WHAT IS AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE?
Parts of an external hard drive
Types of external hard drives
We are specialists in recovering data from damaged external hard drives, with over 23.600 diagnosed cases. We want to advise you based on our extensive experience.
PROBLEMS WITH AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE?
If you're facing any of the following situations:- The computer won't start and displays a hard drive failure warning.
- The hard drive makes strange noises or runs very slowly.
- After a power surge or outage, the hard drive stops working.
- The computer was dropped and the hard drive broke.
- The computer starts but does not recognize the hard drive.
- You are unable to access saved videos, photos and/or documents.
- Any other situation not mentioned above.
We can offer external hard drive recovery.
TIPS TO AVOID DATA LOSS
Both internal and external mechanical disks offer capacity and performance at a relatively low cost. However, they contain fragile components such as reader units (heads) that can be damaged over time, through use, shock or unexpected vibrations.
To avoid further damage to the device:
Turn off the device as soon as possible. It will prevent further damage that may condition the recovery process.
Do not tamper with the device. Forcing screws, or opening it in an uncontrolled, dust-free environment can adversely affect the chances of recovery. Remember that the inner parts are very sensitive and delicate.
The use of recovery software in physical cases may permanently damage the device. Avoid using it in such cases.
Contact a data recovery laboratory. These are the professionals who have the tools and adequate training to be able to evaluate and carry out the data extraction and recovery processes.
HOW DO WE CARRY OUT THE DATA RECOVERY PROCESS
FROM EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES?
In just 1 HOUR
We arrange pickup through a courier service.
Within 4 Business Hours
After receiving the device at the lab (within 24h), we carry out a diagnosis and no-obligation quote within a maximum of 4 business hours.
Between 4 and 7 business days
This is the average recovery time, in business days, for the damaged device*
WE EXPLAIN IT TO YOU IN A VIDEO
THIS IS HOW WE RECOVER YOUR DATA STEP BY STEP
Transparency, technology, and expertise at every stage of the process. Watch the video and discover how we work.
WHY CHOOSE US? - THE ADVANTAGES
OF RECOVERING DATA WITH US
Customers
Analyzes performed
Spare parts
Experience
Free collection and delivery service (*)
Free diagnosis and quote
Real-time tracking through our intranet
If we don’t recover your data, you don’t pay
Free customer support phone line
Electronics Laboratory and Class 100 Clean Room
Qualified technical staff and ongoing training
Service with European-wide coverage
* If the device is unrecoverable or the quotation is rejected, courier charges will be charged.
HOW MUCH DOES DATA RECOVERY FROM AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE COST?
EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE DATA RECOVERY PRICES
The price to recover data from external hard drives will always depend on the damage the device has suffered, along with the working hours and technical equipment required to carry out the recovery processes.
In any case, a prior diagnosis is necessary to detect the type of failure or combination of failures. Below we detail the most common faults and the reference prices:
For logic or board faults:
- Problems accessing damaged partitions, bad sectors or surface degradation / Burned electronic boards / damaged by short circuits, incorrect voltages or burned components.
For Firmware failures:
- Internal disk SW corrupted. Damaged modules.
The prices for data recovery on mechanical hard disks are mainly determined by two factors: Damage to the mechanical hard disk components and the hours of work involved in the recovery.
At Laby we will NOT charge you a higher amount for data volume. Only because of the difficulty of access. This difficulty is also noticeable in today’s hard disks (SMR technology).
Older hard drives (approximately up to 2015) used the PMR or CMR format. The idea was simple, the reader unit was positioned in a certain area and read or wrote in a sector (a sector could be considered as a small box where information is stored). As an idea, we could say that the width of the reading needle would be equivalent to the width of a track on these discs (A track would be the equivalent of a circle on the disk where within that circle are all the boxes or sectors). Within a plate there are several tracks and these tracks in turn contain many sectors. The speed flow was constant and the module in charge of translating physical to logical information (Translator) was hardly corrupted. The modules or firmware, would be the equivalent of small independent programs, but that work together to be able to operate the mechanical hard disk.
In order to achieve more capacity in the same space, manufacturers have developed SMR technology. The tracks are smaller than the reader unit and therefore fit more data density.
However, there is a problem and that is that the reading unit or head can not be positioned in a certain sector as it could with PMR or CMR technology. It must now read a set of sectors, load it into a buffer (swap memory), modify the necessary values and write the data again (both modified and unmodified data).
It is an inefficient process, which affects the disk performance in terms of writing and also entails major firmware problems due to all the operations that have to be carried out.
This example – although there are many more – gives an idea of why there is a wide “price range” for mechanical hard disk recovery processes.
If we don't recover your data, we don't get paid
These prices are indicative, to give you a reference.
If you want to know the exact cost for you, it's best to contact us and we'll give you a free, no-obligation quote.
It's best to let OUR CUSTOMERS give their opinion about us
Our 300+ reviews are published on Google
Average rating: 4.7 out of 5
Nacho Àngel Ravell11/06/2025 He tenido muy buena experiencia con Laby Recuperació. Mi disco duro se estropeó de repente y lo llevé allí. Hicieron una comprobación gratuita y sin compromiso, y aunque el daño era bastante grave, lograron recuperar una gran parte de la información (aceptando el presupuesto). Tienen unas condiciones para la reparación muy buenas, y desde el principio, me transmitieron mucha confianza, profesionalidad y transparencia. Realmente, si ellos no lo pueden recuperar, nadie puede. ¡Muy recomendables! Josep Martorell Juvanteny06/06/2025 Molt contents de l'experiència amb el servei de recuperació de dades de Laby. Se'ns va fer mal bé un disc dur extern amb moltes fotos importants per nosaltres, i tot i que són bastants diners hem pogut recuperar les fotos que teniem al disc dur. Manuel Palomino27/05/2025 He tenido que recuperar la información de un disco duro que creía muerto y han consegjido recuperar el 100% del contenido, el cual era importante para mí. El proceso de entrega y recogida ha sido fácil y ágil y la información muy correcta y detallada en todo momento, tanto por la intranet de la empresa como por teléfono. Para mí era importante recuperar el contenido del disco. El precio cada cual tendrá que valorarlo. Te facilitan un presupuesto que puedes aceptar o no. Contento NURIA CANO PEÑALVER24/05/2025 Gracias a Laby pudimos recuperar datos muy complicados de conseguir de un nas. No teníamos apenas esperanzas, así que después de un grandisimo trabajo por parte de laby, lo consiguieron y nos salvaron la vida. Esto fue en marzo y tenía pendiente escribir esta reseña tan bien merecida para ellos. Muchas gracias a todo el equipo de Laby Eduardo Exposito13/05/2025 Encantado con el buen servicio, celeridad y trato. 100% recomendable. Elena Shifflette10/05/2025 Superb performance from Laby! They were able to get my data (including my photo library) from a dead MacBook Pro laptop when all the other services in the city that I’d tried had failed. Well worth the price. A bit out of the way (find the shop in the basement) but they returned my disc to me via messenger free of charge which made everything easy. They answered my many questions and were very patient with me. Highly professional and highly recommended. Marco Alcácera08/05/2025 Recuperación perfecta Daniel Soler Mayoral06/05/2025 100% profesionales. Muy contento con ellos! Trabajo desde hace años y es un placer. Espero seguir manteniendo este trato con ellos :)
Trust Laby, we can recover information from your external hard drive.
WHAT DEVICES CAN WE RECOVER AT LABY?
Data Recovery from Mechanical Hard
HDD disks have as main components the metal plates (disks), where the data is stored, and the heads that are responsible for accessing the information. The most common hard disk.
SSD Hard Drive Recovery
SSDs do not move, hence the name solid state. The information is stored in blocks and no headers are required to access it. It is much more efficient and faster than an HDD hard disk.
External Hard Disk Drive Recovery
External hard disks allow us to store outside the computer all the important information of which we want to make a backup copy. But one failure can cause us to lose all this data.
iPhone, iPad, iMac or MacBook
Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, iMac, MacBook, Mac Mini, etc. They are reliable, elegant, powerful and easy to use.
Laptop Hard Drive Data Recovery
On the laptop hard disk we store important work or home information. If a failure occurs, it can cause us to lose all this valuable personal data.
Data Recovery NAS, SAN and
A SAN, NAS or DAS disk is a compact enclosure consisting of several hard disks that are connected via a network cable to the system, hence the common name network hard disk.
Data recovery from RAID systems
RAID disks are a redundant group of independent disks. They can be HDD disks or SSD disks and together they form a storage system to distribute or replicate data.
Recovery of USB Flash Drives
Pen drives or USB flash drives consist of one or more memory blocks. They work in many cases like SSD devices (same Flash technology).
Memory Card Recovery
Memory cards are used to store information from devices such as cameras, cell phones or tablets. They differ in their storage capacity and read/write speed.
Ransomware or Virus Recovery
We recover data encrypted with viruses or ransomware. Ransomware is extortive software: its purpose is to prevent you from using your device until you have paid a ransom. Depending on the type of ransomware, either the entire operating system or only some files are encrypted.
Mobile and Tablet Recovery
In mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, recovery processes can be performed by analyzing the electronics of the damaged components or by performing the chip off process.

