Recommend a good data recovery service?

robb0085 · 2011-10-07T07:11:16.000Z

Hi,

I have to send a whacked harddrive out to get some data recovered. We had it done one time before years ago and it was successful. It was also $1800. So I was just wondering if anyone had any service they can personally recommend that can beat that.

billpomeroy · 2011-10-07T07:31:21.000Z

Depends on how ‘whacked’ you’re talking. If it’s due to a hardware issue (ie, hard drive won’t spin up) then I’d recommend diskdoctors.com, although they quote out how much it will cost to recover data.

If the hard drive will spin up, but you have bad sectors, or a complete corrupt hard drive, I STRONGLY recommend Data Recovery Wizard by EASUS. When I was doing my Masters thesis, I had my HD crash right when I was finishing my last of over 100 pages and hadn’t backed up that night. I was able to recover the data and finish before my presentation. Well worth the $50 I spent.

adam-wagner · 2011-10-07T08:05:37.000Z

I’ve used Gillware in the past on a formatted drive and they worked out great. Cost was under $1000. Happy to pay it. Might be more if they have to get it into the lab and swap out plates. http://www.gillware.com/

Good luck

randyrivero3029 · 2011-10-07T09:53:56.000Z

I second Gillware.

About 2005 I sent them a 250gb drive that would not draw power, and they sent back a new 250 with all my data on there, as well as 12 dvds of the files as a second backup. Then they gave me a week to check out everything before they delete the files from their systems.

$520 total including shipping and the new hdd. Price has increased since then but I think it’s still pretty inexpensive. Live people to talk to on the phone. I seem to remember that they called me with the actual price and explained options to me before they started any work.

scott696d · 2011-10-07T11:44:53.000Z

I’ve had good results from Kroll Ontrack, but they’re pricey…

johnwhite · 2011-10-07T14:46:38.000Z

I used Ontrack once, but very expensive at over US$1K.

davidgroot0278 · 2011-10-10T07:05:26.000Z

Gillware is the definite answer here. They do good work, and the charge is reasonable.

robb0085 · 2011-10-10T07:17:37.000Z

Thank you all for your responses. I appreciate your input.

rbruklis · 2011-10-10T12:56:56.000Z

Here is an idea - I used to work for an HDD company back in the early 90s. We used to get dozens of failed drives per week and every once and a while the customer was in a panic to get data. Now if you had a second hard drive - same model, etc, you could swap the PCB (electronics board underneath) from the good to the bad. 9 times out of 10, the drive would work afterwards.

I haven’t tried it in years and I am not even sure you can still do that…

juniorsoles3868 · 2011-12-16T06:27:43.000Z

Rich_Bruklis wrote:

Here is an idea - I used to work for an HDD company back in the early 90s. We used to get dozens of failed drives per week and every once and a while the customer was in a panic to get data. Now if you had a second hard drive - same model, etc, you could swap the PCB (electronics board underneath) from the good to the bad. 9 times out of 10, the drive would work afterwards.

I haven’t tried it in years and I am not even sure you can still do that…

The question is "how would you do it "?

rbruklis · 2011-12-16T06:39:43.000Z

Well. I guess it is much like replacing a battery on an iPhone - dozens of screws. I would make a paper drawing of the drive and place screws where they were located on the drive, swap the boards from the good one to the failed, replace the screws, cross your fingers and see what happens.

Remember you might end up sacrificing the good drive if something goes wrong.

Good Luck. If it works, you can pass on the tip and experience to everyone

robertfranz3 · 2012-02-22T15:21:13.000Z

Rich_Bruklis wrote:

Well. I guess it is much like replacing a battery on an iPhone - dozens of screws. I would make a paper drawing of the drive and place screws where they were located on the drive, swap the boards from the good one to the failed, replace the screws, cross your fingers and see what happens.

Remember you might end up sacrificing the good drive if something goes wrong.

Good Luck. If it works, you can pass on the tip and experience to everyone

Generally speaking, it’s a half dozen torx screws and a ribbon connector.

If the problem is the controller, this will work pretty much every time, as long as the drives are EXACTLY the same - if they weren’t purchased around the same time, they may have a different rev number and controller.

Fortunately, controller differences are usually visually obvious.

adam-wagner · 2012-02-22T15:50:19.000Z

Bill8303 wrote:

Depends on how ‘whacked’ you’re talking. If it’s due to a hardware issue (ie, hard drive won’t spin up) then I’d recommend diskdoctors.com, although they quote out how much it will cost to recover data.

If the hard drive will spin up, but you have bad sectors, or a complete corrupt hard drive, I STRONGLY recommend Data Recovery Wizard by EASUS. When I was doing my Masters thesis, I had my HD crash right when I was finishing my last of over 100 pages and hadn’t backed up that night. I was able to recover the data and finish before my presentation. Well worth the $50 I spent.

True. Just lost a partition on a drive yesterday. Remembered your EASUS recommendation and used it. Let the analysis run over night and was able to restore this morning. Thanks for the recommendation. Spice point for you.