Hamilton, ON · Canada-Wide Mail-In
Failed hard drive, corrupted SSD, dead phone or accidental deletion — every case starts with a free evaluation and a flat quote before any work begins. No Data, No Charge.
What We Recover
Failed, corrupted, or clicking mechanical and solid-state drives.
Including encrypted or liquid-damaged logic boards.
Even if the screen is dead or the device won't power on.
Broken connectors, unrecognized, or corrupted flash storage.
Camera cards, dashcam footage, drone media — all recovered.
Multi-drive arrays, failed servers, business-critical data.
Advanced chip-off recovery even for severely damaged media.
Wallet.dat files, hardware wallets, and corrupted wallet drives.
Find your failure
Most people arrive describing a noise or a message rather than a diagnosis. Here are the failures we see most often in Hamilton, what each one usually points to, and how we approach it.
Repeated clicking usually means the read/write heads can no longer find their position on the platters — often a head crash or a seized motor. This is mechanical, not software, and every extra power-on risks scraping the platter surface that holds your files.
What we do: Heads are replaced with matched donor parts where needed, then the drive is imaged sector by sector onto healthy media before anything is read from it.
The drive powers on, maybe even sounds normal, but the computer never mounts it. Most often this is a failed USB bridge board, a damaged connector, or a corrupted partition table rather than dead platters — which is good news, because the data itself is usually intact.
What we do: We test the enclosure and the drive separately, bypass a dead bridge board directly, and rebuild the partition or file system from the raw image instead of the failing original.
SSDs tend to fail suddenly and completely — the controller drops offline and the drive vanishes from BIOS, or it appears at the wrong capacity. The memory chips themselves are often still readable even when the controller is gone.
What we do: Controller-level and chip-off recovery: we read the NAND directly where the controller has failed, then reassemble the data from the raw flash.
Photos and messages usually survive a drop, a spill or a dead screen. The obstacle is the board, not the storage — a shorted power line or a damaged display connector stops you reaching data that is still there.
What we do: This is the same micro-soldering work we do for board-level repair: revive the board far enough to boot, or move the storage to working hardware. Our MacBook and phone repair bench and the recovery lab are the same bench.
"The disk is not formatted" on a camera card, dashcam card or USB stick normally points to a failed controller or worn flash cells, not lost files. Formatting it, as the prompt suggests, is what actually destroys them.
What we do: Don't format it. We read the flash directly — including chip-off for snapped USB sticks and cards — and carve out photos and video by file signature when the file system is gone.
One disk failing is survivable; a rebuild started on an array with a second weak disk is where businesses lose everything. Consumer NAS boxes will happily rebuild onto a failing member and overwrite good parity as they go.
What we do: Stop the rebuild and call us. Every member is imaged individually first, then the array is reconstructed virtually — parameters and order worked out from the images, never by writing to your original disks.
Not sure which one you're looking at? That's what the free evaluation is for — call (289) 489-2513 and describe what it's doing.
Why Choose REVIVE
We perform chip-off and component-level recovery for everything from dropped external drives to failed server RAID arrays — with clear communication and complete privacy at every step.
⚠️ Critical Warning
Continuing to power on a failed drive or device can permanently overwrite recoverable data. The sooner you contact us, the higher your recovery chances.
📞 Call now — (289) 489-2513Not local? Ship your device → Mail-in RepairHow It Works
From a clicking hard drive to an SSD that isn't recognized or a phone that won't power on, every recovery follows the same clear, no-surprises path.
Bring in or mail your device. We diagnose the failure — mechanical, electronic or logical — and identify exactly what's recoverable.
You get a firm, flat price before any work begins. No hidden fees, no pressure — and if we can't recover your data, you pay nothing.
Our technicians perform the recovery — including chip-off and component-level work for severely damaged drives, SSDs, phones and memory cards.
We confirm your recovered files, then return them on fresh media or a secure link — with your original device, handled with complete privacy.
Common Questions
Starting from $99 — exact price is determined after your evaluation based on device type and damage severity. If we can't recover your data, you pay nothing.
Often, yes. A drive that is silent or not detected has usually lost its electronics or its heads, not the platters that hold your data. We diagnose which it is during the free evaluation, and tell you honestly if the platters themselves are damaged beyond reading.
Yes, provided you can supply the password, recovery key or account that unlocks it — bring it with the device. Encryption is doing its job: without the key, the data cannot be decrypted by us or anyone else, so that key is the one thing we cannot work around.
Yes. We diagnose the failure and tell you what is recoverable and what it will cost before you commit to anything. If you decide not to go ahead, there is no charge for the evaluation, and if you do go ahead but we cannot recover your data, there is no charge either.
Either works. If you are comfortable removing the drive, bring just the drive. If not, bring the whole machine — laptop, desktop, external enclosure or phone — and we will take it from there. For anything outside the GTHA, our mail-in service covers all of Canada.
Recovery time varies with the type of device and the severity of the failure — every case is different. Contact us about your situation for an accurate timeline, and we keep you updated throughout the entire process.
Absolutely. Your device and your data are handled with strict confidentiality at every stage of the recovery process. 100% privacy guaranteed, every time.
Stop immediately. Continuing to power on a failing drive or device can permanently overwrite recoverable data. Shut it down and contact us as soon as possible.
Yes — deleted, formatted, or accidentally overwritten files can often be recovered, provided the storage media hasn't been written over extensively after the deletion.
Get Started Today
Book online or give us a call — our technicians will assess your device and give you a clear, honest quote with no obligation.
Email us
We usually reply within the day.