Data recovery for dead hard-drive?

[ghost of miles]

Last night my Dell laptop hard-drive quite suddenly upped and died on me. Any suggestions on where to go for data recovery? I don't mind losing most of the documents I'd stored on it, but I had some fiction and general-writing docs that I'd dearly like to save somehow. (I'm planning on buying an external drive and backing up everything once a month from now on, btw. This lesson could have been far more painful, that's for sure...)

Edited July 15, 2011 by ghost of miles

[ejp626]

Last night my Dell laptop hard-drive quite suddenly upped and died on me. Any suggestions on where to go for data recovery? I don't mind losing most of the documents I'd stored on it, but I had some fiction and general-writing docs that I'd dearly like to save somehow. (I'm planning on buying an external drive and backing up everything once a month from now on, btw. This lesson could have been far more painful, that's for sure...)

To be honest, I've never tried to crack open a laptop, but I assume the hard drive should be about the same as a desktop. There are packages that let you essentially turn an internal hard drive into an external one (that you then plug into another computer). If the physical drive can be made to "spin" you have a shot at then copying stuff over. I've salvaged a lot of stuff that way.

Indeed, most of the recovery software packages do assume that the drive at least functions even if it is no longer formatted correctly.

If the drive is completely shot then you would probably have to take it to a shop where they might remount the drive but this is going to cost beaucoup bucks.

I know it is small comfort, but you just have to save save save. Anything that is important to me, I have on the hard drive and then a portable hard drive or flash drive. I've learned my lesson many a time.

I'm planning on buying an external drive and backing up everything once a month from now on, btw. This lesson could have been far more painful, that's for sure...)

I love these external drives. I got one the other month -- 500 GB for $60!

[JSngry]

You're in a college town, right? Start asking around and get a rec for a Computer Science geek from a reliable source. My daughter's got a friend who fits that category, and the guy's proven to be a lifesaver more than once. We pay him, but he doesn't ask for much at all (we always add a little something extra, just as a gesture of appreciation), and you don't get all the hype - and possible ineptness - that you can get going to a Geek Squad-type "pro" operation, whose focus just as often as not is on sales, not service.

[ghost of miles]

Thanks, that might be my only hope--just called Kroll Ontrack, recommended by one party I contacted, and they offered an estimate of $700-$1900 to retrieve what amounts to about 100 Microsoft Word documents.

[JSngry]

DAMN dude, what you got on there, hyper-encoded results of government DNA-splicing experiments, or what?

No no no no NO way do you have to pay that (unless your HD has totally failed). Find some kid who lives and breathes for this stuff, knows how to do it, give him a good amount of change, maybe a meal & some beers, take his number & send him some referrals, and get your data back sanely and sensibly. Develop the local talent, dig?

$1900 my ass... that's some sucker-punch rootypoot bs if ever I've heard any. And I have.

[Jim R]

We experienced a hard drive failure on an iMac last January. The local Apple Store recommended a place north of S.F. called Drivesavers ( http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com ), who are apparently among the leaders in the industry. Our cost estimate was in the same general range as the the one quoted by ghost's company. After much deliberation, we decided there was nothing we needed that badly, and the h.d. is now in cold storage (in case we change our minds).

From the bit of research I did online during that period, I sure never got the impression that data recovery was as easy (basic, simple, or whatever word you want to choose) or as potentially affordable as Jim suggests it might be. I found very few options locally, and those I found had some pretty poor reviews. I found a few companies that were not local, and some of them mentioned that if they couldn't do the work themselves, they sent their jobs to be done at Drivesavers (there were even a few that were purely acting as agents for Drivesavers).

Jim may be right, but the impression I got is that it's pretty delicate work, requiring real expertise and the proper tools. Also, I think ejp626's point about the severity of the drive's condition is an important factor. Ours was 100% dead, fwiw.

Edited July 15, 2011 by Jim R

[ghost of miles]

Yeah, there's no way I'm paying that or anything near that, obviously. Gillware might be able to do it for several hundred dollars. Problem is that I think the HD truly is dead and gone... our computer guy here couldn't get it to read on any of the computers he put it into, and neither could the PC Max crew on their machines. Every computer you put it in basically says there's nothing there, that the HD doesn't exist. I'm putting out plenty of feelers to folks I know, though.

EDIT: Jim R, I think Drivesavers was who PC Max recommended, but a knowledgeable friend suggested Gillware, and they're willing to do a free evaluation of the drive and work up a cost estimate, so I may end up mailing it to them next week. But at some point I may do what you did and simply put it into cold storage, in case I change my mind or (better yet) the price for such recovery procedures goes down over the next couple of years.

Edited July 15, 2011 by ghost of miles

[JSngry]

From the bit of research I did online during that period, I sure never got the impression that data recovery was as easy (basic, simple, or whatever word you want to choose) or as potentially affordable as Jim suggests it might be.

If you network amongst your family and friends long enough, you're going to fins some "kid" who's a total geek about this type thing, is either a student, or underemployed, and who will relish the challenge of putting your Humpty-Dumpty back together again (if in fact it can be, and it sounds like maybe yours can't be, David, which really sucks. but don't give up just yet!). But you're not going to find these people among the "pros". These are people who either looking to someday will become pros, or who scoff at the pros for various reasons and would never sully themselves to enter their ranks (that's what they say now...that's what we all say when we're young, gifted, and idealistic, right?.

They're out there, trust me. And they'll do you right for not very much money if you do them right in return.

[Jim R]

From the bit of research I did online during that period, I sure never got the impression that data recovery was as easy (basic, simple, or whatever word you want to choose) or as potentially affordable as Jim suggests it might be.

If you network amongst your family and friends long enough, you're going to fins some "kid" who's a total geek about this type thing, is either a student, or underemployed, and who will relish the challenge of putting your Humpty-Dumpty back together again (if in fact it can be, and it sounds like maybe yours can't be, David, which really sucks. but don't give up just yet!). But you're not going to find these people among the "pros". These are people who either looking to someday will become pros, or who scoff at the pros for various reasons and would never sully themselves to enter their ranks (that's what they say now...that's what we all say when we're young, gifted, and idealistic, right?.

They're out there, trust me. And they'll do you right for not very much money if you do them right in return.

I hear you. My son had a computer genius type friend in high school who would have attempted this if I'd asked him (by that time, he had just left for college). The problem with that approach, as I see it, is that it's pretty universally understood that this is very delicate stuff, and you can lose all of your data if the task isn't done right. You get one chance at optimal results, the way I understand it, and you need the right conditions and tools to work with. If it were as straightforward as just calling the nearest geek/whiz, I think there'd be a lot more people advertising this service by now. But, like I also said, you could be right. I'm just reporting what I've observed/read. Bottom line- I think we all know that you need to be serious and desperate to pay the kind of money being charged by the pros.

[jostber]

Burn a Knoppix CD and boot on this. If you connect another PC or an external USB disk you can lift the data you want from the wrecked hard disk.

http://www.help2go.com/Tutorials/Computer_Basics/How_to_recover_files_from_an_unbootable_dead_computer.html

[JSngry]

Burn a Knoppix CD and boot on this. If you connect another PC or an external USB disk you can lift the data you want from the wrecked hard disk.

http://www.help2go.c...d_computer.html

Now see, that's the kind of thing that I would not even attempt by myself (maybe as a hobby when I retire, but not now!)...but I'd pay some young & hungry "kid" who I knew I could trust $100 or so to do for me, maybe more if the data was that critical. And I'd not hesitate to offer to give the person some future referrals if they'd like them. Every young and hungry "kid" I've known doesn't mind being young, but they sure as hell hate being hungry!

But $700-$1900? That's for people who either have "sensitive" data or else don't even know they have other options!

[JSngry]

If it were as straightforward as just calling the nearest geek/whiz, I think there'd be a lot more people advertising this service by now.

Yeah, the problem with a lot of the geek/whizzes (besides the problem with anybody's whizzes...) is that a lot of them think they know more than they do (or have otehr people who think they know more than they do). You gotta screen your referrals, if you know what I mean. The guy we use is a CompSci major at UTD, so he's both intuitive and trained. He's with this stuff like I was with music when I was his age, just naturally attracted to it, new what he knew, knew what he didn't know (but knew several layers of where to go to find it out), the type of guy who's not happy without some kind of problem to solve, you know the type. I'd like to think that he's "one of a kind", but ya' know, I've met about 4 or 5 of his friends/fellow students, and they're all like him.

The thing about computers (and everything, really, these days), is that pretty much all the answers are out there online somewhere, you just have to know where to go (and be able to "speak the language"). It's not like our generation, where repair work in general was kind of a closed circle of people who knew the details, and if you wanted to get to it, you either had to become one, marry into the family, or else get them drunk to spill their secrets. I mean, I've seen this young man exhaust all his known solutions to a problem, get on his laptop, check out a discussion forum ran by his professors(!) and come back with a fix. Eating a sandwich the whole time!

I really do think it is as straightforward as just calling the nearest geek/whiz. Just maybe not the nearest, if you know what I mean. There really are no "secrets" or "mysteries" in this day and age when it comes to repair. But,as always, there are huge variances in personal character/work ethic, and that's where it gets sticky!

[Chuck Nessa]

I think the thought processes of geek types can sometimes work against the solution. A few years ago I had a major problem with my Gateway (remember those?) and I was afraid to try anything myself. A corporate IT guy lived across the street and he came over - after about 3 hours he gave up and took his leave. I sat down at the keyboard, thought the stuff through and within about 15 minutes cleared up the problem.

[Shawn]

One of the major pitfalls of "geek think" is to immediately dive into a complex troubleshooting process...and forgetting to try the really simple stuff first. It's an easy trap and I've fallen into it myself.

One of the big box stores (I can't remember if it's Comp USA or Best Buy) can check the hard drive to find out if it's even worth investing to recover the data. I wouldn't pay more than $200 for data recovery, it's a scam because they have you by the short and curlies.

That's why it's best to buy 2 or 3 external hard drives to back up the data. 1 primary backup, 1 redundant backup stored in a fire safe and a third to store at an offsite location like a Safety Deposit box. If you have multiple backups you'll never need to pay anyone to recover data (in the future).

[Christiern]

It won't help you in this case, but I had the same problem a few years back and now I save all my important current projects to a flash stick. It's easy, fast, and effective.

[JSngry]

One of the big box stores (I can't remember if it's Comp USA or Best Buy) can check the hard drive to find out if it's even worth investing to recover the data. I wouldn't pay more than $200 for data recovery, it's a scam because they have you by the short and curlies.

Best Buy/Geek Squad wanted to charge me $150 just to look at it. I got all my data back for about half of that.

[Shawn]

yeah, I'm not surprised by that price. As soon as they hear "data recovery" you're screwed.

[Jim R]

If it were as straightforward as just calling the nearest geek/whiz, I think there'd be a lot more people advertising this service by now.

Yeah, the problem with a lot of the geek/whizzes (besides the problem with anybody's whizzes...) is that a lot of them think they know more than they do (or have otehr people who think they know more than they do). You gotta screen your referrals, if you know what I mean. The guy we use is a CompSci major at UTD, so he's both intuitive and trained. He's with this stuff like I was with music when I was his age, just naturally attracted to it, new what he knew, knew what he didn't know (but knew several layers of where to go to find it out), the type of guy who's not happy without some kind of problem to solve, you know the type. I'd like to think that he's "one of a kind", but ya' know, I've met about 4 or 5 of his friends/fellow students, and they're all like him.

The thing about computers (and everything, really, these days), is that pretty much all the answers are out there online somewhere, you just have to know where to go (and be able to "speak the language"). It's not like our generation, where repair work in general was kind of a closed circle of people who knew the details, and if you wanted to get to it, you either had to become one, marry into the family, or else get them drunk to spill their secrets. I mean, I've seen this young man exhaust all his known solutions to a problem, get on his laptop, check out a discussion forum ran by his professors(!) and come back with a fix. Eating a sandwich the whole time!

I really do think it is as straightforward as just calling the nearest geek/whiz. Just maybe not the nearest, if you know what I mean. There really are no "secrets" or "mysteries" in this day and age when it comes to repair. But,as always, there are huge variances in personal character/work ethic, and that's where it gets sticky!

I can only call it a "gut feeling", but something tells me that the level of risk (of failure, whether that means losing some or all of the data in question) is pretty high when it comes to recovering data from a hard drive that has suffered a complete failure. Otherwise, as I suggested above, one would expect to see far more people attempting to make some cash providing this service on a localized level (and I live IN Silicon Valley, for crying out loud). As it is, there seem to be relatively few professional options scattered about, and a lot of people seem to be shipping their drives around the country for service. I'd love to be wrong about this, of course, and I know things can change quickly (I haven't really researched any of this since January, fwiw).

Backing up is definitely a wise thing to do. I was too lazy and stupid to accomplish that before it was too late, as I was over-confident about the condition of our machine at the time. We now have an external drive with the new Mac, and are using "Time Machine" to automate the process. And yes, flash sticks are wonderful. I use them quite a bit to transfer files from the new Mac to the old one (we decided we needed two computers, and had the old iMac refurbished with a new h.d.).

[JSngry]

Maybe I'm just lucky to have a daughter who knows the right people, but reading that link that jostber posted above, it seems like if you're smart enough to understand those directions, and sensible enough to not be stupid/careless/daredevil-y (a too-rare quality!) in the face of clearly stated things to not try to do, then it's not really any kind of a high-wire act. I'd not attempt it, but that's because I'm kinda chickenshit when it comes to tackling HD issues.

Also reading that same link, it does seem that, yeah, if you get somebody who is stupid/careless/daredevil-y, somebody who thinks that they know more than they do, then yeah, you're screwed. But that goes to character & work ethic a lot more than it does to the inherent danger level of the task. Knowledge and good sense don't always go hand in hand, and therein lies the excitement!

yeah, I'm not surprised by that price. As soon as they hear "data recovery" you're screwed.

And I guess it's fairly "common knowledge" by now that Geek Squad's hiring standards in terms of proven skill sets are not nearly as high as they'd like you to believe...

[Shawn]

I've worked contract and temp assignments for a few different computer manufacturers in my lifetime, I gotta say the only company with a decent screening/training process was Apple.

[Quincy]

Backing up is definitely a wise thing to do. I was too lazy and stupid to accomplish that before it was too late, as I was over-confident about the condition of our machine at the time. We now have an external drive with the new Mac, and are using "Time Machine" to automate the process. And yes, flash sticks are wonderful. I use them quite a bit to transfer files from the new Mac to the old one (we decided we needed two computers, and had the old iMac refurbished with a new h.d.).

Time Machine certainly makes it easy. I'd also suggest using Dropbox for some key files & documents as it works better than emailing things to an account. This way if a calamity happens that takes out one's computer(s) and backup external drives at least there are copies away from the abode. Not that I have everything documented, but Dropbox works well for photos for home/renter's insurance purposes.

[Christiern]

Time Machine works well (I have it feeding a 1TB disk) and gives me comfort. but I still use the stick routinely.

Is there a Time Machine equivalent for the PC?

[Jim R]

Maybe I'm just lucky to have a daughter who knows the right people, but reading that link that jostber posted above, it seems like if you're smart enough to understand those directions, and sensible enough to not be stupid/careless/daredevil-y (a too-rare quality!) in the face of clearly stated things to not try to do, then it's not really any kind of a high-wire act. I'd not attempt it, but that's because I'm kinda chickenshit when it comes to tackling HD issues.

Also reading that same link, it does seem that, yeah, if you get somebody who is stupid/careless/daredevil-y, somebody who thinks that they know more than they do, then yeah, you're screwed. But that goes to character & work ethic a lot more than it does to the inherent danger level of the task. Knowledge and good sense don't always go hand in hand, and therein lies the excitement!

I'm actually "at peace" right now with the losses I incurred, and not very anxious about trying to look for cheaper solutions, so I'm just talking for talking's sake here, but when I looked at that link, I wondered if that procedure would even work on a drive that's really dead (not just merely dead, but really most sincerely dead). I recall trying to boot up from a CD (forget the name of it now, but it was suggested by my son's friend), and... no dice.

[ejp626]

...but when I looked at that link, I wondered if that procedure would even work on a drive that's really dead (not just merely dead, but really most sincerely dead). I recall trying to boot up from a CD (forget the name of it now, but it was suggested by my son's friend), and... no dice.

Right, most of the solutions only work if there is at least some life left in the hard drive. If it truly has frozen and won't spin for mechanical reasons, none of the easy options are open to you.

[JSngry]

I'm very thankful that I've just had them die but never actually be dead.

Wish I could learn how to do that myself!