Will Ascenzo
Will is the lead blogger, copywriter, and copy editor for Gillware Data Recovery and Digital Forensics, and a staunch advocate against the abuse of innocent semicolons.
Samsung Spinpoint with Accidental Reformat
In this data recovery case, our client came to us with a logical matter. The client had a Samsung external hard drive formatted for use in their PC. When they had plugged it into their Mac, they accidentally allowed the Mac to reformat…
Seagate Barracuda with Motor Failure
In this data recovery case, the client’s drive had multiple failure points. However, the primary reason this Seagate desktop hard drive was not detected was because the hard drive spindle motor had seized. The hard drive spindle motor is responsible for spinning…
RAID-5 Server Recovery Case Study: Corrosive Fluid Damage
The client in this peculiar RAID-5 server recovery case had pulled three 72-gigabyte SCSI hard drives (two Fujitsu, and one Maxtor) from their RAID-5 server. Some kind of fluid had been dumped on the server box containing the client’s drives. At first,…
Samsung Spinpoint HD204UI with Failed PCB
Data recovery involving a failed hard drive PCB used to be simple many years ago, when hard drives had simpler and less sophisticated designs. There was a time when any two hard drives made by the same manufacturer, with the…
ZTE N9132 “Prestige” Prepaid Boost Mobile Chip Off
In this post, we’re taking a trip away from the Gillware Data Recovery lab and over to the Gillware Digital Forensics lab. This case is an example of the kind of work our newly formed branch does for law enforcement agencies…
Deleted ThawSpace Partitions with Faronics Deep Freeze
What is a ThawSpace? The Faronics Deep Freeze software takes a snapshot of the user’s machine, “freezing” it at that point in time. Every time the machine is rebooted, it reverts to its frozen state—none of the changes to the disk…
Hard Drive Firmware Data Recovery Case Study: Seagate ST3750528AS
Hard Drive Firmware is the operating system of the hard drive. It is the first thing on the drive’s platters the magnetic read/write heads try to read when the drive is powered on and spins up. If the read/write heads…
Hitachi Deskstar with Platter Damage
When a hard drive starts making unusual clicking noises, it is because the drive’s magnetic read/write heads have run into a problem while attempting to read data from its platters. Although this can happen for a few reasons, in many data…
Western Digital WD5000LPVX-75V0TT0 Laptop Hard Drive Failed to Boot
Windows Error leaves user unable to access their data Recovery Type: LaptopDrive Capacity: 500GBManufacturer: Western DigitalModel Name: BlueModel Number: WD5000LPVX-75V0TT0Operating System: WindowsMain Symptom: Windows ErrorType of Data: Homeschooling program filesData Recovery Grade: 9Binary Read: 100% For many people, there are few things in the world more terrifying than…