4 Remarkable Data Recovery Cases of the Month—October, 2025

Every data recovery success story begins with panic. Dead drives, inaccessible data, disappearing files—these are some of the common scenarios faced by our clients. Then there are far more complex scenarios like a critical controller or firmware failure, an unrelenting ransomware attack, or a physically damaged hard drive. Regardless of the severity, though, the right expertise and infrastructure can turn things around.

Every month, we at Stellar Data Recovery assist thousands of individuals, including IT specialists, researchers, students, and photographers, as well as SMEs, government organizations, and MNCs, in recovering their data. And each recovery reveals a story of skill, accuracy, experience, and care.

In this blog, you will learn about four such cases from October 2025 and hear our relieved clients recount their stories. From ransomware attacks to corrupted data—each case is an example of how contacting Stellar Data Recovery can make all the difference.

Locked by Ransomware, Recovered by Stellar—Success Story From Pune Involving 27-Year-Old Seagate HDD

Device: 256 GB Seagate HDD

Problem Type: 27-year-old hard disk, encrypted by ransomware

Data at Stake: Family photos and videos

The Client’s Concern: Mr. Yogesh Bhagare, a Pune-based electrical engineer, believed his memories were lost forever after learning that a ransomware attack had compromised his 250 GB Seagate hard drive. He was locked out of priceless family photos and videos that he hadn’t seen in years. He didn’t dispose of the drive for many years, and recently, he got to know about Stellar’s ransomware recovery service.

Our Approach: As soon as the ransomware-affected SATA hard drive arrived at Stellar Data Recovery’s Pune lab, our engineers started a thorough examination to see what was wrong with the drive. We cloned the old drive, making a safe and functional copy. Coming across the ransomware, they found that it had essentially scrambled the files, renaming them and changing their file extensions to make them unrecognizable.

After that, our technicians used proprietary tools to work on decrypting the files and putting the fragmented file system back together. Ultimately, we managed to recover the client’s precious data from the infected drive.

Customer Review for Stellar Data Recovery Service

I am very thankful to Stellar’s team, and if there is any need in the future, Stellar is always there for everyone.

Stellar Restores Critical Data From Seagate Hard Drive With Physical and Logical Issues

Device: 1 TB 2.5” Seagate SATA HDD

Problem Type: Both physical and logical damage

Data at Stake: Work-related files

The Client’s Concern: While Mr. Vamsi’s laptop’s internal hard disk was getting detected in the File Explorer, the D: drive, holding all his work files, was out of reach. His anxiety grew as he frantically tried to access the files, but just couldn’t. Given their sensitive nature, even the thought of losing the files was terrifying. As sharing the drive with a random vendor wasn’t an option, he contacted Stellar Data Recovery, Hyderabad.

Our Approach: Upon inspection, the experts in our Hyderabad lab found that Mr. Vamsi’s Seagate SATA HDD was physically damaged. After the initial assessment, they sent the drive to our Class 100 Cleanroom lab, where it was found that the head stack assembly was basically inoperable. It was then carefully disassembled, and the damaged parts were replaced with matching donor parts.

After cloning the drive, our HDD data recovery specialists rebuilt the damaged file structure and recovered each one of Mr. Vamsi’s critical files.

Customer Review for Stellar Data Recovery Service

[Stellar] retrieved 100% of my data. I would recommend them.

Essential Real Estate Data Recovered From Severely Corrupted Portable WD Elements Hard Disk

Device: 1 TB WD Elements Portable HDD

Problem Type: External HDD not detected

Data at Stake: AutoCAD & 3ds Max files, audios, videos, photos, Excel sheets, PDFs, and Word documents

The Client’s Concern: Mr. Sagar Pahwa, a realtor, was frantic when he found that his portable WD hard disk had stopped working. The drive contained crucial paperwork, designs, and other documents. He initially tried DIY troubleshooting but took a step back after watching a video warning against using software tools.

He knew he couldn’t afford to lose any of the data critical to his work, but the stress, the uncertainty, and the fear of losing everything were all closing in. So, when he was told about Stellar’s data recovery services, he immediately contacted our head office in Gurugram.

Our Approach: Upon initial inspection, our technicians at Stellar Data Recovery – Gurugram ruled out physical damage. During imaging, they found the file system to be severely corrupted. There were a large number of logical bad blocks, and some data from the system area couldn’t be read.

After running multiple iterations to image the corrupted data and creating a near-perfect clone, we used state-of-the-art file system reconstruction techniques and attempted to identify and recover the AutoCAD, 3ds Max, and Excel files using file signatures.

It was a piece-by-piece process, but we zeroed in on the missing and damaged files in the file table. Most of the large AutoCAD, 3ds Max, and .mp4 files were highly fragmented, so we scoured the image and carefully pieced together all the related data clusters. Finally, with the help of proprietary tools, we repaired the damaged files and passed the data back to the client.

Customer Review for Stellar Data Recovery Service

I would give a big shout-out to Stellar Data Recovery. You should get in touch [with them] if you are facing the same problem. Thanks a lot to Stellar!

512 GB Toshiba Laptop SSD Failure Resolved With Successful Data Recovery

Device: 512 GB Toshiba SSD

Problem Type: Crashed laptop and SSD

Data at Stake: Important work-related files

Client’s Challenge: Mrs. Vindhya Undurti got very worried after her laptop suddenly crashed, and she lost access to crucial work-related files. Unaware of the cause, she looked for solutions online. It was there that she found out about our recovery services. She visited the Stellar Data Recovery center in Hyderabad. She was far from optimistic initially and could not shake off the thoughts of losing the data permanently.

Our Approach: As soon as we received the Toshiba SSD, we ran a complete diagnostic analysis and confirmed that the issue was a logical one.  The SSD was not getting detected in BIOS or OS, though it was physically stable.

Our safety net took the form of a block-by-block image of the drive, and we performed a controlled data recovery from the cloned copy. The expertise of our SSD data recovery specialists and our cutting-edge recovery tools made short work of rebuilding the damaged file system, fixing the damaged directory structures, and carrying out deep scans to recover the minutest of files.

Because the scope of logical damage can be difficult to assess in advance, often requiring file paths to be reconstructed and broken-up files and documents to be pieced back together, we extracted every recoverable file and confirmed it wasn’t corrupted.

Customer Review for Stellar Data Recovery Service

The entire staff, from the person who took my call to those who handled my data, was very efficient & prompt, and they explained each one of the steps. […] Thank you very much, Stellar, and I hope they continue to do the good work they are doing.

What Makes Stellar Data Recovery the Go-To Choice for Thousands Every Month?

When disaster strikes and priceless data is at stake, people turn to Stellar Data Recovery, knowing that their critical data is in experts’ hands. Whether it’s a crashed hard drive, a ransomware attack, disappearing or corrupted files, or physical damage, they are looking for reliability, experience, and unmatched success rates, which is what Stellar delivers.

With over 30 years of experience in the industry, we have earned our place as the leader in the data recovery game. With the best-of-breed tech at its disposal, including ISO-certified Class 100 Cleanroom labs, Stellar ensures that sensitive and physically damaged media is treated with the utmost care by highly skilled technicians. We keep our clients informed every step of the way, and our commitment to transparency and prompt communication ensures true peace of mind.

Conclusion

Every data recovery case ultimately serves as a reminder that, with the right skills, even the most daunting circumstances can be turned around. The customer testimonials posted on our YouTube channel highlight not just the technical proficiency but also the perseverance, accuracy, and dedication with which our engineers and technicians carry out each recovery.