Anybody know a good data recovery company?

[JoshEarl]

The hard drive on my old laptop conked out a few months ago, and like an idiot I didn't back it up, even though I had a feeling it was coming.

I don't want to get most of the stuff back, but unfortunately there were a few files that I really need to get to.

Does anyone have any data recovery services that they'd recommend, based on price and reliability? I don't want to pay top dollar, but I don't want to end up with some fly-by-night company, either.

Suggestions?

Josh

[Bruno]

Nothing in the US. Sorry.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but...

A former colleague of mine had the same thing with his media center PC. He and his wife used it for holiday fotos, reports, documents, ...
And they didn't back up anything because new computers don't crash, right?

A data recovery lab charged 80 euros for making a list of retrievable files.
It cost him another 800 euros to actually get the files he wanted to have.
We made fun of him for some time.

I realize that this is not what you want to hear, but for what this might cost you, you could have bought 1 or 2 fancy high end razors.

Of course it depends on how many files you want back, and how much the recovery lab charges. Maybe it will not be 800 euros but it will definitely not be cheap.

[DMS]

Will the drive spin up at all? You might be able to recover some of the files by using an external USB adapter if the drive spins but wasn't able to boot the machine anymore.

[JoshEarl]

Dave,

Can you describe this a little more? Are you saying that sometimes you can plug into a drive with another computer and pull data off? The computer won't boot, but the drive does seem to spin. It makes a clicking noise, which I know isn't good...

Bruno, I know I'm going to pay through the nose for this... I think I know someone else who had this done for around $500 US, which is a lot less than your poor friend had to pay.

Josh

[DMS]

Can you describe this a little more? Are you saying that sometimes you can plug into a drive with another computer and pull data off? The computer won't boot, but the drive does seem to spin. It makes a clicking noise, which I know isn't good...

One of these adapters can be very handy for that type of work as well as imaging a replacement HDD when you need to upgrade to a larger one. If your bad drive will spin up well enough to mount, you should be able to read the directory tree and might even be able to repair it somewhat with the standard windows utilities.

I've heard some people say they had good luck with freezing a bad HDD before attempting a recovery when all else failed. Can't remember why that helps sometimes but it's commonly mentioned on the PC forums.

Good luck

[Namdnas]

In lieu of using a recovery company, I suggest the following.

1. Burn a copy of one of the many 'Live' Linux distributions, Ubuntu, Knoppix etc... onto a CD (If you don't want to, or can't do this for whatever reason, I'll be happy to make one for you). In a nutshell, Live Linux distros boot the entire OS off the CD, without any installation required. Almost all of them can then read the other drives on the machine, including the drive with the hosed copy of windoze.
2. Next, insert a USB drive (just a bit larger than what you figure you have in files that you need to recover). Let Linux recognize the USB drive.
3. Last, copy the files you want to save from the windows drive to the USB drive.

You shouldn't have to worry about further data corruption since most live CDs will only read NTFS (a common windows file system, and the one most normal users have), BUT it won't write to them. Voila, you're even safe there.

Give it a try, or let me know if you need a CD (Linux Live CDs are available as free downloads from all the major linux distribution houses).

Good luck Josh,
John

[Geoff]

If the drive is making an abnormal clicking sound taking the others advice and making further access attempts will quite possibly cause more damage.

Without knowing the reason for the drive failure it is of course difficult to say for certain but if you really really want the data back I would strongly suggest you avoid making further attempts at accessing it and send the drive out for recovery.

If the drive was sounding healthy and spun up ok then a linux boot cd is an excellent recovery option.
If the drive, as you indicate, sounds unhealthy you are taking a bit of a risk though.

-Geoff

[knochrph]

First of all, STOP everything.

There is a program, spinrite, by GIBSON that will go thru your drive and recover whatever CAN be recovered. It may TAKE 36 HOURS to run, but it is VERY good. Look it up on internet.

As an aside, there used to be a recovery program called DISKFIX or something like that. I renamed it DISKF*** because when I ran it it would continue to only recover part of the disk, then if I ran it again, it would recover less and less.

Good luck

Jerry.

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

[Bruno]

The price depends on how much files you need. As I understood it, if you only need some files, you pay only a couple of hundreds.
If you want to recover most of the entire disk, you can go up to 1000 $.

The only thing you can try is to put it in a plastic bag, seal it and put it in the fridge with as little air in it as possible. Leave it overnight and try again.
This might give you a couple of minutes in which you can access the disk.

But if the drive makes a clicking sound, this means it has physically crashed, and the head is touching the plates.
Each time you hear a click, the disk is hit.
If you really really want to have that data back, send it off to recovery because anything you do will likely damage the disk further (because of the clicking)

[Jonedangerousli]

If the drive is clicking, the meter is ticking.

LOL

Seriously, I had exactly the same thing happen. Fortunately the area that was damaged was where the OS resided. I used a program called R-Studio to recover the data. I put the laptop HD in a PC and ran the program. Recovered all my data.

NOTE: I would not suggest doing this unless you are willing to lose ALL the data on the drive. Otherwise send it to a DR service.

Your mileage may vary. J.