HDDSurgery data recovery from Western Digital and Hitachi helium-filled hard drives

   We are pleased to announce that HDDSurgery, in collaboration with its sister company HelpDisc, has developed a solution for data recovery from Western Digital and Hitachi helium-filled hard drives.

At HDDSurgery, we have a complete solution for recovering data from physically damaged helium-filled hard drives. We can perform head swaps, platter swaps, and resolve firmware problems on all of the above-mentioned drives.

Our solution includes head replacement, helium injection, and head map during the cloning process. (picture 1)

(Picture 1: Heads from a Western Digital helium-filled hard drive secured using the HDDSurgery WDC & HGST 3.5" Helium P7 Ramp Set. Left – damaged patient heads; right – good donor heads)

   Helium-filled hard drives are now standard for high-capacity enterprise storage. Western Digital and Hitachi Ultrastar models (HUH series and others) offer capacities of 10TB, 12TB, 14TB, 16TB, 18TB and beyond. By filling the drive with helium instead of air, internal friction is reduced, allowing more platters, lower temperatures, higher efficiency, and improved stability.

Once opened, helium escapes from the sealed environment. Operating these drives in normal air changes internal dynamics and makes cloning extremely risky. Our lab uses specialized methods to maintain stable internal conditions throughout the entire imaging process. (picture 2)

(Picture 2: HGST HUH721010ALE600 helium drive cloning after a head swap)

   Our expertise allows us to handle fully dead drives that are not recognized by the system, drives with repeated clicking, complete head failures, translator corruption, or firmware-level damage.

We want to emphasize that changing heads (HDDS WDC & HGST 3.5" Helium P7 Ramp Set) and helium replacement are only 30% of the work needed to recover data.

   If your helium-filled drive has failed, avoid repeated power-on attempts or software-based recovery, as they can make the damage worse. Contact HDDSurgery or HelpDisc for a professional evaluation.