Need a HONEST Data Recovery Recommendation....

[bob4432]

i need a recommendation of a honest data recovery shop - friend of a friend of a friend's hdd is doing the click - not good - computer won't start. she thought she was doing a good job on backing up but she didn't know the 2 drives in her machine were just 1 with 2 partitions, so now she needs some data recovery.

who would you recommend with your stuff?

please advise as to who you have used and felt were honest.

thanks-
bob

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Take out the hard drive, put it in another computer, and see if anything is recoverable first....

 

[bob4432]

i don't have access to it, this is what she was told by some computer shop and they also told her they couldn't get any data off of it, but i don't know the guys she went too. i really don't want to mess it up anymore than it already is.....

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Freezer trick, slave it to another PC, and pull off everything useful. Make sure she knows what she wants and what order.

IE: Personal documents > Personal pictures > Downloaded music > Stupid chain letters

- M4H

 

[bob4432]

she is willing to pay the $$ for a data recover place, just need a honest one. personally i have never had luck with the freezer trick, and this data is worth more than what it will cost a data recovery place to do it the correct way

 

[purduephotog]

Well, before you can recommend a solution you have to know the problem.

1) Does the drive spin up? If no, stop, contact ONTRACK (see Toms Hardware)
2) If the drive spins up, can it be accessed on another machine? (If NO, consider purchasing SpinRite and testing, otherwise contact ONTRACK)
3) If the drive is accessible, but has damage (LBA errors, etc), consider a trial of RunTime's GetDataBack (FAT or NTFS). Build a forensic image to a different drive and copy the data over.
4) If you have no idea what you're doing, consider going with OnTrack. You'll do more damage than good.

And no, I don't work for them, but I do 'soft' data recovery at home for people....

 

[Harvey]

Ontrack Data Recovery Services & Software. Not cheap, but good, and they'll give you a free estimate. At least, they live in one of your favorite area codes -- (800) 872-2599

Good luck.

 

[NuroMancer]

I've had customers who have had dealings with Action Front and they have done a great job. Free estimates too.

But the cost is large for a platter recovery if thats whats needed. Personally, I've used the freezer trick on a friends hdd and it worked GREAT.

Good luck.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: purduephotog
Well, before you can recommend a solution you have to know the problem.

1) Does the drive spin up? If no, stop, contact ONTRACK (see Toms Hardware)
2) If the drive spins up, can it be accessed on another machine? (If NO, consider purchasing SpinRite and testing, otherwise contact ONTRACK)
3) If the drive is accessible, but has damage (LBA errors, etc), consider a trial of RunTime's GetDataBack (FAT or NTFS). Build a forensic image to a different drive and copy the data over.
4) If you have no idea what you're doing, consider going with OnTrack. You'll do more damage than good.

And no, I don't work for them, but I do 'soft' data recovery at home for people....

i don't have the drive but was told all it did was click and never booted up

 

[redbeard1]

We have used this company about half a dozen times with successful recoveries each time.

The data needs to be valuable, as any reputable place with clean rooms will run from $800 to $3500. The average price we have seen is about $2000

Drivesavers

 

[Newdude]

Support Techs might find this interesting. http://myharddrivedied.com/presentations.html This place charges $50.00 for an estimate. When data recovery clinics do an estimate, they actually do the full recovery, then tell you how much to get your data back. That way they know that the data is actually recoverable. This place says their average recovery fee is $600.00

Here's a link
I posted as scottscustomcomputers, but it was mainly for a logical partition problem.

You should stop using the drive, and disconnect the power. Head and platter damage can be very destructive. Good luck.

Here's the page with the prices

 

[MadAmos]

I have had a good personal experience with davemason.com he was able to recover a drive that was not spining and had already had two attempts by others to recover I liked that I could talk to the real person doing my recovery. The price being half what ontrack and drivesavers quoted was the icing on the cake. YMMV

 

[bob4432]

i personally don't have the drive and have suggested to the person that own it not to fire it up, but what they do is beyond my control. i have suggested ontrack as it was a quick suggestion from more than 1 forum and this person needs the data back bad - she can write the loss off on her taxes. what she does and what i do are possibly 2 different things, i did not and would not attempt any form of data recovery on any drive other than my own for mission critical data - i don't have the knowledge. the only time i have done it is on my own hdds that had software issues and i had a image that was only a couple days old, so it didn't really matter if i succeeded or not.

again, thanks for all the info and suggestions