How much will it cost to recover a HD?

Dec 26, 2007
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Friends laptop HD died (she didn't backup tsk tsk), and we were wondering how much it will cost to recover the drive. It is a 160 gb drive, appears to be a mechanical failure (can't feel/hear the platters spinning when plugged into my system and windows won't recognize it). We would recover 20-30 gb tops. Any ideas?
 

PlasmaBomb

Lifer
Nov 19, 2004
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It's expensive to get it done properly say around $100?

Google hdd data recovery, or see if anyone posts a recommended company...

Edit: Darn I was really slow there...
 

Kenazo

Lifer
Sep 15, 2000
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If it's a physical problem, it'll be especially expensive. If it was a software issue, it's pretty a lot easier to take care of.
 

PlasmaBomb

Lifer
Nov 19, 2004
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Originally posted by: Iron Woode
freezer trick and Spinrite 6.0?

Freezer trick is maybe worth a shot... just get everything as quickly as possible if it works.
 
Dec 26, 2007
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$100 for a mechanical issue seems cheap to me, I have OnTrack calling tomorrow morning to discuss it with them. If it is that cheap though she might get that for her birthday present from me.

sygyzy where are you getting your pricing from?

I will try the freezer trick as well.
 

MixMasterTang

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2001
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Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
$100 for a mechanical issue seems cheap to me, I have OnTrack calling tomorrow morning to discuss it with them. If it is that cheap though she might get that for her birthday present from me.

sygyzy where are you getting your pricing from?

I will try the freezer trick as well.

I don't know where people are coming up with $100, the last time I knew of someone using Ontrak to recover data it was in the thousands to recover data (but it was from a failed RAID set - but from my understanding even a single failed drive with phyiscal issues will cost you over a thousand).
 

MrToilet

Senior member
Feb 28, 2005
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Heh, I just recovered about 20 GB of stuff from a HD (software related, he did a system restore without needing to, LOL); he went to Best Buy Geeksquad, they quoted him *$1800*. Seriously, all I did was use a data recovery program, set it to run for like 3 days to scan the HD, got 99% of his stuff back.

How does Best Buy get away with that kind of price gouging?!
 

91TTZ

Lifer
Jan 31, 2005
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Originally posted by: MixMasterTang
Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
$100 for a mechanical issue seems cheap to me, I have OnTrack calling tomorrow morning to discuss it with them. If it is that cheap though she might get that for her birthday present from me.

sygyzy where are you getting your pricing from?

I will try the freezer trick as well.

I don't know where people are coming up with $100, the last time I knew of someone using Ontrak to recover data it was in the thousands to recover data (but it was from a failed RAID set - but from my understanding even a single failed drive with phyiscal issues will cost you over a thousand).

Yeah, I don't know where they're coming up with that. We used to get data recovered all the time. We used Ontrack and they charged about $1700.
 
Dec 26, 2007
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Originally posted by: eelw
$100??? When have data recovery fees dropped this low?

Especially for a mechanical issue. $100 might be do-able on a simple issue like deletion of data/overwriting of data, but on a mechanical issue? $100 seems wayyyyy low to me.
 

alkemyst

No Lifer
Feb 13, 2001
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For $100 they have to be talking about something the geek squad can pull off with software or a slave boot.

True data recovery is insane.

If you are handy I have found you can usually transfer the platters to the same style drive and get your data off...I'd use this as a last resort though. The drives have to be exactly the same.

My brother has done this twice.
 
Dec 26, 2007
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Originally posted by: alkemyst
For $100 they have to be talking about something the geek squad can pull off with software or a slave boot.

True data recovery is insane.

If you are handy I have found you can usually transfer the platters to the same style drive and get your data off...I'd use this as a last resort though. The drives have to be exactly the same.

My brother has done this twice.

Can't, as I only have one of the drives. I might try the freezer method tomorrow (with her approval first).
 

edro

Lifer
Apr 5, 2002
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I did the freezer trick on a laptop HDD, using a USB converter and it worked.
 

sonoma1993

Diamond Member
May 31, 2004
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few weeks ago I called seagate about doing a data recovery. They wanted anywhere from $1500 to $2600.
 

Danman

Lifer
Nov 9, 1999
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I just paid $4600 for a recovery from DriveSavers for a client. The data was in a RAID group and on a 160GB drive, about 140GB was on there.
 

d33pt

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
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Got quoted $1700 for a 40GB drive from seagate/maxtor.. Doesn't matter how much data you need. Even if it's 1k, it's still the same price if they have to crack it open in a clean room.
 
Dec 26, 2007
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Hmm yeah, looks like I won't be paying for it most likely then.

And neither will she since she doesn't have that kind of cash (that I know of). So guess its try the freezer method since she okayed it.
 

Crucial

Diamond Member
Dec 21, 2000
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sorry to say but the freezers not going to do anything if your drive isn't spinning up at all. It might work for other problems but if the motors shot getting it cold isn't going to do anything. good luck though.
 

Special K

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2000
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Originally posted by: alkemyst
For $100 they have to be talking about something the geek squad can pull off with software or a slave boot.

True data recovery is insane.

If you are handy I have found you can usually transfer the platters to the same style drive and get your data off...I'd use this as a last resort though. The drives have to be exactly the same.

My brother has done this twice.

How exactly would this work? I was under the impression that any platter would be ruined if even a single speck of dust landed on it. Unless you took apart the drive in a class 1 clean room, I don't think you could prevent particles from landing on the platters.