Helium hard drive data recovery is no laughing matter

Recently, a Seagate IronWolf Pro ST12000NE0008 12TB helium-filled hard drive arrived at our office for data recovery. This drive had suffered severe mechanical issues after being dropped and traveled halfway across the globe to reach us.

Upon initial diagnostics, it became apparent that the situation was dire. The hard drive platters were wobbling, the motor was stuck, and the read/write heads were completely deformed.

(picture: deformed heads from the drive)

(video: wobbling platters in the drive)

To restore the functionality of this helium-filled hard drive, we had to swap out all eight platters to a donor casing, ensuring they were stable and properly aligned. Next, a new head stack assembly with sixteen fresh heads was mounted from a donor drive, and a new firmware head map was created.

Finally, the newly assembled drive could be cloned…

(video: cloning the drive on PC3000)

If you need data recovery from a helium-filled disk or any other data storage device, please contact us at office@helpdisc.rs or office@hddsurgery.com.

HelpDisc D.O.O.