Hard drive data recovery companies
Discussion
I have an IBM Deskstar hard disk which has failed - spins up but makes a clicking sound (possibly the "click of death" these things are apparently known for) and can't be read. So, only way to recover any data from it is to send it to a data recovery company.
Has anyone dealt with these guys? And if so how was the service? What about security issues, eg personal financial details which might be in the data? The 3 companies I have found are:
Data Clinic
Ontrack Data Recovery
Easy Recovery (suspiciously cheaper then the others? ie £249 instead of £500-£1000)
Any opinions would be appreciated, and please mail me off line if needs be.
Thanks!
Has anyone dealt with these guys? And if so how was the service? What about security issues, eg personal financial details which might be in the data? The 3 companies I have found are:
Data Clinic
Ontrack Data Recovery
Easy Recovery (suspiciously cheaper then the others? ie £249 instead of £500-£1000)
Any opinions would be appreciated, and please mail me off line if needs be.
Thanks!
Ontrack have been doing this stuff for years and I know a couple of people who have unfortunately had to resort to their services with no complaints but its not cheap.
Vogon are another you might want to check out.
If its just personal stuff you may find it too expensive unless you use a DIY tool. People on here have recommended restorer2000 I think which has a try before you buy like the ontrack tools
Vogon are another you might want to check out.
If its just personal stuff you may find it too expensive unless you use a DIY tool. People on here have recommended restorer2000 I think which has a try before you buy like the ontrack tools
BliarOut said:
Or remove it from the machine totally and "carefully" spin it in your hand.... Imagine you're holding it flat and trying to get the casing to rotate around the plattens. Used to work on old IBM drives if they got a bit gummed up.
It is a kind of last resort thing
It is a kind of last resort thing
No no no - last resort on a stuck spindle is to turn it on then give it a good whack on the side with the handle of a screwdriver. percusive maintenance
malman said:
BliarOut said:
Or remove it from the machine totally and "carefully" spin it in your hand.... Imagine you're holding it flat and trying to get the casing to rotate around the plattens. Used to work on old IBM drives if they got a bit gummed up.
It is a kind of last resort thing
It is a kind of last resort thing
No no no - last resort on a stuck spindle is to turn it on then give it a good whack on the side with the handle of a screwdriver. percusive maintenance
malman said:
BliarOut said:
Or remove it from the machine totally and "carefully" spin it in your hand.... Imagine you're holding it flat and trying to get the casing to rotate around the plattens. Used to work on old IBM drives if they got a bit gummed up.
It is a kind of last resort thing
It is a kind of last resort thing
No no no - last resort on a stuck spindle is to turn it on then give it a good whack on the side with the handle of a screwdriver. percusive maintenance
"percussive maintenance" Love it
unfortunately the spin trick didn't work, and neither the computer nor external drive can see it so restore2000 won't work. so it's pay up or do without the data. thanks for the suggestions, anyway!
I know it's a bit "Closing stable door after horse has bolted" but if your data is valuable enough for you to even consider using a data recovery specialist in the event of drive failure, then you should have a decent backup policy in place.
Becoming harder these days as people have such HUGE amounts of drive space these days
Get a decent RAID array and mirror drives (ie if a drive fails, you can use the mirror until you replace the failed drive and rebuild the array) or an external or Network HDD that automatically copies files that have changed since the last backup.
Bit late for that kind of advice I know, but worth thinking about for the future.
Becoming harder these days as people have such HUGE amounts of drive space these days
Get a decent RAID array and mirror drives (ie if a drive fails, you can use the mirror until you replace the failed drive and rebuild the array) or an external or Network HDD that automatically copies files that have changed since the last backup.
Bit late for that kind of advice I know, but worth thinking about for the future.
One final suggestion that has worked for me for long enough to retrieve data off, funnily enough, a DeskStar; put the drive in a plastic sandwich bag and seal it (stops condensation forming). Put the bag in your freezer overnight, or ideally 24 hours. In the morning, take it out of the bag and connect it to your computer and try and retrieve the data. Ideally, you'd have a USB enclosure for the drive, so your PC has already booted up and you can start to recover the data immediately. This method may only give you a couple of minutes to recover the data before it fails again, or it might give you an hour, but it is certainly worth a try
If it's FAT32 format & you have a boot disk with say an old Iomega ZIP drive, you could load a DOS boot disk & copy some/all of the data from the HDD to ZIP disks (or to another FAT32 HDD if it's a desktop PC with spare IDE connections). I did this onnce on an old Dell. If it's NTFS, you're screwed. Professional data recovery only. Good luck!
I've used the freezer trick successfully before. Also the percussive maintenance trick has worked for me as well. A third trick is pop it in the oven on the lowest heat for 30 mins or so, then once its cool enough to handle, try and get the data off. This has also worked for me, but be careful you don't have the oven so hot it melts any plastic casing.
For data recovery companies, try Xytron in Hereford. We have used them a few times. Very reasonable prices and good results. Say Tenbury Computer Company sent you.
For data recovery companies, try Xytron in Hereford. We have used them a few times. Very reasonable prices and good results. Say Tenbury Computer Company sent you.
Thanks to all for those extra thoughts. A backup was way overdue 
but regular backups to an external drive are now going to be a feature around here, and a mirrored disk is on the to do list! Might have a try of the freezer thing, then maybe talk to that Hereford company/Ontrack (Vogon have merged with them). So thanks again to all, I'll let you know the outcome!
but regular backups to an external drive are now going to be a feature around here, and a mirrored disk is on the to do list! Might have a try of the freezer thing, then maybe talk to that Hereford company/Ontrack (Vogon have merged with them). So thanks again to all, I'll let you know the outcome!.Flyer said:
One final suggestion that has worked for me for long enough to retrieve data off, funnily enough, a DeskStar; put the drive in a plastic sandwich bag and seal it (stops condensation forming). Put the bag in your freezer overnight, or ideally 24 hours. In the morning, take it out of the bag and connect it to your computer and try and retrieve the data. Ideally, you'd have a USB enclosure for the drive, so your PC has already booted up and you can start to recover the data immediately. This method may only give you a couple of minutes to recover the data before it fails again, or it might give you an hour, but it is certainly worth a try
Sorry, bit late to the party here.
I have done exactly this to a failed deathstar (not mine, but a friends. It had four years of his business accountancy data on it.. not backed up anywhere
) I also cycled it between 40 minutes in the oven at around 100C, try it, then back into the freezer for a few hours, try it, then back into the oven... repeat ad nauseum. Each time plugging it back into my PC. You have to be quick... I was getting maybe 30-60 seconds of usable time.
It took me about 3 days, but eventually I manged to get most of the data off it.
The USB tip is a great idea that hadn't occured to me.
Good luck.
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff