• How To Convert WD USB To SATA

    by May 20, 2023

    This is another post in our Tech Series for new data recovery professionals. Modern Western Digital portable USB hard drives use an integrated USB PCB rather than a USB to SATA adapter, so it may seem obvious to attempt recovery of these drives over USB, however, it’s not recommended to attempt hard drive recovery over […]

  • Seagate Rosewood Read Channel Short Points

    by Apr 26, 2023

    At Blizzard Data Recovery, we try to help new data recovery professionals as they learn the trade. Sometimes it’s by email and sometimes by remote work, and when that’s not possible, a number of data recovery companies will outsource their cases to us. We try to publish information that is not easy to find or […]

  • What is the best flash drive?

    by Nov 16, 2022

    Data recovery customers ask me all the time: “What’s the best flash drive to get? What is the most reliable thumb drive?” They’re looking for the one perfect USB drive that will never fail, and though not all flash devices are created equal (you can bet that free goody-bag flash drive with someone’s logo printed […]

  • Seagate Rosewood Head Connector Codes

    by Aug 31, 2022

    When data recovery professionals are selecting a matching Seagate drive for parts, it’s important for them to get a good match so the heads can read and write to the drive. In a previous post, I listed some common rules for identifying a Seagate donor drive. This post is specific to the Seagate Rosewood family […]

  • How NOT to Repair a Broken USB Flash Drive

    by May 11, 2022

    I’ve written before about some things to consider before attempting “DIY” or letting a friend or computer shop fix your flash drive. We recently recovered a SanDisk Cruzer USB drive which serves as another great example of the risks that come with these attempts. One assumption many people make is that computer repair shops are […]

  • Can I fix my own flash drive?

    by Oct 20, 2021

    The single most common failure for USB flash drives is a broken USB connector. Accidents happen easily; the drive is plugged in the side of your computer and somebody bumps into it, or your toddler knocks your laptop off the table, or you forget about it and shove the laptop in your bag without taking […]

  • Hard Drive PCB Failure and ROM Swap

    by Sep 09, 2021

    At Blizzard Data Recovery, we occasionally get emails, phone calls, and comments on blog posts asking about failed hard drive PCBs (printed circuit boards). One of the most common things we hear is the user swapped the PCB with a donor PCB from an exact same model and the drive still doesn’t work. The reason […]

  • WD Portable SMR Hard Drives with MCU Encryption

    by Jun 22, 2021

    Each year, we see new hard disk drive models released and each year, we see the firmware get more complicated or the drive security increased by the manufacturer. Two of the most common portable drives we see by Western Digital are the 2TB Charger and the 4-5TB Spyglass models. Both drive families already presented specific […]

  • The Case for Flat Rate Data Recovery: A 2020 Retrospective

    by Jan 31, 2021

    Last year was our busiest year to date at Blizzard Data Recovery, with a 66% increase in data recovery cases since 2019. As I gathered up the numbers for this 2020 retrospective, I remembered a number of blog posts I’ve seen from other companies “warning” about flat rate data recovery pricing. Some people make claims […]

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