Hard Drive Data Recovery
Discussion
Hi All
Have had a hard drive die over the weekend, its not being recognised or spinning up at all. Was working fine right up until before it died, so there should be very little data corruption if any. Most of it is backed up but there are quite a lot of photo's i took recently that i would like to recover.
Can anyone recommend a good data recovery firm that wont charge me the earth to recover the data.
Cheers
Have had a hard drive die over the weekend, its not being recognised or spinning up at all. Was working fine right up until before it died, so there should be very little data corruption if any. Most of it is backed up but there are quite a lot of photo's i took recently that i would like to recover.
Can anyone recommend a good data recovery firm that wont charge me the earth to recover the data.
Cheers
Depends what you mean by "the earth" 
I had a client's drive fail recently and got a couple of quotes to recover the data.
Kroll OnTrack, who are possibly one of the best known, quoted, for the standard service (5 working days for diagnosis) £75+VAT for diagnosis, and between £700 and £2,000 plus VAT for data recovery.
We didn't take that up
Instead we went with MJM Data Recovery, who do not charge for diagnosis. They only charge if they recover any data. Non urgent (7-14 days) was quoted at £570, plus VAT.
Unfortunately, in our case, the drive platters were physically damaged which was destroying new heads as soon as they were fitted, so we couldn't retrieve any data. MJM returned the drive, recorded delivery, no charge.
I had a client's drive fail recently and got a couple of quotes to recover the data. Kroll OnTrack, who are possibly one of the best known, quoted, for the standard service (5 working days for diagnosis) £75+VAT for diagnosis, and between £700 and £2,000 plus VAT for data recovery.
We didn't take that up
Instead we went with MJM Data Recovery, who do not charge for diagnosis. They only charge if they recover any data. Non urgent (7-14 days) was quoted at £570, plus VAT. Unfortunately, in our case, the drive platters were physically damaged which was destroying new heads as soon as they were fitted, so we couldn't retrieve any data. MJM returned the drive, recorded delivery, no charge.
Seeing as its only a home pc hard drive and its only some photo's i want to try and recover, I think the cost will just be way too much.
I think basically the power input to the H/drive is fried. When power is turned on the pcb below the drive gets hot but nothing else happens.
Can hard drives be repaired does anyone know?? Would warranty cover this sort of thing. It was bought as an OEM drive from a well known online supplier but the drive is now two years old. Not sure how long warranty on these things lasts...
I think basically the power input to the H/drive is fried. When power is turned on the pcb below the drive gets hot but nothing else happens.
Can hard drives be repaired does anyone know?? Would warranty cover this sort of thing. It was bought as an OEM drive from a well known online supplier but the drive is now two years old. Not sure how long warranty on these things lasts...
I had the same as you the other week ('cept it was an external HDD).
It was a 250gb drive and had less that 7Gb of pictures on it which I needed to get.
Took it to a local computer shop and they did it the same day - charged by £35 for an hours labour plus £2 for the disks to put the data on.
I was quite releived as I had shipped them off my desktop onto the external in case the pc ever died (which it did) and had no other copies of them - all pics of the kids etc etc.
It was a 250gb drive and had less that 7Gb of pictures on it which I needed to get.
Took it to a local computer shop and they did it the same day - charged by £35 for an hours labour plus £2 for the disks to put the data on.
I was quite releived as I had shipped them off my desktop onto the external in case the pc ever died (which it did) and had no other copies of them - all pics of the kids etc etc.
350wedge said:
Seeing as its only a home pc hard drive and its only some photo's i want to try and recover, I think the cost will just be way too much.
I think basically the power input to the H/drive is fried. When power is turned on the pcb below the drive gets hot but nothing else happens.
Can hard drives be repaired does anyone know?? Would warranty cover this sort of thing. It was bought as an OEM drive from a well known online supplier but the drive is now two years old. Not sure how long warranty on these things lasts...
I think basically the power input to the H/drive is fried. When power is turned on the pcb below the drive gets hot but nothing else happens.
Can hard drives be repaired does anyone know?? Would warranty cover this sort of thing. It was bought as an OEM drive from a well known online supplier but the drive is now two years old. Not sure how long warranty on these things lasts...
You could try buying an identical drive off ebay and swapping the pcb's underneath - usually very easy to do and if the heads & platters are OK that should get you going again. (Taking the PCB off won't break the seal to the interior). You can try leaving it in the fridge overnight too.
I had the same happen to my home PC.
What I did was add a 2nd drive to replace the original - and set it up as the primary one.
Then I went here: www.binarybiz.com/
And downloaded their data recovery software for free, and scanned the 2nd (failed) drive.
The way it works is that it scans the drive - tells you exactly what it can and cannot recover. Then you pay $x for the amount of data you want to recover.
1 gig of data costs $100. 10gig of data costs $150. And if you consider the exchange rate at the moment - it's a no-brainer.
And it worked a treat for me. It recovered EVERYTHING for me.
I should stress that it will take a few hours to scan the drive - so best to run it overnight.
K
What I did was add a 2nd drive to replace the original - and set it up as the primary one.
Then I went here: www.binarybiz.com/
And downloaded their data recovery software for free, and scanned the 2nd (failed) drive.
The way it works is that it scans the drive - tells you exactly what it can and cannot recover. Then you pay $x for the amount of data you want to recover.
1 gig of data costs $100. 10gig of data costs $150. And if you consider the exchange rate at the moment - it's a no-brainer.
And it worked a treat for me. It recovered EVERYTHING for me.
I should stress that it will take a few hours to scan the drive - so best to run it overnight.
K
I should also add that I had a similiar thing happen at work with a colleagues drive.
So I plugged their drive into my machine as a 2nd drive and was able to access all the data and copy it across and back it up for them. The drive itself would not boot - but all the data was readable as a slave drive.
So it might be worth checking that first.
K
So I plugged their drive into my machine as a 2nd drive and was able to access all the data and copy it across and back it up for them. The drive itself would not boot - but all the data was readable as a slave drive.
So it might be worth checking that first.
K
Kinky said:
I should also add that I had a similiar thing happen at work with a colleagues drive.
So I plugged their drive into my machine as a 2nd drive and was able to access all the data and copy it across and back it up for them. The drive itself would not boot - but all the data was readable as a slave drive.
So it might be worth checking that first.
K
So I plugged their drive into my machine as a 2nd drive and was able to access all the data and copy it across and back it up for them. The drive itself would not boot - but all the data was readable as a slave drive.
So it might be worth checking that first.
K
Cheers for the reply, I've already tried that though. I've built a new machine and tried it in there as a second drive. It wont even recognise the drive is there and even as a single drive in my old machine its not recognised and doesnt even spin up.
pincher said:
I had the same as you the other week ('cept it was an external HDD).
It was a 250gb drive and had less that 7Gb of pictures on it which I needed to get.
Took it to a local computer shop and they did it the same day - charged by £35 for an hours labour plus £2 for the disks to put the data on.
I was quite releived as I had shipped them off my desktop onto the external in case the pc ever died (which it did) and had no other copies of them - all pics of the kids etc etc.
It was a 250gb drive and had less that 7Gb of pictures on it which I needed to get.
Took it to a local computer shop and they did it the same day - charged by £35 for an hours labour plus £2 for the disks to put the data on.
I was quite releived as I had shipped them off my desktop onto the external in case the pc ever died (which it did) and had no other copies of them - all pics of the kids etc etc.
I will have to look about and see if i can find a good local computer shop. Failing that i will have a word with our site's IT super nerd!!! Very strange person, has no people skills at all but as soon as you intimate you have a slight interest in anything computer related, he goes off into one about nitrogen cooling and how far you can push an Intel Celeron processor....
Tony,
If your machine is not even recognising the [old] drive, then try the BinaryBiz download as per my first post.
I had exactly the same at home - and this was a last resort - and it worked a treat.
I was even so desperate I went to PC World on a Saturday afternoon, queued for about an hour in their 'PC Help' department, and even they told me it was toasted.
I really can't recommend it highly enough. You've got nothing to lose from downloading it and trying it (as it's free).
As it starts scanning the drive it will start flagging what it's finding - so you'll see straight away what it finds (or does not).
Even if your PC does not see the drive - this should. www.binarybiz.com/vlab/windows.html
K
If your machine is not even recognising the [old] drive, then try the BinaryBiz download as per my first post.
I had exactly the same at home - and this was a last resort - and it worked a treat.
I was even so desperate I went to PC World on a Saturday afternoon, queued for about an hour in their 'PC Help' department, and even they told me it was toasted.
I really can't recommend it highly enough. You've got nothing to lose from downloading it and trying it (as it's free).
As it starts scanning the drive it will start flagging what it's finding - so you'll see straight away what it finds (or does not).
Even if your PC does not see the drive - this should. www.binarybiz.com/vlab/windows.html
K
Kinky said:
The way it works is that it scans the drive - tells you exactly what it can and cannot recover. Then you pay $x for the amount of data you want to recover.
My drive was working fine before death and was approx half full. Can you select what date to recover or will they recover literally everything they can? There is loads of stuff on there i wouldnt need, just the photo files...
littlegreenfairy said:
for a tenner I'll take apart your hard drive
Was let loose on one a few weeks ago *feels very proud*
You'll need a 5mm and a 1.3mm torx screw driver
Was let loose on one a few weeks ago *feels very proud*
You'll need a 5mm and a 1.3mm torx screw driver
What make of drive was the one you had apart, mines a Western Digital.
I just need a torx driver as those are the only screws holding on the pcb by the look of it....
350wedge said:
littlegreenfairy said:
for a tenner I'll take apart your hard drive
Was let loose on one a few weeks ago *feels very proud*
You'll need a 5mm and a 1.3mm torx screw driver
Was let loose on one a few weeks ago *feels very proud*
You'll need a 5mm and a 1.3mm torx screw driver
What make of drive was the one you had apart, mines a Western Digital.
I just need a torx driver as those are the only screws holding on the pcb by the look of it....
It was a maxtor one from the 90's.
Oh god please don't do it - mine was taken apart and then destroyed as an experiment.
Don't do it :|
Situation update.
Recieved my identical drive from Ebay today and sucessfully swapped over the PCB board under the drive...!! I was right in that the original board is fried!
Initially hooray...Its spinning and sounding fine....then oh bugger....Its making a loud clicking noise which i can only assume is something to do with the head trying to move as the drive is spinning....
Any thoughts on what this may be ??
Recieved my identical drive from Ebay today and sucessfully swapped over the PCB board under the drive...!! I was right in that the original board is fried!
Initially hooray...Its spinning and sounding fine....then oh bugger....Its making a loud clicking noise which i can only assume is something to do with the head trying to move as the drive is spinning....
Any thoughts on what this may be ??
Hi 350,
I had a couple of drives fail some months ago, and not being able to afford the *ahem* prices similar to those quoted above, I gave up on recovering the data soon.
I started from scratch with the aim to save and get data back at a later date.
Then I googled a few data recovery software progs and downloaded one via a client, and have now recovered over 95% of the original files. I used easy recovery pro, and it really was easy! Just navigate to the folder(s) you want to save, and tell it the file you want to recover to. Job done!
Hope that I'm not too late, and you've not spent your spondoolies....
Cheers
And
I had a couple of drives fail some months ago, and not being able to afford the *ahem* prices similar to those quoted above, I gave up on recovering the data soon.
I started from scratch with the aim to save and get data back at a later date.
Then I googled a few data recovery software progs and downloaded one via a client, and have now recovered over 95% of the original files. I used easy recovery pro, and it really was easy! Just navigate to the folder(s) you want to save, and tell it the file you want to recover to. Job done!
Hope that I'm not too late, and you've not spent your spondoolies....
Cheers
And
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