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Drive Rescue offers a complete data recovery service for Verbatim 2.5” (500GB, 750GB, 1TB, 1.5TB, 2TB, 3TB and 4TB) external hard drives. Verbatim Store N Go (USB 2.0/ 3.0/3.1) models we’ve successfully recovered from include:

• 53008 500GB
• 53029 500GB
• 53048 500GB
• 53022 750GB
• 53023 1TB
• 53036 1TB
• 53071 1TB
• 53414 1.5TB
• 53197 1TB
• 53218 1.5TB
• 53401 1TB
• 53177 2TB
• 53195 2TB
  

Verbatim Store N Save models we’ve recovered from include:

• 47683 2TB
• 47684 3TB
• 97580 2TB
• 97581 3TB
• 99399 4TB

Verbatim Mini SSD we’ve recovered from include:

• Verbatim Store N Go Mini (models 53236 and 53237)
• Verbatim VX500 (47441 and 47443)
• Verbatim vi550 (USB 3.1)

What are the signs that my Verbatim external drive has failed?

• Your Verbatim disk is making a clicking, knocking, chirping, rattling or ticking sound.

• Your Verbatim disk appears as “unformatted” or “unavailable” in Windows.

• Your disk appears as “unallocated” or “raw” in Windows Disk Management.

• Your disk is generating a “Location is not available, I/O device” error message.

• Your 1TB or 2TB Verbatim is making a whirring noise but cannot be seen by Windows or Mac.

• Your Verbatim disk generates a “Parameter is incorrect” or a “cyclic redundancy check” error message when connected to a Windows 10 system.

• A “fatal device hardware” error message appears when you connect your Verbatim portable SSD to a Windows system.

• Your Verbatim disk does not appear in Finder or macOS is reporting that it “could not mount Verbatim HD”
  

• When you try to run Disk Utility to repair your Verbatim disk, MacOS reports that it “it can’t repair the disk Verbatim HD”
  

• Your Verbatim disk appears totally dead and unresponsive. It is not spinning when connected to a computer.

Why do Verbatim External Drives fail?

Like any brand of external hard drive, Verbatim external drives can fail for a number of reasons. These include:

Firmware failure - Your disk’s firmware may have gone corrupt. Firmware acts as the intermediary between the disk and your computer. It is the code which acts as the operating instructions for your disk. Typically, the firmware modules are stored on the ROM chip on the disk’s PCB or in the System Area of the disk platters. When the disk’s firmware cannot be read or if it goes corrupt, your Verbatim disk will become unreadable. Firmware contains servo-data which means it helps position the disk-heads on the correct disk tracks. It also runs an Error Correcting Code (ECC) inside your disk which plays a crucial role in keeping your data free from corruption.

Electronics failure - The electronics on your Verbatim portable disk might have been damaged due to an over-voltage event such as a power surge. This can happen, when, for instance, the USB 2.0/3.0/3.1 port on the host device such as computer, smart TV or network video recorder supplies your disk with too much power causing a power surge inside your disk. This can sometimes damage the Transient Voltage Suppression diodes on your disk’s PCB. There are usually two of these diodes - one is used for protecting the 5V rail and the other for protecting the 12V rail. A power surge can also result in damage to your disk’s controller (MCU) or its pre-amplifier chip.

Logical failure - Early models of Verbatim external Store N Go disks (such as the 53029 and 53071) were factory formatted with FAT32 as default. Whereas, later models such as the 53194 and 53177 are formatted with NTFS as default. Many users custom format their Verbatim disk using HFS+ (Apple) or exFAT. However, no matter what partition type you use, disk partition tables can go corrupt resulting in inaccessible data. We can repair your disk’s partition and recover your data.

Physical (Mechanical) failure - Typical mechanical failure of Verbatim external disks usually occurs when the spindle motor fails, the fluid-dynamic bearing (FDB) mechanism fails or when the head-disk assembly gets damaged. Mechanical failure of the disk-head assembly or spindle motor can happen during normal usage of your disk. But more commonly, disk-head or spindle failure occurs when your Verbatim disk gets accidentally dropped. This sort of event can happen to even the most careful and fastidious of users!

A 1TB Verbatim disk with a seized spindle motor - 100% recovery of the user’s data.

What is the best data recovery software to rescue data off my Verbatim external hard drive?

There is a plethora of so-called data recovery applications available to buy online. However, if you read the small print, most of these applications are designed to recover accidentally deleted files or to perform data recovery on accidentally formatted disks. These applications are not designed to recover data from disks which have physically failed, disks which have extensive bad sectors or disks which have serious firmware issues. In fact, running data recovery software on your failing or damaged Verbatim external hard disk is akin to torture for your drive. This is because most of these “recovery” applications over-stress your disk-heads, sometimes precipitating total disk-head failure while substantially lowering your chances of a successful recovery.

I’ve tried using EaseUS data recovery software to recover my Verbatim external drive, but it can’t seem to find any of my files?

Your drive probably has underlying issues with its firmware, partition table, sectors or disk-heads. A professional and trusted data recovery company should be able to diagnose the exact problem and recover your files.

I’m trying to copy my documents and photos off my Verbatim external drive but the disk keeps on freezing my computer?

Windows and Mac operating systems are not designed to read from faulty disks. Drive Rescue uses advanced data recovery equipment and tools as used by police forces and forensic laboratories across the world. These sophisticated and powerful tools, used in conjunction with our years of experience, means that in most cases ,we’ll be able to recover your documents and photos from your failed Verbatim disk.

I’ve spilt water on my Verbatim 53036 1TB disk and now it’s no longer turning on?

It’s likely that water ingress has damaged your disk’s PCB (printed circuit board). The worst-case scenario is that the highly sensitive pre-amplifier chip on the disk-head assembly has been damaged. This can sometimes happen if your Verbatim disk was powered on at the time of the spillage. Fortunately, in both cases, your Verbatim disk can be repaired and your data recovered.

The NTFS partition table of my Verbatim disk now appears as “unallocated” or “uninitialized” in Windows Disk Management. Can a “partition repair tool” fix it?

Most disk partition repair tools do more harm than good. We understand that you’re anxious to get your data back. But modifying or attempting to repair your disk’s NTFS or HFS+ partitions is a high-risk operation and should only ever be performed if you have a complete backup of your disk.

I’ve accidentally dropped my Verbatim disk. It worked for a while after but now I can’t access any of my files?

A disk will sometimes continue to operate even after a fall. This is because damaged disk-heads can still read some of the disk’s tracks. However, with continued use of the disk, which might be damaged internally, further damage may be incurred. This is because damaged heads can have a scouring effect on the disk platters.

What type of internal disks are used by Verbatim?

Verbatim usually use Toshiba or Samsung 2.5” S-ATA disks inside their disk enclosures. These are generally reliable disks. Disk capacities used by Verbatim typically include disks of 320GB, 500GB, 750GB, 1TB, 2TB,3 TB and 4TB capacities.

I accidentally dropped my Verbatim external drive containing over 10 years’ worth of photos. Now, it’s making a ticking noise as if it’s trying to start up. What could be the problem here?

This sounds like a seized spindle motor or an issue with the disk-heads. This type of problem is not amenable to DIY data recovery solutions and needs the attention of a professional and trusted data recovery provider.

A Verbatim 1TB external hard drive with a failed disk-head #3. Notice how this head can’t read the outer tracks of the disk and then when reading the middle tracks, the performance rapidly degrades. In this case, re-mapping the disk-heads enabled a fully successfully recovery.

I’ve accidentally formatted my Verbatim disk. Is it possible to recover my photos?

In most cases, the data on an accidentally formatted Verbatim HDD can be recovered. However, it is likely a small percentage of your recovered files will be corrupt. This is because .JPEG files hold a lot of metadata which is important for the integrity of the images.

I’ve ran some diagnostic software on my Verbatim disk and it reports an “uncorrectable sector count” of over 1000 sectors. Can you recover data off this?

Yes, in most cases, our advanced data recovery equipment can read-around these bad sectors whilst recovering your important data. This means you can be re-united with your photos again.

I encrypted my disk with VeraCrypt but recently the disk has failed mechanically. Can you recover data off an encrypted Verbatim disk?

The data recovery process for encrypted disks is similar to the one used for unencrypted disks. The major difference being, that encrypted disks usually have a modified bootloader and need authentication with a valid passcode to access the data. Drive Rescue use very well-defined and honed processes for recovering data from disks encrypted with applications such as VeraCrypt, BitLocker, Sophos Safeguard and Symantec Endpoint.

Other Verbatim disks we recover from include models 47628, 47512 (1TB external hard drive) 47441 and 47513 (1.5TB USB external hard drive)