Time Capsule is a single-disc NAS of the initial level, combined with a wireless router, AirPort Extreme, and released under the Apple brand from 2008 to 2018. This device allows wireless backup and protects data stored on a desktop computer, laptop, or iPhone. 

It supports the Time Machine program in Mac OS X, so a few mouse clicks are sufficient to configure automatic wireless backup from all Mac home computers to a single Time Capsule device.

Recently, our team received a server-grade HDD recovery request in an Apple Time Capsule. The client informed our customer services that the Time Capsule stopped showing in the main folder, and all the backup files were lost.

After consulting with us, the customer decided to proceed with an emergency recovery solution. This data retrieval option is for those who need their vital documents as soon as possible. The emergency data recovery process takes 8-48 hours to fully extract all the lost files.

Apple Time Capsule Recovery

Server-grade hard drives are more resistant to physical failure than regular HDDs. For the most part, we are dealing with logical malfunctions, which can be caused by several causes, including power surges or sudden shutdowns, temperature changes, etc. Often, the operating system stops working, or file system corruption occurs. Although controllers are designed from the outset with some margin of safety, in most cases, this is not enough to prevent system failure.

After receiving the Time Capsule, our data recovery engineers started an evaluation. They noticed that the FDISK function worked improperly, which could be a sign of bad sectors.

There are two types of bad sectors – some result from physical damage to the disk and hardly can be repaired, and others result from software errors and can be improved. In our client’s case, bad sectors occurred due to software errors.

The operating system tried to read data from a bad sector and received an adjustment error code that did not match the contents of the sector. It meant that something went wrong. Such sectors were marked as bad, so OS no longer used them to store information.

Server-grade HDD File System Restoration

The hard drive of a working server-grade hard disk is consistently formatted with the NTFS or FAT file system. If one of the HDD partitions starts to work incorrectly, an entry appears in the properties of the disk about converting its format to RAW.

The standard file system was corrupted and needed to be repaired. We find out about such damage as follows. The latter does not open when accessing the disk, and a message with a need for formatting appears.

This Message Usually Means:

  • Writing invalid or corrupted data to the disk boot sector. 
  • The structure of the used file system is destroyed.
  • There is no access to the contents of the hard drive.

Our engineers could restore all the files from the RAW format by running encrypting commands.

After recovering all the data, they transferred it to the same server-grade hard disk. The new HDD was installed on the Time Capsule, and we could access all the vital photos. 

We performed a verification session with the customer, and he approved all the restored files. Our customer was very satisfied with the results, as not many engineers are able to work with such complicated cases. 

If you face a failure of storage devices or accidentally deleted your photos, feel free to contact PITS Global Data Recovery Services at (888) 611-0737. Our dedicated customer service will guide you through our data retrieval solutions and help you select the best option for your particular case.