I am not an IT professional, but I am knowledgeable enough to volunteer at our local public school to help them as needed (I developed and run their website, and provide "as-needed" support with the occasional computer glitch). This is a very small school with an extremely limited budget, and apparently there are no other parents in the school with better knowledge than mine -- they are stuck with me 
Today they contacted me with an urgent problem. One of the teachers has been using an iMac desktop for her classroom work for the past two years. This iMac literally holds every file created to serve her teaching life. Since May, she has apparently been having problems with it (freezing, lines across the screen?). They called the tech support company that the local public school system uses, but their arrival came one day after an error screen appeared that could not be resolved. The error message told them that the computer needed to be restarted, but when they tried rebooting the machine it only came back to the same error screen.
The tech support guy ran a "diagnostic" and concluded the problem was caused by a virus (I think that a more likely cause is a failing hard drive). He (foolishly, I believe) reimaged the drive -- and in the process managed to lose all her data files. the computer now boots up, but they lost all the data. This guy could be of no more help, so they called in yet another tech support company. This second company ran some type of file recovery software (I don't know which one) and "recovered" the data -- but all of the "recovered" files seem to be corrupt or damaged. My guess is that the "reimage" done by the first tech support guy must have overwritten many of the files that were on the drive. It was at this point that they contacted me.
I told them that the first thing they need to do is shut the computer off to prevent overwriting any data that might still be recoverable on the drive. It was also suggested they replace the drive with a new one, to prevent any further data loss (I also believe that the current drive is failing, so this will also prevent any future problems).
Since my knowledge of data recovery is limited and my knowledge about Macs is close to none, I am somewhat at a loss as to what possible data recovery options exist, or what their next steps should be. Given the "reimage" done on this drive I am uncertain about the likelihood of success of any affordable software recovery solutions. On the other hand, since this is a small public school with a very limited budget, I am reluctant to recommend a recovery service which could cost them up to $2,000.
So, what would you suggest are any feasible next steps? Someone suggested contacting a recovery company for a diagnostic (he mentioned OnTrack?) to at least assess whether any data is recoverable and whether the cost would be justified.
Any other ideas or suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Today they contacted me with an urgent problem. One of the teachers has been using an iMac desktop for her classroom work for the past two years. This iMac literally holds every file created to serve her teaching life. Since May, she has apparently been having problems with it (freezing, lines across the screen?). They called the tech support company that the local public school system uses, but their arrival came one day after an error screen appeared that could not be resolved. The error message told them that the computer needed to be restarted, but when they tried rebooting the machine it only came back to the same error screen.
The tech support guy ran a "diagnostic" and concluded the problem was caused by a virus (I think that a more likely cause is a failing hard drive). He (foolishly, I believe) reimaged the drive -- and in the process managed to lose all her data files. the computer now boots up, but they lost all the data. This guy could be of no more help, so they called in yet another tech support company. This second company ran some type of file recovery software (I don't know which one) and "recovered" the data -- but all of the "recovered" files seem to be corrupt or damaged. My guess is that the "reimage" done by the first tech support guy must have overwritten many of the files that were on the drive. It was at this point that they contacted me.
I told them that the first thing they need to do is shut the computer off to prevent overwriting any data that might still be recoverable on the drive. It was also suggested they replace the drive with a new one, to prevent any further data loss (I also believe that the current drive is failing, so this will also prevent any future problems).
Since my knowledge of data recovery is limited and my knowledge about Macs is close to none, I am somewhat at a loss as to what possible data recovery options exist, or what their next steps should be. Given the "reimage" done on this drive I am uncertain about the likelihood of success of any affordable software recovery solutions. On the other hand, since this is a small public school with a very limited budget, I am reluctant to recommend a recovery service which could cost them up to $2,000.
So, what would you suggest are any feasible next steps? Someone suggested contacting a recovery company for a diagnostic (he mentioned OnTrack?) to at least assess whether any data is recoverable and whether the cost would be justified.
Any other ideas or suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
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