Professional data recovery

[goatjc]

This is the first time I'm doing this. I have a dead hard drive (Scan disk just shows unreadable sectors, knoppix / bart PE cannot access the drive). Just curious if anyone has experiences with these "professional" data recovery places and how well they work. Yes, I know the $$$ deal, just want to know if they work.

Well, taking it in today. I guess, dont wish me luck, wish the guy luck that has 6 years worth of data on there and didnt back up lol.

 

[Oyeve]

I have sent a few drives to pros and they never were able to get any data from the drives, and still charged an arm and a leg for "trying". You are better off buying ezrecovery pro and attempt yourself.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Generally as long as you have the money, they work. Hell, some companies have pulled data off of what was left of a drive after an AK47 attack.

 

[MichaelD]

I have had to send a few laptop drives in; they recovered most of the data.

However, 99% of the time, it's just the motor that fails on laptop drives. The data platter is fine...it just doesn't turn. They remove the platter from the dead drive, mount it in their drive/machine/whatnot and the data is there.

I've never sent in a drive that was in a fire, run over, etc. OR sent in a failed RAID array. I've read that they can even recover data from the array...which I think is pretty impressive.

But yeah; for a single drive, they can do it.

BTW: The bill was about $1,200 for 40GB of data. Glad I wasn't paying for it.

 

[goatjc]

Yeah, I found one that does a "diagnostic" for $100 where they list off all the recoverable files for you. . .then they'll charge you an arm and a leg

edit: yeah, I'm glad I'm not paying either

 

[RebateMonger]

A client lost his entire company's SQL database (accounts, jobs, etc.) when his 4-drive software RAID5 array failed. Apparently he had a two-drive failure. Microsoft worked with him all night trying to recover his files and was unsuccessful. His most recent backups were six months old.

I don't know the details, but he sent all four drives away to an outfit in California. He said they tore apart the failed drives and he got his SQL data back.

The data recovery process was $15,000. The other bad news was that they lost his HP drive trays, and we had no way to get new ones over Labor Day weekend. THAT caused us a lot of problems.

 

[goatjc]

Which ones did you guys use? This is the one that I'm going for, just out of convenience b/c there's one located 25min from where I am.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
A client lost his entire company's SQL database (accounts, jobs, etc.) when his 4-drive software RAID5 array failed. Apparently he had a two-drive failure. Microsoft worked with him all night trying to recover his files and was unsuccessful. His most recent backups were six months old.

I don't know the details, but he sent all four drives away to an outfit in California. He said they tore apart the failed drives and he got his SQL data back.

The data recovery process was $15,000. The other bad news was that they lost his HP drive trays, and we had no way to get new ones over Labor Day weekend. THAT caused us a lot of problems.

Time to implement Raid6 and a routine backup schedule.

 

[Sunner]

My only experience is with Ibas.
They have an impressive track record, even managing to pull data off a drive that was in a fire, trust me, that drive looked VERY toasted, literally.
Equally impressive were the bills, over $5.000 per recovery as far as I remember.

 

[MadAmos]

I have used a data recover service only once and the experience was enough to keep me on the straight and narrow as far as backups but if you have not committed try Here they were great to deal with and made it as painless as possible.

 

[Oyeve]

Posting to this has jinxed me! One of my users HD is crapping out and his 2.5gb of archived email is the only thing affected by bad sectors! :shocked:

 

[GimpyFuzznut]

I really wonder how much the data recovery actually costs for them. If they are changing damn near $1200 to recover 40 gigs of files... that must be some serious profit. I wonder what kind of equipement they need for the recovery process. Anyone feel like starting up a data recovery company with me?

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: GimpyFuzznut
I really wonder how much the data recovery actually costs for them. If they are changing damn near $1200 to recover 40 gigs of files... that must be some serious profit. I wonder what kind of equipement they need for the recovery process. Anyone feel like starting up a data recovery company with me?

Here are some hardcore solutions: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/02/14/raid_recovery/


As long as you have money, almost anything can be recovered.

 

[redbeard1]

We have used these guys about a half dozen times. They recovered all of the data that was needed each time. The cost has averaged about $2000.

Drivesavers

 

[goatjc]

Update: Well, they were able to recover about 6 gb out of about I'd say 30 gb that was on there. Going to end up costing $2,000. . .man, I should really get into this business.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
The data recovery process was $15,000.

:shocked:

Originally posted by: goatjc
Update: Well, they were able to recover about 6 gb out of about I'd say 30 gb that was on there. Going to end up costing $2,000. . .man, I should really get into this business.

You and me both, buddy!

 

[Roguestar]

durr double post

 

[jtsmith]

My company uses a place called CBL average price was $1500 and they've been able to recover everything so far. $15,000?! Ouch! I bet your backing up daily after that experience.