Liverpool Laptop, Notebook & Netbook Data Recovery
Liverpool’s No.1 Laptop Drive Specialists — 25+ years of engineering-led recoveries
We recover data from any laptop storage (HDD, SSD, NVMe, eMMC) and any failure mode—spills, drops, “not detected,” blue-screens, BitLocker/FileVault issues, firmware faults, and more. We support all vendors and operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS) and work on forensic images only (never the original media).
Interfaces & Form Factors We Support
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HDD/SSD buses: SATA I/II/III, PATA/IDE (2.5″, 1.8″ ZIF/LIF), mSATA, micro-SATA
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NVMe/PCIe: M.2 NVMe (2230/2242/2260/2280/22110, M-key), PCIe AIC (rare on laptops via docks), U.2/U.3 (workstations)
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SATA-on-M.2: M.2 SATA (B/M key)
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On-board flash: eMMC (netbooks/Chromebooks), UFS (newer ultrabooks)
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External/bridge: USB-SATA/NVMe, Thunderbolt, FireWire (legacy), eSATA
25 Laptop Storage Brands We Commonly See (with representative models we recover)
(Representative of what arrives in the lab; not a sales ranking.)
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Seagate – BarraCuda 2.5″, FireCuda SSHD, One Touch/Expansion portable
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Western Digital (WD) – Blue 2.5″, Black 2.5″, My Passport/Elements portable
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Toshiba – MQ01/MQ04 2.5″, P300 2.5″, X300 (desktop in externals)
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Samsung – 870/860 EVO (SATA), 980/990 PRO (NVMe), T5/T7 portable
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HGST (Hitachi) – Travelstar Z5K/Z7K, Ultrastar (in externals)
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Crucial (Micron) – MX500/BX500 (SATA), P3/P5/P5 Plus (NVMe)
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SanDisk (WD) – Ultra 3D/Extreme (SATA & portable), Plus
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Kingston – A400/KC600 (SATA), NV2/KC3000 (NVMe)
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ADATA/XPG – SU800 (SATA), SX8200 Pro/S70 (NVMe)
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PNY – CS900 (SATA), CS2140/CS3140 (NVMe)
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Sabrent – Rocket (NVMe), Rocket Q/4/5
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Transcend – SSD230S (SATA), MTE220S (NVMe), StoreJet portable
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TeamGroup – GX2 (SATA), MP34/Cardea (NVMe)
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Corsair – MP510/MP600 (NVMe)
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Intel – 660p/670p (NVMe), S3520/S3710 (SATA enterprise in workstations)
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SK hynix – Gold S31/P31
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OWC – Mercury (Mac-oriented SATA/NVMe blades)
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Apple OEM – PCIe/AHCI/NVMe blade modules (MacBook/Air/Pro generations)
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Fujitsu (legacy) – MHZ/MJA 2.5″
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Maxtor (legacy Seagate) – DiamondMax (in older portables)
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LaCie (Seagate) – Rugged/d2 portable used with laptops
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G-Drive (WD) – Mobile/USB-C portable
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Lexar – NS100 (SATA), NM710/NM800 (NVMe)
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Patriot – Burst (SATA), Viper (NVMe)
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Mushkin – Source (SATA), Pilot-E (NVMe)
What We Do (Methods in Brief)
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Diagnostics & Imaging — Stabilise media; clone with PC-3000, DeepSpar, Atola using head-maps, reverse passes, adaptive timeouts.
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Electronics/Firmware — ROM transfer, donor PCB match, service-area (SA) module repair, translator rebuilds.
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Mechanical — Head-stack replacement, spindle/motor swap, platter alignment (HDD), then controlled imaging.
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Logical/Data — Rebuild GPT/MBR, NTFS($MFT), APFS snapshots, HFS+ B-trees, EXT/XFS/Btrfs superblocks; targeted carving.
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Verification — Hash manifests, priority file spot-open, secure handover.
50 Laptop-Specific Faults We Recover — and How We Fix Them
A. Physical (HDD)
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Head crash/clicking → Donor HSA swap, ROM/adaptives copy, per-head imaging with conservative ECC.
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Heads stuck (stiction) → Controlled release to ramp, immediate low-duty cloning.
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Spindle seizure/bearing lock → Platter/hub transplant to matched chassis; full clone.
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Off-track servo drift → Recalibrate adaptives, reduce seek amplitude; head-select imaging.
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Ramp damage (after drop) → Mechanical remediation, HSA replacement, staged imaging.
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Media scoring/particulate → Head isolation, short-window reads around scars; accept partials.
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Deformed top cover (impact) → Lid swap, shim/flying height calibration; clone.
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USB portable “clicks” → Bypass USB bridge to native SATA; proceed as above.
B. Electronics/Firmware (HDD)
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PCB/TVS short → Replace TVS/fuse or donor PCB + ROM; verify rails; image.
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Motor driver burn (SMOOTH/NOVA) → Donor PCB, ROM swap; controlled spin windows.
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SA module corruption/translator loss → Patch DIR/modules; rebuild translator; unlock LBA; clone.
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Firmware BSY lock → Vendor terminal unlock, clear logs; image offline.
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G-list explosion/SMART hang → Freeze reallocations during imaging; reverse passes.
C. SSD/NVMe/eMMC
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Controller no-enumerate → Vendor/test mode; if removable NAND: chip-off, ECC/XOR, FTL rebuild → LBA export.
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FTL/table corruption → Parse metadata; reconstruct L2P; mount image.
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High BER/NAND wear → LDPC/BCH soft-decode, read-retry voltage/temperature tuning, majority-vote reads.
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Power-loss during writes → Rebuild mapping journal; salvage valid pages; ignore half-programmed.
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Trim/UNMAP loss → Explain irreversibility; target non-trimmed areas, shadow copies.
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Self-encrypting SSD (OPAL/TCG) → Use user-provided keys to unlock then image plaintext; ciphertext alone unrecoverable.
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NVMe namespace faults → Rebuild namespace; vendor path to raw; export LBAs.
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On-board eMMC/UFS (netbooks) → ISP/JTAG to dump; reconstruct translation; extract partitions.
D. Cables/Bridges/Mainboard
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Loose M.2 screw/flex → Reseat, thermal pad replacement; image externally to avoid OS writes.
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USB-SATA/NVMe bridge failure (ASM/JMS) → Bridge swap or direct bus attach; preserve any bridge encryption.
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Liquid ingress (board corrosion) → DI rinse (board only), dry, replace regulators/ESD arrays; image media off-board.
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Over-current on USB port → Isolate shorted port IC, power from bench supply; image device standalone.
E. OS/Boot/Encryption
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BitLocker locked volume → Image first; decrypt with recovery key/TPM protector; rebuild NTFS.
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FileVault/APFS encryption → Image container; decrypt with password/recovery; use APFS checkpoints to restore.
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LUKS/dm-crypt → Image; decrypt with header+key; repair inner FS.
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Boot loop after update → Image; offline registry/SxS repair (Win), APFS snapshot rollback (macOS).
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EFI/MBR/GPT corruption → Signature scan; rebuild partition map; mount read-only.
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Blue/black screen (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE) → Recover data by mounting cloned image; later fix OS if requested.
F. Filesystems & User Errors
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Accidental deletion → Metadata-first (MFT/Snapshot/Journals); targeted carve for gaps.
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Quick/Full format → Restore previous FS from secondary headers; deep scan anchors.
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RAW drive prompt → Treat as metadata loss; reconstruct boot sectors/superblocks.
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Corrupt $MFT/$LogFile → Use MFT mirror/log replay; rebuild records.
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APFS spacemap/B-tree damage → Choose healthiest checkpoint; rebuild; extract.
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HFS+ catalog/extent damage → Rebuild trees; salvage forks; carve for strays.
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EXT4/XFS journal faults → Use backup superblocks;
fsck/xfs_repairon image only.
G. Thermal/Power/Environment
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Overheating NVMe throttling → Thermal control, duty-cycling reads, spread queue depth.
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Power surge/brownout → Replace TVS/regulators; clone; fix partial-write FS damage.
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Battery swell pressing SSD → Remove battery, re-seat media; image externally.
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Shock during operation → Assess heads/platter; HSA swap if needed; controlled clone.
H. Virtualisation/Containers/Apps
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VHDX/VMDK corruption → Treat as raw; repair container map; mount guest FS; export.
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Mail stores (PST/OST, Apple Mail) → Carve/repair container indices; reindex.
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Corrupt Office/ZIP → Repair central directory; partial salvage with CRC validation.
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Database (SQLite/Access/MySQL portable) → Page-level salvage; rebuild indexes; export tables.
I. Security/Malware/Forensics
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Ransomware on laptop → Image; restore from shadow/copies; decrypt with keys if feasible; preserve evidence.
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Secure erase partially executed → Recover from un-touched areas; acknowledge wiped LBAs are gone.
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Bridge-level hardware encryption (WD/SanDisk) → Retain original bridge/keys; decrypt stream during imaging.
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CCTV offloaded to laptop then overwritten → Recover unallocated tails; GOP-based H.264/H.265 carving; note overwritten data is irrecoverable.
Packaging & Send-In
Place the drive or laptop in an anti-static bag, then a small padded box or envelope with your contact details and priority folders listed. You can post it to us or drop it off in person.
Why Liverpool Data Recovery
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25+ years and thousands of successful laptop recoveries
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Multi-vendor expertise (consumer → enterprise; HDD, SSD, NVMe, eMMC)
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Advanced tooling & donor inventory to maximise yield
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Free diagnostics with clear options before work begins
Need help now? Tell us the model, symptoms, and top-priority data. We’ll get started immediately.







