Satisfaction client
4,9 / 5
sur 799 verified Ekomi reviews (independent operator). Over 80% of our new clients come through word of mouth.
Check on Ekomi →Data recovery — Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Lille & 3 centres across Belgium
Data recovery,
with nothing hidden.
Public pricing, a 2-minute estimate, and the list of your files before any payment. Hard drives, SSD, RAID, NAS and smartphones — collected in Belgium and analysed at our ISO 5 cleanroom laboratory in Roubaix (France). You only pay if we succeed — just €25 if recovery fails (device return fee, stated in our terms).
FlashData® by Dafotec packages are fixed and public: €300 excl. VAT for a hard drive, €400 for an SSD, €300 for a smartphone, €550/drive for a NAS and €700/drive for a RAID. Free diagnosis within 24 h. Pay on results only — just €25 if we fail.
120 000+ cases handled since 200422 ans d'expertise (2004–2026)36 intake centres across Belgium4,9/5 from 799 Ekomi reviews
★★★★★4,9/5 — 799 verified Ekomi reviews · 3× interest-free payment · ISO 27001 · GDPR
SEAD · FlashData® by Dafotec estimate● online
Your estimate in 2 minutes
Enter your media type and symptom: price, prognosis and the immediate action to take appear instantly.
Initialising the SEAD system
120 000+cases handled
22ans d'expertise
3BE centres
799Ekomi reviews
Select a media type and a symptom to run the pre-diagnosis.
Budget estimate—
3 · Generate your intake file
Enter your contact details: we generate a pre-filled PDF form and send it to our team. You will receive a reply within 24 h.
By submitting, you request a free diagnosis. No charge for the diagnosis. The package is billed only if we succeed. Failure or quote declined: €25 excl. VAT per device. Data kept strictly confidential (GDPR).
Who we serve
We work for every profile.
PME & TPEGovernment & public sectorLaw firmsExperts judiciairesDSI & services ITPhotographers & videographersLabs & researchParticuliers
All media
Our data recovery services per media type.
Each media type follows a specific intervention protocol in an ISO 5 cleanroom. Hard drive, SSD, smartphone, RAID, NAS — every medium requires dedicated expertise depending on the nature of the failure.
Is your hard drive clicking?
ISO 5 cleanroom work on internal and external hard drives — Seagate, WD, Toshiba, Hitachi, Samsung. Head stack transplant, firmware rebuild.
From €300 excl. VAT (€360 incl. VAT)
Hard drive recovery →Is your SSD no longer recognised?
Recovery on SATA, M.2 and NVMe SSDs — dead controller, corrupted firmware (SATAFIRM S11), failing NAND chip. Reverse engineering of the FTL table.
From €400 excl. VAT (€480 incl. VAT)
SSD recovery →Smartphone broken or dropped in water?
Memory extraction on iPhone and Android — photos, contacts, messages. Deoxidation, micro-soldering and processor transplant (CPU swap) when needed.
From €300 excl. VAT (€360 incl. VAT)
Smartphone recovery →RAID server or NAS inaccessible?
Virtual rebuild of RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and Synology, QNAP, Netgear NAS — without ever touching the original disks. Virtual machine extraction.
From €550 excl. VAT / drive (€660 incl. VAT)
RAID & NAS recovery →Clear & guaranteed pricing
Data recovery pricing — pay on results.
FlashData® by Dafotec pricing is public and fixed. No sales call-backs, no surprises: one package per media type, fees included, payable only on results.
| Support | Example failures | Package (if successful) | Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hard drive (HDD) | Drop, clicking noise, undetected, scratched platter | from €300 excl. VAT | Parts & labour |
| SSD & NVMe | Dead controller, corrupted firmware, NAND chip | from €400 excl. VAT | VeriFiles report |
| Smartphone | Drop, water, black screen, broken motherboard | from €300 excl. VAT | Full confidentiality |
| NAS (Synology, QNAP) | Volume down, corrupted DSM/QTS, ransomware | from €550 excl. VAT / drive | NDA on request |
| RAID serveur | Failed controller, degraded array, failed rebuild | from €700 excl. VAT / drive | 24h emergency/7j |
Prices shown exclude VAT — consumers add 20% VAT (e.g. €300 excl. = €360 incl.). Each package includes: ISO 5 cleanroom labour, spare parts and donor drives, VeriFiles report, transfer to a new encrypted drive.
Pricing compared to the market French
At equivalent technical quality — same ISO 5 cleanroom, same tools, same certifications — FlashData® by Dafotec packages are markedly more affordable. Three reasons: efficiency gained over 120,000 cases, no middlemen, and a public price list that forces us to stay competitive.
| Intervention | FlashData® by Dafotec | French market* | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple logical failure | 300–450 € | 350–600 € | −14 % to −25 % |
| Mechanical HDD failure (cleanroom) | 650–950 € | 800–2 000 € | −19 % to −53 % |
| Smartphone recovery | 300–950 € | 450–1 200 € | −21 % to −33 % |
| Synology / QNAP NAS (per drive) | 550 € | 800–1 500 € | −31 % to −63 % |
| Professional RAID (per drive) | 700 € | 1 000–2,500 € | −30 % to −72 % |
| Complex SSD (firmware, NAND) | 750–950 € | 900–1,800 € | −17 % to −47 % |
* Ranges observed at competing French laboratories in 2026 (public sources and compared quotes), at equivalent technical quality.
Guarantee: if we fail, you pay only €25. If no data is recovered or if you decline the quote, only the €25 reconditioning and return fee is due — the recovery package is never billed. In 22 years, no package has ever been billed without a successful recovery.
We show the price before touching the device, and the list of your files before billing it.— Transparency as a method, since 2004
Why FlashData® by Dafotec
A benchmark French benchmark depuis 2004.
Data recovery collected in Belgium and handled at our own certified ISO 5 cleanroom laboratory in Roubaix (France), just ~10 km from the border, with no third-party subcontracting. Our infrastructure is physically isolated from the Internet (air gapped).
22 ans
d'expertise (2004–2026)
120 000+
cases handled successfully
ISO 5
certified cleanroom
4,9/5
799 verified Ekomi reviews
ISO 5 cleanroomNorme ISO 14644-1Conforme RGPDProtected dataConforme ISO 27001Information securityFrench laboratoryRoubaix, depuis 2004
Over 80% of our clients come to us through word of mouth. FlashData® by Dafotec is regularly chosen by public bodies, scientific institutions and major French industrial groups.
Institutions sensibles & recherche
- Gendarmerie Nationale
- Centre Hospitalier de Tourcoing
- CNRS
- INSERM
- INRA
- French universities
Service public & transport
- SNCF
- RATP
- La Poste
- Conseil de l'Europe
- Bureau Veritas
- Eurotunnel
Industrie & grands groupes
- Renault
- PSA
- Alcatel
- Siemens
- IBM
- Sony
- Carrefour
- Veolia
Finance, services & private institutions
- Crédit Agricole
- Allianz
- Groupama
- Disneyland Paris
- Bonduelle
- PayPal
The process
From intake to return, in four steps.
1
Drop-off or pickup
3 centres across Belgium or on-site pickup, with nothing to pay upfront.
2
Free diagnosis 24 h
ISO 5 cleanroom analysis and a detailed technical report, free of charge.
3
Quote + VeriFiles list
Firm quote and list of recoverable files. You approve before any payment.
4
Encrypted return
Data returned on a new encrypted drive. Billed only if successful.
Proof in numbers
Average success rates over 120,000+ cases.
HDD logical failure95 %
RAID 5 — 1 dead drive95 %
HDD electronic failure88 %
SSD — firmware failure82 %
HDD mechanical failure78 %
Smartphone (drop/water)69 %
Proof in results
Real interventions, encrypted.
Symptom, intervention, result — the technical detail few laboratories publish. Here are three representative cases out of 120,000+ handled since 2004.
100% recovered
RAID 5 Dell, 3 failed drives
Symptom: power surge; the PERC H730 controller flags 3 drives as “Foreign” and refuses to mount the array.
Intervention : forensic cloning of each drive, virtual rebuild of the XOR parity without writing to the originals.
Result: 22 TB of accounting data recovered, business back up and running in under 48 h.
Cabinet comptable (38 collaborateurs), Lyon100% recovered
MacBook Pro M2, soldered T2 SSD
Symptom: stuck on the Apple logo after a macOS 14.4 update, recovery impossible.
Intervention : motherboard extraction, Secure Enclave bypass via a proprietary interface, direct reading of the NAND chips.
Result: 890 GB recovered — Lightroom photos, Final Cut projects, work documents.
Independent film-maker, Bordeaux100% recovered
NAS Synology, ransomware
Symptom: eCh0raix attack, encrypted files and 2 RAID drives in error.
Intervention : cloning of the 4 drives, rebuild of the SHR Btrfs volume, use of snapshots predating the attack.
Result: 24 TB recovered via previous-day snapshots. No ransom paid.
E-commerce SME (12 employees), LilleTestimonials
4.9/5 from 799 reviews verified.
★★★★★
The best specialist in Belgium. Price matched the quote, payment after viewing the data. All my SSD data recovered.M. Boutet — SSD failure (controller)
★★★★★
A huge thank you for recovering 100% of the data after water damage. Top-quality service, highly recommended.René Lefébure — hard drive, water damage
★★★★★
Fast, professional, attentive and supportive. Any fear of not getting my data back vanished quickly.Célia Alie — shipped from Guadeloupe
The laboratory on video
Seeing is understanding our expertise.
ISO 5 cleanroom, head transplants, RAID rebuilds, VeriFiles checks: the video shows what no photo can prove. Played muted and looped, without slowing the page.
ISO 5 cleanroom — RoubaixAnalysis under a laminar flow hoodThe laboratory in motionFrom intake to return
Video played muted and looped, without affecting loading. Turn on sound with the button at the top right.
FlashData® by Dafotec knowledge — freely available
Beyond the service: understanding data recovery.
Our expertise is documented and public. The Guide explains the method media type by media type; the Manual, going deeper, covers the anatomy of storage media, the methods and prevention. Each page links to the matching service.
The Guide — practitioner level
Data recovery guide
Methodologies, tools and success rates by media type: HDD, SSD, smartphone, RAID/NAS, USB sticks, memory cards. For IT managers, forensics and demanding individuals.
Open the Guide →The Manual — technical reference
Data recovery — the manual
73 pages, May 2026 edition, by Mhessan Kouassi. Physical foundations, diagnosis, methods, special cases, 3-2-1-1-0 prevention. Every figure sourced.
Open the Manual →They trusted us with their data
Institutions, recherche, industrie, service public.
Over 80% of our clients come through word of mouth. References cited with permission.
Gendarmerie NationaleCNRSINSERMCH TourcoingSNCFRATPLa PosteConseil de l'EuropeRenaultSiemensIBMSonyCrédit AgricoleAllianzDisneyland ParisPayPal
MK
Mhessan Kouassi
Président de FlashData® by Dafotec · expert depuis 2004
Founder of the laboratory and author of the reference technical manual (73 pages, 2026 edition). 22 years of expertise and more than 120,000 cases handled in an ISO 5 cleanroom — from mechanical hard-drive failure to post-ransomware RAID rebuilds. Every method FlashData® by Dafotec publishes comes from these interventions, sourced and verifiable.
Frequently asked questions
Specialist answers on data recovery.
Factual answers based on 22 years of laboratory work. Each answer is self-contained and complete.
Price, guarantee and turnaround
How much does data recovery cost?+
The package starts at 300 € excl. VAT (hard drive, smartphone), €400 excl. VAT for an SSD, €550 excl. VAT per drive for a NAS, €700 excl. VAT per drive for a RAID, up to €950 excl. VAT for the most complex failures. The diagnosis is free and the package is billed only if successful.
How does pay-on-results work?+
You pay the package only if FlashData® by Dafotec recovers your files. A reconditioning and return fee of 25 € per device applies in all cases. In the event of technical failure or a declined quote, this €25 is the only fee due — the recovery package is not billed. This policy has applied without exception since 2004.
Can I see my files before paying?+
Yes. Before any payment, FlashData® by Dafotec sends you, via the VeriFiles service, the full list of recoverable files from the diagnosis. You check that your important data is there, then decide whether to accept or decline the quote. The package is paid only after this approval.
How long does recovery take?+
The diagnosis is carried out sous 24 h after the device is received. Recovery then takes 2 to 5 days for a logical failure, 5 to 15 days for a mechanical failure. An emergency option allows priority handling in 24 to 48 h for businesses.
Do I need to ship my drive?+
You can drop off your device at one of our 3 centres across Belgium, ship it by carrier, or request on-site pickup for businesses. Nothing is payable upfront.
Hard drive (HDD)
What should I do if my hard drive is clicking?+
A clicking noise signals a serious mechanical failure : the read heads are damaged. Switch the drive off immediately. Every power-up makes the heads strike the platters and worsens the scratches irreversibly. Entrust the drive to an ISO 5 cleanroom laboratory — every amateur attempt reduces the chances of recovery.
Can data be recovered from a formatted hard drive?+
Yes, in most cases. Formatting does not physically erase the data: it removes the allocation table. As long as the data has not been overwritten by new files, it remains recoverable. Stop using the device immediately so as not to overwrite the files.
SSD and NVMe
Can data be recovered from a failed SSD?+
Yes, in many cases. Recovery depends on the state of the controller, the NAND chips and whether the TRIM command is active. A diagnosis is essential. Important: switch the SSD off immediately — as long as it is powered, TRIM can permanently erase deleted data.
RAID, NAS and servers
How is data recovered from a RAID 5 server?+
RAID 5 tolerates the loss of one drive. Beyond that, or if the controller fails, the volume becomes inaccessible. FlashData® by Dafotec clones each member drive sector by sector, virtually rebuilds the XOR parity and extracts the data without writing to the original disks. Never try to rebuild the RAID yourself — risk of permanent loss.
What to do after a ransomware attack on a NAS?+
Immediately isolate the NAS from the network and attempt neither a restore nor a ransom payment. FlashData® by Dafotec clones the disks in an isolated environment, rebuilds the RAID volume and the file system, then exploits the Btrfs or ZFS snapshots from before the infection — most NAS ransomware does not delete these snapshots, which contain the unencrypted versions of the files.
Confidentiality, legal proceedings, special cases
Is recovery compatible with legal proceedings or insurance claims?+
Yes. Interventions can be carried out in line with the forensic traceability : bit-for-bit imaging with no writing to the original, SHA-256 sealing hash, chain of custody documented at every step, a technical report usable in litigation. FlashData® by Dafotec regularly works at the request oflawyers and judicial officers, in accordance with the ISO/IEC 27037.
Is the confidentiality of my data guaranteed?+
Yes. Interventions comply with the RGPD and the ISO 27001. Sensitive media are handled on a network physically isolated from the Internet (air gapped). A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is available on request for professionals. Temporary copies are securely wiped after return — your data is never shared or kept.
Does FlashData® by Dafotec handle critical cyberattacks?+
Yes. FlashData® by Dafotec regularly works on ransomware-hit infrastructures, where post-incident rebuilding depends on recovering the latest state of the data. Interventions are run on air-gapped infrastructure, under NDA, compliant with ISO 27001 and GDPR. Example: intervention on the cristallerie Baccarat (cyberattaque septembre 2023), ahead of remediation led by Orange Cyberdefense.
Businesses & IT departments
Server down? A team dedicated to businesses.
A failed RAID server, a NAS encrypted by ransomware, an inaccessible database — every hour of downtime costs. FlashData® by Dafotec offers priority handling for businesses and IT departments, with a dedicated contact from diagnosis to return.
Traitement prioritaire 24-48h
Emergency option for critical media: diagnosis and recovery run around the clock, return within 24 to 48 h depending on the failure.
Contractual confidentiality
Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) on request, sensitive media handled on an air-gapped network, GDPR and ISO 27001 compliance.
RAID, NAS, virtualisation
Rebuild of RAID 0/1/5/6/10 arrays, Synology and QNAP NAS, extraction of VMware, Hyper-V and Proxmox virtual machines, SQL databases.
Business continuity
Forensic cloning with no writing to the original disks, firm quote and VeriFiles list before any commitment, return on a new encrypted drive.
Beyond the standard package
R&D, expertise judiciaire, incidents critiques.
Beyond the listed packages, FlashData® by Dafotec has handled, since 2004, cases that fall outside standard protocols: new undocumented NAND chips, media seized as part of legal proceedings, infrastructures hit by cyberattacks, sensitive data under medical, banking or industrial confidentiality.
Any unresolved problem goes to R&D
Continuous technology watch: characterising new NAND chips (TLC, QLC, PLC, stacked 3D NAND), reverse engineering recent SSD controllers (Phison, Silicon Motion, Marvell, Samsung), adapting to Apple Silicon trust chains (T2, M1 to M4), post-ransomware Btrfs and ZFS rebuilds, methods for reading partially degraded NAND cells (Read Retry, LDPC decoding).
Contexte 2025-2026 (Verizon DBIR 2025, 12,195 breaches analysed): ransomware is involved in 44% of data breaches, up +37% year on year. For SMEs specifically: 88 % of breaches involve ransomware. The median ransom paid stands at 115 000 $. 64% of victims now refuse to pay.
Lawyers, judicial officers, expert appraisals: recovery in a legal context
FlashData® by Dafotec works at the request oflawyers and judicial officers for file recovery in civil, commercial or criminal proceedings. Each case follows the forensic procedure ISO/IEC 27037 : bit-for-bit imaging with no writing to the original, SHA-256 sealing hash, chain of custody documented at every step, a technical report usable in litigation. The chain of custody is the continuous record of who accessed the device, when and for what purpose — any break can call into question the admissibility of the digital evidence.
Medical, banking, post-cyberattack data
Record case: 12 failed SSDs out of 12 in a single critical RAID server — recovery completed with full success. Ransomware cyberattack on a prestigious French crystal manufacturer (September 2023): critical intervention ahead of remediation led by Orange Cyberdefense, full recovery of critical data on a compromised RAID configuration.
All these interventions can be run under NDA, on air-gapped infrastructure, in accordance with ISO 27001 and GDPR.
Publication FlashData® by Dafotec · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Data Recovery
Anatomy of storage media, professional methods, tools, forensic expertise, prevention. No invented cases. Every figure sourced.
Édition mai 2026 — 73 pages — Mhessan Kouassi, FlashData® by Dafotec
Our technical manual, freely available
18 chapters, 3 appendices, a bibliography of 60+ verifiable sources (Verizon DBIR, Backblaze, ISO 14644, ISO/IEC 27037). Written under three rules: every percentage is sourced or labelled as an order of magnitude, no case is invented, and no unverifiable software version is cited.
Excerpt — Chapter 0: Two worlds, never to be confused
Logical recovery : the medium is physically intact. The problem is in the software — corrupted file system, deleted partition, ransomware. The raw data is almost always still there; you just need to know how to read it.
Physical recovery : hardware failure. The medium is no longer detected, or makes abnormal noises. The work requires a specialised environment: an ISO 5 cleanroom for HDDs, a micro-soldering station for SSDs. Getting the category wrong costs data.
Excerpt — Chapter 17: The 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule
3 copies · 2 different media · 1 copie hors site · +1 one immutable or air-gapped copy (that ransomware cannot delete) · +0 errors at restore time, verified by regular tests. The goal of data recovery is to never need it again.
Go deeper — all the manual's chapters online
The dedicated page contains all 73 pages with chapter navigation, dark/light mode and a progress bar.
- → Ch.9 — Physical HDD intervention: HSA transplant, platter swap, firmware rebuild
- → Ch.10 — Intervention physique SSD : reverse FTL, chip-off NAND, Spider Web
- → Ch.14 — Forensique judiciaire : ISO/IEC 27037, chaîne de custody, rapport contentieux
- → Ch.16 — Fatal pitfalls: the 7 mistakes + Code Spaces and NotPetya/Maersk case studies
- → Ch.17 — Backup strategies: the 3-2-1-1-0 rule, S3 Object Lock, air-gap
- → Client references: 120,000+ cases, sectors served, 80% word of mouth
Proof in results
They trusted us with their data.
Individuals and businesses share their experience. Reviews collected and verified by independent third-party bodies.
★★★★★ 4,9/5from 799 verified reviews
120 000+cases handled since 2004
100 %payable only on success
4,9/5
★★★★★
799 verified Ekomi reviews
“The best specialist in Belgium! Price matched the quote, payment after viewing the recoverable data. No scam, just professionals.”
★★★★★
Hard drive dropped, clicking non-stop. I'd given up hope for my family photos. FlashData® by Dafotec recovered everything in 5 days.
★★★★★
My MacBook Pro SSD died overnight. They desoldered the chip and recovered all my client data.
★★★★★
A huge thank you for recovering 100% of the data after water damage. Top-quality service.
★★★★★
RAID 5 of our accounting server down. Emergency intervention over the weekend. Professionnalisme exceptionnel.
★★★★★
NAS RAID failure — medical data. Full recovery. Confidential intervention, GDPR compliance ensured.
★★★★★
Crash Serveur RAID 5 HPE. 100% of the data recovered. Responsive, transparent team from diagnosis to return.
★★★★★
HPE server down. VMs recovered in 48 h. Dedicated contact from diagnosis to return.
Parisian hotel group · HPE VMware server
★★★★★
iPhone 15 Pro crushed by a tractor. Phone completely bent. Successful CPU swap — 100% of business data recovered.
Client Pro (Agriculteur, Normandie) · iPhone 15 Pro
★★★★★
Samsung S23 Ultra submerged for 2 h in the Mediterranean. Massive salt corrosion. Data extracted in full.
Private customer · Samsung S23 Ultra, sea water
★★★★★
Synology DS218+ NAS hit by ransomware. Files encrypted. Forensic analysis — database saved.
PME Industrielle Paris · NAS Synology, ransomware
Reviews collected and verified by independent third-party bodies — view them on eKomi and Google. Case studies anonymised for professional and institutional clients. Check our references on 02 586 31 10.
Real case studies — lab interventions
Exact symptom, intervention, measured result. Find the case that resembles your situation.
WD 2 TB hard drive, dead heads
✓ 97% recoveredSymptom: repeated clicks every 3 seconds, drive undetected after an 80 cm fall onto tiled flooring.
Intervention : HSA transplant in an ISO 5 cleanroom (donor drive with the same firmware revision), sector-by-sector cloning.
Result: 1.94 TB recovered out of 2 TB. 4 years of archives saved.
Marie D. — Photographe professionnelle, Paris
RAID 5 Dell PowerEdge, 3 failed drives
✓ 100% recoveredSymptom: power surge; the PERC H730 controller flags 3 drives as “Foreign” and refuses to mount the array.
Intervention : forensic cloning of each drive, virtual XOR rebuild without writing to the originals.
Result: 22 TB of accounting data recovered. Business back up and running in under 48 h.
Comptaform Ltd — accountancy firm (38 staff), Lyon
MacBook Pro M2, soldered SSD + T2 chip
✓ 100% recoveredSymptom: stuck on the Apple logo after a macOS 14.4 update, recovery impossible.
Intervention : Secure Enclave bypass via a proprietary DFU interface, direct reading of the Apple NAND chips.
Result: 890 GB recovered — Lightroom photos, Final Cut projects, work documents.
Thomas L. — independent film-maker, Bordeaux
NAS Synology DS920+, ransomware eCh0raix
✓ 100% recoveredSymptom: eCh0raix attack, encrypted files, 2 member drives in error.
Intervention : forensic cloning of the 4 drives, rebuild of the SHR Btrfs volume, use of the previous-day snapshots.
Result: 24 TB recovered. No ransom paid. Product database intact.
E-commerce SME (12 employees) — Lille
iPhone 15 Pro crushed by a tractor
✓ 100% recoveredSymptom: bent chassis, motherboard cracked in two, shattered screen.
Intervention : forensic micro-soldering of the motherboard, transplant of the Apple A17 Pro processor (CPU swap) onto a donor board.
Result: 100% of contacts, texts, photos and app data recovered.
Business client (farmer) — Normandy. Professional contact book saved.
DJI Mavic 3 drone microSD card
✓ 94% recoveredSymptom: drone crashed from 40 m. Monolith card not recognised, oxidised contacts, cracked resin.
Intervention : Spider Web technique — laser abrasion of the resin, micro-soldering on 28 NAND contact points, raw dump.
Result: 240 GB recovered out of 256 GB — 4 h 20 of 4K architectural survey footage.
Professional videographer — Nice. Commercial shoot saved.
Cutting-edge expertise
Extreme cases: where others abandonnent.
From a crushed smartphone to a RAID server critically down after a fire — our laboratory takes on situations deemed unrecoverable by other providers.
RAID 5 · Cabinet Comptable
RAID 5 — failed rebuild
Automatic rebuild triggered on a second failing drive. Data partially overwritten. Emergency intervention requested after the mistake.
✓ Manual rebuild — 15 years of accounts saved
NAS · Agence Architectes
NAS Synology DS1821+
8-bay SHR-2. Power surge, 3 drives fried simultaneously. Inaccessible volume.
✓ 47 TB of AutoCAD drawings recovered
Ransomware · Studio Photo Paris
QNAP TS-453D — Ransomware Deadbolt
Encryption via a QTS vulnerability. 200,000 client photos locked. Btrfs snapshots predating the infection exploited.
✓ Forensic analysis — 200,000 photos recovered
RAID 6 · veterinary clinic
Dell PowerEdge RAID 6
Failed PERC H740 controller. RAID configuration lost, 12 orphan drives. Reverse engineering of the configuration.
✓ Controller reverse engineering — patient database OK
Incendie · PME Logistique
NAS Netgear ReadyNAS 426 — Incendie
Melted enclosure, 4 drives exposed to 300°C in the rubble. PCBs destroyed. Platter transfer in the cleanroom.
✓ Platters transferred — ERP and invoices saved
Destruction Physique · Agriculteur
iPhone 15 Pro crushed by a tractor
Phone crushed by a tractor. Motherboard cracked in two. CPU swap (A17 Pro processor transplant).
✓ Successful CPU swap — 100% recovered
Choc Violent · Paris
iPhone 16 Pro Max — 4th-floor fall
Shattered on concrete. Motherboard layers separated. Repair of severed traces and direct extraction.
✓ Traces rebuilt — family photos restored
Salt corrosion · Mediterranean
Samsung S23 Ultra — submerged 2 h at sea
Multiple short circuits, fried PMIC, massive salt corrosion. Chemical deoxidation and micro-soldering.
✓ Deoxidation + PMIC — data extracted in full
Incendie Domestique · HDD
WD Red — charred drive
Recovered from the rubble. Melted enclosure, destroyed PCB. Magnetic platters intact despite the heat exposure.
✓ Platters transferred — 98% recovered
Apple security chip · PhD student
MacBook Pro T2 — dead motherboard
Soldered SSD + T2 encryption. Dead motherboard after a power surge. Secure Enclave bypass via a proprietary DFU interface.
✓ Successful T2 bypass — PhD thesis saved
Broken connector · USB
USB stick bent at 90°
Stick snapped off in the port. PCB traces torn away. NAND chip intact — direct soldering onto the memory pins.
✓ Direct NAND soldering — contract recovered
Crash + Immersion · Drone DJI
DJI Mavic 3 SD card — lake crash
Mavic 3 crashed into a lake. Corrupted microSD card, dead controller. NAND extraction and rebuild of the video sequences.
✓ NAND extraction — 4K rushes saved
Cases anonymised for professional and institutional clients. Check our references on 02 586 31 10.
Diagnostic guide
Failure types compared, with their recovery odds.
Identify your situation. Rates observed over 120,000+ cases since 2004.
| Failure type | Symptoms | Urgence | Success rate* | Fatal mistake to avoid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HDD logical failure | Drive detected but inaccessible, prompts to format | Moderate | 95 % | Formatting or running Recuva/TestDisk |
| HDD electronic failure | Drive undetected, burning smell | High | 88 % | Replacing the PCB yourself |
| HDD mechanical failure | Clicks, scratching, drive spinning but undetected | Critique | 78 % | Restarting the drive (worsens the scratches) |
| SSD — firmware failure | SSD recognised but empty, 0 capacity, bricked after an update | High | 82 % | Running a secure erase |
| Degraded RAID 5 | 1 dead drive, array in degraded mode | High | 91 % | Triggering the automatic rebuild |
| Smartphone (drop/water) | Black screen, won't power on, visible corrosion | Critique | 69 % | Putting it in rice or trying to power it on |
* Average rates over 120,000+ cases since 2004. Each case is unique: the free diagnosis allows a precise estimate.
Expert warning · Chapter 16 of the manual
Why recovery software often makes the failure worse.
Recuva, EaseUS, Disk Drill and TestDisk are designed for simple logical failures. On a physical failure, they can destroy your data for good.
On a failing mechanical HDD
Software forces the drive to perform millions of read operations. If the heads are damaged, each pass worsens the damage.
After 30 min of software on a clicking HDD, the odds can drop from 80% to under 20%.
On an SSD with TRIM enabled
SSDs use TRIM to permanently erase freed blocks. Mounting the SSD read/write can trigger irreversible erasure.
On an SSD, never mount it for writing and install no software on the same drive.
On a degraded RAID
RAID controllers can launch an automatic rebuild that writes heavily and overwrites the data on the other members.
Switch the server off immediately. Do not launch any rebuild before a diagnosis.
The seven fatal mistakes — excerpt from the technical Manual, Chapter 16
- Installing recovery software on the source medium. Installation physically writes to the medium, often in strategic locations — that is, exactly where your deleted files are.
- Recovering files onto the source medium. A variant of the previous one, and just as catastrophic.
- Leaving an SSD powered on after the incident. TRIM and garbage collection keep working. On a modern SSD, every minute counts.
- Accepting Windows automatic repair. chkdsk /f, autorepair, repeated booting on a corrupted file system: Windows actively writes, moves and deletes structures. It is the opposite of what you want.
- Opening an HDD outside a cleanroom. A single dust particle on a platter spinning at 7,200 rpm causes an immediate, irreversible head crash.
- Trying to desolder a NAND chip with a soldering iron. Without a rework station and a calibrated thermal profile, the chip is destroyed before it can be read.
- Keeping backups in the same environment as production. Modern ransomware explicitly targets accessible backups. Code Spaces vanished in 12 hours for this reason (2014).
Extrait du Technical data recovery manual — Chapter 16, Fatal pitfalls and case studies. Mhessan Kouassi, FlashData® by Dafotec, mai 2026.
- The freezer: condensation on thawing short-circuits the electronics and corrodes the platters.
- Rice for a smartphone: rice does not absorb the water inside the components.
- Replacing the PCB yourself: the firmware is specific to each drive. An identical PCB is not compatible.
- Opening the drive outside a cleanroom: a single dust particle on a platter causes a permanent scratch.
The golden rule: the less you intervene, the better the chances of recovering your data. Switch the device off and entrust it to a laboratory.
Hardware coverage
Brands and manufacturers we support.
HDD hard drives
SSD & NVMe
Serveurs, NAS & RAID
Smartphones & tablettes
Ordinateurs portables & Mac
Summary
The essentials, in brief.
A factual summary for readers in a hurry, voice assistants and generative search engines.
Who is FlashData® by Dafotec?
A French laboratory founded in 2004 in Roubaix, ISO 5 cleanroom, 3 centres across Belgium. More than 120,000 cases handled.
How much does recovery cost?
€300 excl. VAT (HDD/smartphone), €400 (SSD), €550/drive (NAS), €700/drive (RAID). Up to €950 for complex failures.
What is the guarantee?
Free diagnosis within 24 h. Package billed only on results. Just €25 if we fail.
Can you see your files before paying?
Yes. VeriFiles service: the full list of recoverable files is reviewed before any payment.
Clicking hard drive — what to do?
Switch off immediately. The clicking indicates a mechanical head failure; each power-up worsens the scratches.
Device dropped in water?
Never power it back on. Do not put it in rice. Send it to a laboratory within 48 h: oxidation starts instantly.
RAID server down?
Never launch the automatic rebuild. Switch the server off and have a diagnosis carried out.
Lawyers & bailiffs: does FlashData® by Dafotec assist?
Yes. Forensic procedure compliant with ISO/IEC 27037: bit-for-bit imaging, SHA-256 hashing, documented chain of custody.
Does FlashData® by Dafotec carry out R&D?
Yes. Active research on new NAND, SSD controllers, Apple Silicon, post-ransomware Btrfs/ZFS, Read Retry and LDPC decoding.
Belgium coverage
Our 3 intake centres across Belgium.
The ISO 5 cleanroom laboratory is unique and located in Roubaix (France). The 3 cities below are drop-off centres in Belgium; you can also ship by carrier (bpost or other) or, for businesses, request a UPS pickup anywhere in Belgium.
1 ISO 5 laboratory (Roubaix)3 drop-off centres in BelgiumPickup anywhere in BelgiumLab Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri · 9am-1pm / 2pm-6pm
CharleroiQuatrième Rue 33, 6040 Jumet (Charleroi)Drop-off centreLiègeDrop-off centre — LiègeNamurDrop-off centre — NamurBrusselsService area — Brussels
The ISO 5 laboratory in Roubaix handles all Belgian cases. See all our centres in Belgium →
Every hour counts
Ne prenez aucun risque with your data.
Clicking hard drive, unrecognised SSD, inaccessible NAS — every amateur repair attempt reduces your chances. Switch the device off and entrust it to our laboratory for a free diagnosis within 24 h.
Free diagnosis, no obligation. Terms & privacy policy