Data Recovery Services?
 

Well hard drive failed today.... also learned that my wife doesnt backup her files (*@^)$YG*)^

its not making any unusual noise, spins up fine, doesnt overheat, doesnt vibrate more than usual... but my computer (and 3 others I have tried) won't recognize it in bios or in windows...

anyways back to the question... anybody have any experience with a data recovery service in the USA? I know its expensive.. but there is shit on there that we gotta have (actually she has to have)...

What caused it to spontaneously fail? If it spins up, it's a damn good sign. It all depends on how it blew up in the first place. :)

Like what exactly?

I'll tell you right now, data recovery services will have you paying out of your ass to get back that data on that dead drive.

Now, you gotta ask yourself, do you REALLY need that data?

try the FBI.. i hear they're really good at that sorta stuff :D

There's a product called Spinrite that I have used to recover data before. It works pretty good for recovering data from bad sectors.

It's $89.00 US, but that is a LOT cheaper than data recovery services.

It froze while I was opening a webpage... I rebooted and it no longer recognizes the drive...

Yes, we really need that data... its all of her records from when she operated her own buisness for 4 years, if we ever get audited we'd be screwed. Additionally she teaches a class at a community college... grades for the whole semester are on there (not to mention past semesters)... she willing to pay her salary for the whole semester to get it recovered (~$2000).

but if the computer wont recognize the hardware in bios how is a piece of software going to help?

there are several programs I've used in the past, Handy Recovery if the drive spins up and the boards aren't bad. It can take overnight or even a couple days but I have recovered lots of data.

OnTrack is the most widely used in the Fortune500 circles. They only charge $100 to look at the drive, then will charge by total amount of data restored. OnTrack also has some software that can check the drive for what it can recover without their "clean room" systems.

As far as even if the BIOS or Windows doesn't see it, sometimes the recovery tools can still access the failed drive.

No noises is a wonderful non-symptom. You'll probably get everything back.

Best not to keep experimenting. Depending on the problem you can do additional damage. It can be educational to play with a junk drive but given the value of your data you should pass it off to a good shop.

Someone big like Drivesavers will charge ~$40-60/GB, billed by drive size. You don't get a break if all they had to do was swap controllers. You're paying for their experience in knowing each drive and which parts can be safely swapped, how to do it carefully, and for deeper analysis if it's necessary. I often recover drives but on a best-effort basis - no promisies. Your description tells me you should pay for the experience. Get the drive model and serial numbers. Call around and get bids.

Not that it helps right now, but each week that passes usually eases the burden. People often find alternative ways to get their data - peers, email history, old students? Put the drive in a safe place in case you later need professional recovery for an audit.

Good luck!

thanx... guys... sent it to ontrack.. hopefully it will only cost an arm...