Custom-Built & DIY Desktop PC Data Recovery — Gaming Rigs, Home Servers & Workstations
Last Updated:
Lost data? Stop using the device and act now — early action is the biggest factor in successful recovery.
✔ Free file list before you pay · ✔ Free phone assessment · ✔ ISO-5 Class 100 clean room · ✔ 20+ years experience
Custom-built PCs — whether a high-end gaming rig, a home NAS server, a photography workstation, or a home theatre PC — contain some of the most diverse and complex storage configurations we recover from. Unlike OEM desktops, custom builds can combine any mix of consumer and prosumer hardware: multiple NVMe drives, SATA SSDs, large HDD arrays, software RAID, hardware RAID cards, and enthusiast-grade storage controllers. The Original PC Doctor recovers from all custom PC configurations, regardless of component brands, motherboard, form factor, or operating system.
Emergency: 1300 723 628 — Free phone assessment, 24/7
Custom PC Storage Configurations We Recover From
Gaming Rig Data Recovery
Gaming custom builds present specific recovery scenarios:
- NVMe failure during a game or update — game launchers (Steam, Epic, Battlenet) write frequently to NVMe drives. A sudden NVMe failure during a launcher update can corrupt game data and personal files simultaneously.
- Secondary HDD failure (game library) — large capacity HDDs used for game storage fail silently over time. First symptom is often games crashing or save files becoming corrupted.
- BSOD / kernel panic after overclocking memory — aggressive XMP profiles can cause file system corruption if the system crashes mid-write. Usually logical recovery, not physical.
- DIY RAID build collapsed — home-built RAID arrays in gaming or home server rigs frequently use the wrong RAID level for the use case. RAID 0 stripe collapse means 100% data loss from a single drive — we can still recover if both drives are intact.
Home Server & NAS Build Recovery
DIY home servers running TrueNAS, Unraid, Proxmox or Ubuntu with large drive arrays are a significant proportion of our complex recoveries:
- TrueNAS / FreeNAS ZFS pool DEGRADED or FAULTED — ZFS is resilient but not immune. RAIDZ2 survives two simultaneous drive failures; RAIDZ does not. We reconstruct ZFS pools from imaged vdev members.
- Unraid parity drive replacement went wrong — replacing the parity drive in Unraid requires careful procedure. A wrong disk order or cancelled rebuild can corrupt the array. All drives must be imaged before any further Unraid operations.
- Proxmox VM data loss — virtual machine disk images (QCOW2, raw) on a failed data store. We recover the VM disk image files and can optionally mount them to extract specific guest OS files.
- Home server RAID 5 with 3+ drive failure — RAID 5 tolerates one drive failure. Two simultaneous failures require partial reconstruction and file carving — lower success rate but often partial recovery is still extremely valuable.
Photography & Creative Workstation Recovery
- Lightroom catalogue on failed NVMe — Adobe Lightroom catalogues stored on the primary NVMe are recoverable. The LR catalogue (.lrcat) is a SQLite database — we recover both the file and its integrity.
- Premiere Pro / DaVinci project drive failure — video project drives with RAW footage, proxies and exports. Large files — we prioritise by file type and creation date.
- Photography workflow drive (multi-TB) — photographers often use large single HDD or RAID arrays for photo archive. We recover RAW, JPEG, TIFF and DNG files from all camera brands.
Our Recovery Process
- Free phone assessment — call 1300 723 628. Describe your build configuration and we’ll plan the recovery approach.
- Drive intake — Ringwood VIC drop-off, Australia-wide courier, or onsite collection.
- File list and fixed quote — complete recoverable file list before you pay.
- Secure delivery — data on new encrypted media, cloud transfer, or hard drive.
Free Resources
Independent, non-commercial references:
Get your data back — free file list, free phone assessment. Talk to a specialist today.
✔ Free file list before you pay · ✔ Free phone assessment · ✔ ISO-5 Class 100 clean room · ✔ 20+ years experience
FAQs — Custom PC Recovery
Can you recover from a custom PC with multiple NVMe drives?
Yes. Each NVMe drive is imaged and recovered individually. If they were configured as a Windows Storage Space or software RAID, we reconstruct the virtual volume from the member drive images.
My TrueNAS ZFS pool shows DEGRADED — what should I do?
Power down the server and do not attempt a resilver (rebuild) until you’ve spoken to us. A DEGRADED ZFS pool is recoverable in most cases. A failed resilver on already-stressed drives can collapse the pool entirely. Call us first.
Can you recover from Windows Storage Spaces?
Yes. We recover from Storage Spaces Simple (striped), Mirror, and Parity configurations on Windows 8, 10 and 11. We reconstruct the Storage Space metadata and virtual disk from the member physical drives.
How much does custom PC data recovery cost?
Single NVMe logical: $300–$800. Single NVMe physical: $800–$2,500. Multi-drive RAID/Storage Spaces: from $800 for 2-drive configs, up to $4,000+ for complex 6+ drive arrays. Free assessment and fixed quote.
My gaming rig RAID 0 array collapsed — is ANY data recoverable?
Possibly yes. RAID 0 means both drives are required. If both drives are physically intact, we can image them both and virtually reconstruct the stripe. If one drive has physical damage, partial recovery of files from the intact drive is sometimes possible depending on which stripe blocks that drive holds.
📞 Call 1300 723 628 for a free desktop PC recovery assessment — or book online now.
← Back to Desktop & PC Data Recovery
