Data recovery companies

[FireBrewer]

Anyone have any experience with these?

WD Support > Data Recovery Partner

I have a WD 320GB external drive that bit the dust. Luckily, it's still under warranty but I have to shell out some coin to get the data back because of their ****ing defective product!

Now I really need a beer...

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

They are actually the Fed IT dept, they are scanning your data for security risks.

 

[waterse]

Well, with hard drives failure is not a question but a given. They must fail eventually, it's only a matter of when. Backups are critical.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Well, with hard drives failure is not a question but a given. They must fail eventually, it's only a matter of when. Backups are critical.

I routinely backup my files. It's just all that pirated software I lose that really bites my arse. It took me forever to find a good keygen for CS2.

 

[brewt00l]

I'll just add that the one time we considered one of those services, it was rather expensive....the data basically has to be "mission critical" to warrant the cost.

 

[malkore]

Yeah, the price for recovery is pretty wicked. There's usually an up front cost just to assess the drive to see if its salvagable. then you get the real quote for the job.

talking to guys in IT, they say it starts at $500 and just skyrockets from there.

 

[k1v1116]

a lot of harddrive failures are recoverable without any special means. can you describe the problem,
does the system not recognize the drive at all when you plug it in?
does the drive make a ticking noise and refuse to open after a long wait from my computer?
sometimes the file system is simply corrupted and with some very basic software you can recover all your files and even save the drive, the mechanical parts of the drive can also be intact and the electronics maybe busted in which case you can get a controller board from an identical drive and fix it. while its not as common I recently recovered data from a external drive for which the disk was perfectly good but the electronics of the external case (what adapts the drive to USB/firewire etc) were busted.
when you plug the drive in what if anything shows up in the safely remove hardware program that should show up in the system tray.

 

[mysteryberto]

If it's an external HD consider taking apart if you feel comfortable. I've seen the HD inside the external shell come loose from it's cable. Fix is simply to plug it back in. More description of how it "Bit the dust"?

 

[zac]

I'll be watching this thread. I have a few 1 terabyte external drives that I have info on. It;s not like you can just back them puppies up easily...

part time GIS guy, those SIDS are huge

 

[billtzk]

Get Knoppix and the Ultimate Boot CD. The former has a lot of linux tools that might be useful for data recovery. They are hard to glom for someone who is not familiar with Linux, though. The latter has a bunch of disk diagnostic tools. There are a few other Linux-based recovery CDs out there. SystemRescueCD is another one.

If you try to recover the data on your own, be prepared to spend countless hours at it, and accept the possibility of failure. I've had successes and failures over the years.

 

[FireBrewer]

Well, with hard drives failure is not a question but a given.

I did read that whilst researching drive failures (after the fact, of course). Not if, but when.

talking to guys in IT, they say it starts at $500 and just skyrockets from there.

Well, gotta save up I guess. Saw one of the providers offered a 10% discount to WD customers and $100 off the evaluation. That should say something right there.

a lot of harddrive failures are recoverable without any special means. can you describe the problem,

Here's what it looks like. When you plug the power in, the blue light on the front comes on for less than a second then goes off. You can hear the drive spinning up and making typical hard-drive noise, then spins down in less than 5 seconds. The computer doesn't even see it anymore. It does this whether the USB cable is attached or not.

Emailing WD back and forth, they pointed me to the recovery providers.

Been backing things up to CD fairly regularly, would just be missing lots of kids' pictures, etc. Would pony up money for that.

 

[k1v1116]

it sounds like maybe just the drive enclosure is busted, if the drive spins up at all then it should keep spinning as long as power is supplied to it. it sounds like either the power supply is broken or something else in the external drive enclosure circuitry is busted. if you feel comfortable you should be able to yank the drive out and hook it up directly to your system as a internal drive.

 

[FireBrewer]

it sounds like maybe just the drive enclosure is busted, if the drive spins up at all then it should keep spinning as long as power is supplied to it. it sounds like either the power supply is broken or something else in the external drive enclosure circuitry is busted. if you feel comfortable you should be able to yank the drive out and hook it up directly to your system as a internal drive.

Interesting...that'd be a big middle finger to WD and their proprosed recover companies eh? At this point I'm more worried about recovering the data than I am getting a new one from WD. I'm pretty much done with them.

 

[s3n8]

I have RMA'd Seagates, Maxtors, IBMs... Never had a problem with WD's. Until Sunday night. It was a 300G, was the C: in one of my IBM Zpro workstations. The drive seems fine, I can read all of the data, but the MBR seems shot. I have another on the way from newegg, but its still a hassle.

Back up often, to multiple places.

Hard drives are cheap. I just bought a new 500G for 59 bucks.

 

[k1v1116]

s3n8, if the mbr is corrupt the windows cd and its recovery console might help. type fixmbr and fixboot, it should take care of that problem assuming the disk isnt physically damaged in that area which is less likely.

 

[Homercidal]

Interesting...that'd be a big middle finger to WD and their proprosed recover companies eh? At this point I'm more worried about recovering the data than I am getting a new one from WD. I'm pretty much done with them.

Uh, if it is the USB Enclosure (and it sounds like it is), then you should be able to pull the drive out of the enclosure, and plug it directly into the motherboard to recover your data (or buy another enclosure, they are very cheap and everyone and their brother makes them. YOu don't have to buy it from WD, just shop at Newegg.com for any USB Drive Enclosure that fits it (assuming 3.5" SATA)).

That kind of thing happens regularly. The USB enclosures have a high rate of breaking down. They are sometimes built very badly, but also they are by nature moved around a lot more, which is not good for a drive, even today.

I've had good luck with most WD drives, but frankly, counting on your USB enclosure to keep your data safe is like playing Russian Roulette with one empty chamber, IMO.

 

[FireBrewer]

Uh, if it is the USB Enclosure (and it sounds like it is), then you should be able to pull the drive out of the enclosure, and plug it directly into the motherboard to recover your data

Cool, will give that a try.

I've had good luck with most WD drives, but frankly, counting on your USB enclosure to keep your data safe is like playing Russian Roulette with one empty chamber, IMO.

Seems so. Though from a quality standpoint, one should be able to count on a decent product not to fail to a degree, no?

So, USB drives bad, SATA drives good?

Thanks for the help, guys!

 

[Saccharomyces]

What they said.

I have a couple of external hard drives I use to back up data to, and inside my computer I have two identical drives. I back up my primary drive to the secondary drive, and occasionally back up to the external drives. Everytime I have something important I immediately make sure it gets backed up SOMEWHERE (photos, music downloads).

Hard drives are devices that are always failing. It's just a question of when the number of failures is high enough to kill your data.

 

[brewt00l]

Seems so. Though from a quality standpoint, one should be able to count on a decent product not to fail to a degree, no?

you should be able to count on it being free from mfg or material defects that would cause it to fail "prematurely" but you should count on any hard drive failing at exactly the worst time, requiring you to prove how good your backups are

 

[Chriso]

Dammit. I never watch this subforum, sorry.

If you haven't already bit the bullet, try Gillware ( Data Recovery | File Recovery | Deleted Hard Disk Recovery ) ... we refer folks to them at my work, and have heard very good things -- they also tend to be cheaper than most other places, and offer up-front quoting.

Though from a quality standpoint, one should be able to count on a decent product not to fail to a degree, no?
So, USB drives bad, SATA drives good?

Sadly no. Hard drives will always die. Some hard drives will die before their rated MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) - that's why it's a mean/average. Some hard drives will defy logic and last for 10 years. It's a crapshoot.

However. I can attest that at my work, we are seeing far more rapid failure, and especially abnormally early failures, on almost all SATA drives, in both 2.5" and 3.5" size. Remember that USB drives are a box with an interface board with.... you guessed it, a SATA hard drive inside of it.

Anything that can be considered truly "important" data should be stored in 2 places at all times. So if your laptop is low on space, and you primarily store your files on an external HD, it should be automatically backed up to another external HD.

I have a file server with a 500gb drive, and am buying another 500gb drive to keep a mirror copy onto. I am also buying 2 1-TB drives to add 1 TB of storage, and keep a mirror of that as well.

It sux, I know, but ... unless it's truly "throw-away" data.... It's a PITA to keep good backups, but it's the only real way.


Finally, just a PSA reminder..... Dell, Apple, Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, Sony, blah blah blah...... Remember, at all times, that Data Is Not The Manufacturer's Responsibility. It sucks, it's true, but it's the policy all the way across the board.
Nobody here threw the cranky card, but people here @ my work throw that card, day after day. So a reminder: You can't just insist "Well, my Dell died, so it's Dell's job to get my files back" or... "My Seagate died, they should have to pay the recovery cost" .......... it's limited liability, it's standard practice, and it's not their problem. It sucks. But it's how it is.

 

[k1v1116]

while it is more expensive NAS(network attached storage) is by far the easiest system to back up your files. you can have a NAS drive attached to your router and software on your pc that automatically backs up selected folders or even the whole drive when ever your pc is connected to the network.
if you have the skills or at least the desire to learn you can also convert an old pc into a file server and if needed/desired printer, web, mail server... it can also take the place of a firewall/router. its usually a lot cheaper to build your own but it takes some time and knowledge.

 

[Chriso]

while it is more expensive NAS(network attached storage) is by far the easiest system to back up your files. you can have a NAS drive attached to your router and software on your pc that automatically backs up selected folders or even the whole drive when ever your pc is connected to the network.

Agreed -- but do remember that inside of a NAS is ........ yet another Hard Drive.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Agreed -- but do remember that inside of a NAS is ........ yet another Hard Drive.

A little . I get the impression or IIRC you said you work the retail side of all the wonderful things of computers.

Why aren't these high capacity solid state hard drives more popular yet?

I have seen some online listed as 80GB for about $1 a GB and much, much larger for much, much more. I'd think it's be worth it to have a bank of solid state drives at $1 a GB than to trust a mechanical drive.

Or is there something I am missing regarding those devices reliabilty?

 

[k1v1116]

SSDs have a lot of benefits like no moving parts and potentially higher transfer speeds, but the way they store data offers no margin for error, if you format the drive or it gets damaged there is no chance of data recovery. with a regular disk the data is stored so that even if the drive fails completely a recovery company could open up the drive and remove the disks to recover the magnetically stored data manually. at least this is my understanding of how they work correct me if im wrong.

 

[Chriso]

Yes - I do hardware repair for a help center @ a college (hold both Apple and Dell cert's). We are coupled with a college retail store, so I wind up doing some retail support/guidance but primarily, I just fix 'em post-sale.

The only real, true downside to SSD's is that, just like USB flash drives, NAND memory does still fail occaisonally. It has the blessing of not being subjective to physical conditions, e.g. drops, vibration, failed bearings, etc, like standard hard drives are. But over time, for various reasons, they still fail - whether it's an electrical short, or just degradation of the memory chips themselves, or a failed controller card. But since they are non-volatile memory stored on chips, data recovery is difficult, nearing impossible, when a SSD fails. I get the impression that this is leading people to be a little sluggish to adopt their use.

Similarly, the Big 3 are still charging quite a premium for SSD options... Dell's upgrade from a 320gb HD to a 128gb SSD is about $350 extra (using a XPS M1330). HP doesn't offer SSD in very many models at all. Apple's upgrade from a 250gb to a 128gb SSD is $600.00 extra. (Macbook 13" aluminum) ..... so before we can really expect people to adopt them widely, those have to come down to closer to a $100-200 upgrade option.

Once cost is a moot point, then yeah, I could see moving to banks of SSDs for servers and the like....... but it will be a culture shift too, as it'll take a lot to convince the big IT pro's that it's a viable server technology.

But hey, we're on the right track!!! All these Eee's and Asus's and Dell mini 9's and the like are at least getting adoption of small (4-8-16gb) SSDs started... and that's where it begins!

 

[s3n8]

s3n8, if the mbr is corrupt the windows cd and its recovery console might help. type fixmbr and fixboot, it should take care of that problem assuming the disk isnt physically damaged in that area which is less likely.

Yeah, I hear ya... But I don't trust it enough any more to rely on it. There are a few things that I already pulled off of it, once the new drive gets here, I will clone the entire partition over to the new drive to make sure I do not lose anything. After that completes successfully, I will monkey around with it. Thanks for the suggestion though.