Case Study
A 24-hour deadline. A 98% recovery.
A Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Series (i7) arrived with a failing 2TB Seagate hard drive — and a Dell warranty engineer already booked to fit its replacement the next day. The data was recovered, and the drive returned to the laptop, before the appointment.
The case
A warranty repair that couldn't touch the data.
A Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Series laptop, fitted with a 2TB Seagate 2.5" hard drive, arrived with the drive failing — alongside a fix already in motion that had nothing to do with the data on it.
The customer had already raised a service request with Dell. The 2TB Seagate hard drive was well outside healthy operation, and Dell agreed to replace it under warranty — a straightforward fix for the hardware. But a warranty swap replaces the drive; it does nothing for what was on it. Dell offered a 48-hour on-site repair slot to fit the replacement.
That left a narrow window to work in. The laptop reached our lab around 24 hours before the Dell engineer was due — long enough to recover the data from the faulty Seagate drive, and then put it back exactly as it came out, so the warranty repair could go ahead on schedule.
In the lab
Recovered, then reassembled — inside the deadline.
- 01
Drive removed and assessed
The 2TB Seagate 2.5" hard drive was taken out of the Inspiron as soon as it arrived. It was carrying a significant number of bad sectors — the cause of the failure Dell was replacing it for.
- 02
Imaged around the damage
Recovery worked around the bad sectors rather than through them, reading what the media would safely give up without risking further loss on a drive already this compromised.
- 03
98% recovered in 12 hours
The bulk of the drive's data was recovered and secured well inside the 24-hour window — a compressed timeline set by the Dell appointment, not a shortcut on the recovery itself.
- 04
Faulty drive refitted
With the data safely recovered, the original Seagate drive was put back into the Inspiron exactly as it came out — leaving the laptop ready for Dell's engineer, and the warranty claim untouched.
The outcome
Warranty honoured. Data restored.
Dell's engineer carried out the on-site repair the next day and fitted the new hard drive as planned. The warranty claim went through without complication, because the drive that reached Dell was the original, unmodified faulty unit.
The customer then brought the laptop back to us with its new drive fitted, and the recovered data — 98% of the original 2TB Seagate — was copied across. Result: a new drive under warranty, and the old drive's data intact, with neither process interfering with the other.
Turnarounds this tight carry a premium over a standard recovery — see current pricing for typical timescales and costs. Most cases don't need to happen inside 24 hours, but when they do, this is what it looks like.
Warranty repairs, insurance claims, court dates — if your recovery has a fixed deadline attached, tell us the timeline as well as the fault. We'll give you a straight answer on both.