Data Recovery
 

Anyone ever use a data recovery company for recovering files from a physically damaged drive?

I have one to send one out today and am looking for a reference.

No backup comments please - this is the backup drive that all of a sudden stopped working when I needed to use it to restore another dead drive.

Both are 500g Westerns less than a year old.

We've used one here @ work (adrdata.com); it's not cheap, but it worked. The last time was a smashed laptop.

The best data recovery in the country is Kroll-OnTrack located in Minneapolis. But they cost a king's ransom. Use them if you can't find a local company that can't do the job.

On-Track +1

Stick it in the freezer overnight before you spend any money.

Another vote for Ontrack, amazing service.

Thanks for the tips - tried the freezer trick - someone just told me to try heat.

I have received several quotes so far - $1,000 to $1,400.00.

The "freezer trick" applies to, or in the past applied to failed bearing caps in the oder drives. The lubricant would spatter all over the platter and freezing it, turning it upside down would allow the lube to fall off.

The money above sounds correct, we sent them a few hundred drives once and got a slightly lower cost, but thats about right.

Just got off the phone with On-track

$100 eval fee
$900-$2500 to retrieve data
$150 for the external drive to get data back home

One more - this company delivers:
http://www.drivesavers.com/

What is the chance that I could buy an identical drive to my broken one and exchange the disc or other parts from one drive into the other. Even if I destroy the new one and only get one good read out of the repaired one I would be at least a grand ahead.

I am going to play with a couple of old drives tonight and see what happens when I completely take apart a known good drive, reassemble it and try to read it.

Here's the deal. If the drive is internally damaged (platters,heads,...), there is nothing you can do. You need a clean room. Once you open the drive, dust will get in and there's a real good chance you will lose all data.

If the PCB board on the backside fried, it is possible to get an identical good drive and swap out the board and the old drive should work again.

If the drive is failing (like the one I looked at today), then all you need is a new drive and Norton Ghost and you can mirror the drive to new one and you're good to go.

What are the symptoms on the bad drive?

Dave

There is a good chance I can get your data back. PM if you'd like to talk.

Drive is not recognized by windows. When used in an external case, the drive shows up under Device Manager as a USB device with no info, in Disk Management it shows up as unknown device with no drive letter.

When I turn it on as an external, the computer recognizes the usb device, installs driver, says all is good.

When installed internally, it does not show up at all.

When turned on in the external case, the drive will spin for a few seconds, click, spin again, click then shut down.

Is the drive detected by the BIOS? If it is clicking, it's more than likely an internal problem. I can probably get your data back and it would cost you a lot less than OnTrack.