Data Recovery estimates

[imported_manchild]

I am currently in the unfortunate situation of shopping around for hard drive data recovery services for the first time. My hard drive has died and no longer even spins which I have been told will likely require that it be disassembled for recovery. This, of course, is very expensive and could be incredibly expensive based on a diagnosis. The ranges of expenses I have received are from $500 - $2,000 so I'd love to have more info from members to know what to expect.

I'm looking for is two things:
1) recomendations of services to use from anyone that has had to do such a recovery and had a positive experience.
2) posts of people's total costs with any notes on what sort of failure or remedy was involved. Include info about the drive if you can.

 

[Geomagick]

I remember an article in PCFormat (UK mag) a few months back about data recovery and the company they looked at was able to acheive pretty much a full recovery after the magazine staff had totally brutalised the disk including setting fire to it, I'll try and dig out the article for you and let you know who they were. I realise that they are UK based but I would have thought they might be able to recommend a company in the sates to help you, if not fedex the drive over to them. I'll get back to you in a couple hours.

 

[imported_manchild]

I just shipped my drive off to ActionFront http://www.actionfront.com/
My drive was still under warranty so I submitted an RMA request with Western Digital, then I found out that if my drive had to be opened or otherwise altered in the data recovery process that would void the warranty unless it was done by a select few vendors listed on their website. I had originally chosen DriveCrash.com for their no estimate fee and friendly service but I would have to pay for my replacement drive if I did.

Here's the list of Western Digital approved data recovery vendors:

ActionFront Data Recovery Labs
www.actionfront.com

Data Mechanix
www.datamechanix.com

DriveSavers
www.drivesavers.com

ESS Data Recovery
www.essdatarecovery.com

Ontrack Data Recovery Services
www.ontrack.com

Reynolds Data Recovery
www.data-recovery.com

Vogon International
www.vogon.us

 

[imported_manchild]

Something I just thought of while writing that last post. I chose to use a potentially more expensive data recovery service in order to keep my warranty valid so I don't have to pay for my replacement hard drive. Not real smart since I can buy a new one on newegg.com right now for less that $100.

I'll post my estimate for reference when I get it.

 

[Homerboy]

$1500 for a bad head on my IBM 40gigger.
I passed.
most cases its NOT cheap.

 

[Geomagick]

I have just looked up the article that I mentioned - many hours of searching in the attic required.

The company that the magazine used was Ontrack.

The drive they had recovered had suffered mechanical failure, fire in petrol, water immersion and being run over by a car. In this instance the recovery was successful and cost £1200 about $1900. A lot of cash, but worth it if you really need the data.

The company also recovered the data from hard drives on the shuttle Columbia.

Hope this is of use.

 

[imported_manchild]

Thanks for looking into that. I would love to think that because my hard drive wasn't aboard the Space Shuttle that the pricing will be a bit more "down to Earth" but I think it's just plain expensive either way.

The estimate I just got back from ActionFront is $900 for my 160GB Western Digital IDE drive. Here's the details from the quote in case anyone's interested:

Our evaluation at this point has concluded that the problem appears to be electrical . We will have to source a compatible drive with working electronics, force the drive to a ready status, and pipe data to shop device.

Based upon this evaluation, we feel that a recovery will be possible. We may have to manually rebuild the corrupted / invalid file-system components, adjust file pointers and mount the recovered volume(s) and finally determine if some / all of the data you require is intact.

If the situation proves to be an internal problem, then we will have to re-quote the recovery case, there by voiding the initial quote, as per our discussion.

 

[Homerboy]

well theres your solution.
sounds like the controller card is dead.
if you want to take a gamble, find a matching HD on ebay or something (match model #s exactly)...
remove the controller card from the old/dead one and replace with the new one. I've never done this myself, but have had friends do it and there are some links on the web to do this (google it).

Id the data is important, a used 160gig drive should only cost you ~$80... small gamble for important data.

 

[imported_manchild]

The complete estimate I got back from them actually explained that they attempted that and it dodn't work. They are going to try working with the circuits to see if they can birng it too life but if that doesn't work they will stop and requote a more intensive approach.

The cool thing is that my approval is for the first quote only and if that method doesn not retrieve my data I'm under no obligation for any fees unless I go ahead with the serious method.

 

[Burn2619]

Well I have sent well over 80 drives off to be saved since most of the sales folks use laptops they see alot of abuse and hold a ton of vital sales info per rep. Now sure most would say ever tried CD/DVD back up or network backups? Yes we have but if you tried to talk to a 50 year old sales person at 3am that only knows how to power the up and type that after he spilled the soda in his laptop and ran a doiley in it to " SOAK UP THE JUICEY STUFF " that the DVD drive is no longer going to play his 80's remake of debbie does talooka you would pay the recovery cost too

I have found DriveSavers to be the best in the Biz and I have tried all in your list. 98.9% of drives that are sent into recovery centers will never see a cleanroom where they are broken down most of the time they use in house built recovery software that can do some super things. The price for most of our drives have been in the $500.00 to $10,000.00 range with the 10k one only going that high because we chose over night next morning recovery and had 90% of our data recovered and back to us on DVD's in 11 hours. All I have to say is those guys ROCK!!!!

I hope all ends ok for you and your data.

 

[imported_manchild]

My worst fears have come true, the initial investigation didn't work and showed more serious problems so now to continue from this point the quote is $2,700 !!!!!

The drive was found to have multiple issues, both electronic in nature as well as the more serious problems internal to the HDA (Head Disk Assembly). The unit was opened in our cleanroom / cleanbench (i.e. drive HDA seals were broken per your permission on our evaluation form) to examine unit for head transplant potential.

The Technician has decided that attempting a "head transplant(s)" may have some potential for success. These procedures involve a considerable amount time/resources to be applied to the problem in order to ultimately qualify as completed and determine whether or not the required data is recovered.

Fee If Data Required is Recovered: US $2700.00 Time Estimate: 5-8 days