Do not use Fields Data Recovery they don't get the job done and charge a lot

[BirdDad]

I sent in a hard drive that had stopped spinning, there were 179GBs of pictures in the My Documents folder on the root of the drive.
I sent in my hard drive and they sounded very optimistic about recovering everything from the drive. They charged me 647$. When I got the copied drive I booted up with it as a secondary drive and Windows wanted to do chkdsk on it, I skipped it and there was only 111GBs in the folder all old stuff(worthless stuff).
They told me no refund of any kind but I could always send it back to see if they could get more stuff of it.
I asked why they did not do a bit by bit copy of the drive while they had it hooked up to the spinning machine. They said they did not do that and when I inquired about a sector by sector image of the drive they said they did not do that either.
I feel ripped off.

 

[BirdDad]

Seagate offered to do a bit by bit recovery for $590 and that includes an external media for which to read from, I wish that I had called them first but I was scared that it would cost too much so I shy-ed away from them.
I hope I get my data back.

 

[Elixer]

Recovery places pretty much always do a clone(if possible), or they transplant, and then do a image copy, so, yeah, these guys sound like crooks.

 

[BirdDad]

I assumed that they would do a sector by sector bit by bit, I never asked them to because I thought that it was standard.
Stay far away from them!
I sent my hard drive to Seagate hopefully Fields did not damage it.

 

[lupi]

I've got a SD card I need taken apart and data read directly from the chip. Haven't found a place to do that yet and stories like this have kept me from looking.

 

[RecoveryForce]

It is not proper data recovery protocol not to clone the drive, that is for sure.

A for the SD card, let me know where you are and I'll recommend a lab close by, if I know of one in your region.

 

[BirdDad]

Here is from an email they sent to me when I asked how come they did not do a sector by sector or bit by bit copy or image of the hard drive:
You were never told you would be provided an image of the disk, and that is not a service we provide - our abilities to recover data from a damaged hard drive, and the image we are able to create from the failed drive, are far beyond anything you would be able to do yourself. Further, when you sent in the drive there was 0GB accessible from the drive as a whole, let alone from the My Documents folder.

That being said, we can take another look if you'd like. I'll have a customer service rep contact you tomorrow (copied to this email).

 

[Blain]

I feel ripped off.

:\ Would reading BBB complaints about the company have made any difference?

 

[BirdDad]

I should have read them but I thought that they were just another recovery company.

 

[Mushkins]

Uh... Just googling "Fields Data Recovery" and the results are literally covered in legitimate news stories about how this is just one of many known and documented scam operations run by Fields Associates.

I'm sorry you lost your data, but two seconds of research would have steered you far, far away from these guys.

 

[rsutoratosu]

ouch, were they listed under any manufacture recovery services ?

 

[shabby]

I assumed that they would do a sector by sector bit by bit, I never asked them to because I thought that it was standard.
Stay far away from them!
I sent my hard drive to Seagate hopefully Fields did not damage it.

If i was spending $600+ for something i'd want a step by step list of things they'd do to it, im sure geek squad could of done the same for less.

 

[lupi]

It is not proper data recovery protocol not to clone the drive, that is for sure.

A for the SD card, let me know where you are and I'll recommend a lab close by, if I know of one in your region.

Virginia.

 

[RecoveryForce]

Virginia.

You may want to contact Jon at www.datasaversllc.com and see if they can help.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I can also recommend Gillware Data Recovery as it is the one we've farmed out work to when our clients suffer catastrophic data loss to RAID arrays or servers and are willing to pay the cost. I know they do SD cards as well. They only charge you if the data you specifically wanted was recoverable.

 

[lupi]

I am about 99% certain the I/O portion was fried, so only way to get it is going to be from reading the storage chip directly. Most recovery types I've found just had stuff to try and force recovery through the normal I/O which isn't going to work in my case.