. I plugged it back into my Macbook and it was recognized at first, but then I got the click of death (6 clicks and it would shut off). I tried again a few times (which I realize I shouldn't have) to no success. I sent my drive to a prominent data recovery service with a clean room and at first, upon a preliminary diagnosis check, they said that my hard drive had a mechanical failure and not head crash. They were very certain data recovery was achievable.

I then spoke with them again a couple of weeks later and they mentioned upon further inspection, they couldn't access any of the drive's data and that it had to be sent elsewhere for a more specialized, custom recovery. They also mentioned a micro scratch on the platter, which they didn't see at first. I have a basic understanding of how this works and how this level of data recovery involves imaging the disk and rebuilding files, and I understand this takes time. I also understand that this is a case-by-case basis, but I'm curious of 1) Why this data recovery service couldn't access my data? 2) The chances of data recovery and what I should brace myself for. I'm told the third party service has a 70% success rate, but again it's case-by-case. I also understand that the more data recovery attempts, the less likely data recovery becomes.

These are irreplaceable photos and files that are dear to me and admittedly it was very dumb to not have a backup. Any info, insight or help is much appreciated, thank you.

1 - ask them, not us. We don't know what they are able to do and what is too much for them. If it's a real data recovery company or computer shop. If they are certain that data is recoverabe before recoving even one file, it's not professional. That's also odd that it took weeks to check that it is not that easy. We don't know if the scratch is on top platter or the bottom one. Or if it was there from the start or it was done later.
2 - depends on platters condition. Also original ROM must be ok, and controller to get the encryption key. Everything else is replacable. If bottom platter will be damaged, it's game over.

It would be nice to know what was done so far by them.
70% success rate is just a number. Probably not ever real. Oh, and stay away from those that claim success rate over 90%

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odzyskiwanie danych

Thank you.

They've either encountered something they haven't encountered before and don't have the necessary knowledge or experience to get the hard drive to read the data, or, more likely, it's not economically feasible for them to take on your case. It is much more profitable to work with hard drives that are unreadable due to a huge number of bad sectors or that simply need damaged heads replaced and the drive left to copy data overnight, than to take a hard drive with complex problems that would require destroying several non-free donor drives and forcing their specialists to spend several weeks of time primarily on this single drive.

You will have to contact other, well-known companies with a reputation, and it is possible that data recovery will be extremely expensive, considering that others have worked with the hard drive before. The true chances of recovery are close to philosophical – either success or failure, i.e., 50/50. The actual success rate is around 40-50%, but they are forced to claim 70-90% simply because they need to meet the client's expectations.

What did they quote you; this will tell us a lot.

Your drive is very complex, more-so than many other drives. So there is a price point that tells us if they know what they're doing.