Reply to: Hard disk failure

[BoredBloke]

That is the point I was making - What steps do they go through to determine that they can't get the data back. So you HD fails and you send it to them. They know that you will have tried and failed to get the data back yourself. So they stick it in the freezer and try with no joy. They hit it hard and still nothing, so they call you and tell you that recovery was impossible and dispose of the drive for you at no charge. On the other hand, if one of the steps does work, they call you, charge you a couple of hundred quid for the drive to sleep next to their fish fingers for the night. It seems like something which could easily and profitably be abused

Plan B then! If you get 10 drives a year to work with the freezer trick at say 300 a drive, you have a nice £3000 profit. Not enough to live on, but eough for a few nice toys!

[Clippy]

That sounds expensive if all they do is shove it in a freezer for a night or hit it on a desk - Plan B I think!!

These guys were very professional - have proper facilities, similar environment to hard drive production sites but much smaller scale.

However, on the second occasion I used them, I rang around several 'firms' in London and I got the distinct impression some of the people I spoke to were one man bands who were plucking figures (£500/£600) out of the air and would probably just try and run some freeware s/w from CNet to try and recover the data.

[themistry]

That sounds expensive if all they do is shove it in a freezer for a night or hit it on a desk - Plan B I think!!

[BoredBloke]

Yes - Disk Labs.

Cost was quite high as you can appreciate as they have you in a 'corner' so to speak.

Used them twice:

First time was a failed HDD where all data was retrieved.

Second time was to recover data from a drive which had been formatted as part of the XP install process. Unfortunately, they were un-able to retrieve any data.

Can't remember exact costs but the first instance was £200 - £400 and the second there was no cost as they were un-successful in retrieving any data. They only charged to ship the drive back to me.

On both occassions, the service was very good.

HTH.

That sounds expensive if all they do is shove it in a freezer for a night or hit it on a desk - Plan B I think!!

[Badger]

Cheers Clippy. I'll check them out.

[Clippy]

My 80gb mobile HD has failed . I've tried everything on this post and more. Has anyone ever used a data recovery firm, and if so what was the cost/success rate.

This was my box of tricks whilst on site so I'd like to get as much back as possible.

Yes - Disk Labs.

Cost was quite high as you can appreciate as they have you in a 'corner' so to speak.

Used them twice:

First time was a failed HDD where all data was retrieved.

Second time was to recover data from a drive which had been formatted as part of the XP install process. Unfortunately, they were un-able to retrieve any data.

Can't remember exact costs but the first instance was £200 - £400 and the second there was no cost as they were un-successful in retrieving any data. They only charged to ship the drive back to me.

On both occassions, the service was very good.

HTH.

[Badger]

My 80gb mobile HD has failed . I've tried everything on this post and more. Has anyone ever used a data recovery firm, and if so what was the cost/success rate.

This was my box of tricks whilst on site so I'd like to get as much back as possible.

[mccannjg]

Three things and i guaruntee they do work:

1/ Hirens boot CD
2/ Freezer trick [yes i know it sounds crazy but iv'e used and so has others]
3/ wack on a hard surface - make sure that the flat edge hits the desk - also this method is a bit 50/50

[Jubber]

If it is ticking remove it and wallop it on the desk. I know this sounds harsh, but it does free them up. If it does free it up, copy all data from it immediately to another drive and then bin it. It will only start sticking again.

J

[gadgetman]

How old is the Samsung?

Its worth typing the serial number in here to check out if its still in warranty.

If it is they turn around same day they receive the old one.

Any ideas or am I now the proud owner of a samsung paperweight?

What a perfect start to the weekend

[bogeyman]

When the disk on my Mac laptop started ticking I just switched it off overnight to cool down and managed to grab a backup of it immediately after switching it on the next day.

(I already had an external Firewire disk to copy to.)

The 'tick of death' seems to be a fairly common problem with most Mac models except the high-end Mac-Pros (not MacBookPros as these are affected also).

One might almost suspect they are sourcing 'seconds' from the drive mfrs.

I run SuperDuper on my iMac once a day so I get a boot-able clone if the worst comes to the worst.

Poor show though, Apple

[Sysman]

When the disk on my Mac laptop started ticking I just switched it off overnight to cool down and managed to grab a backup of it immediately after switching it on the next day.

(I already had an external Firewire disk to copy to.)

[Pondlife]

Cheers all.

I'll need to purchase another disk anyways as this one is most probably fcuked. Install an OS and see what I can get off the old one.

Will try the freezer trick tonight though

Bugger!

[Ardesco]

Does this really work? How well do you have to seal the bag. I mean, are we talking vacuum packing here or just tying a knot in it?

Yup, but it's the last thing to try usually. you want to try and avoid any moisture getting in the bag, but we are only talking about overnight not for weeks/months knot in it should be fine.

[Platypus]

Yay, happy days.

HDD has just started making a ticking noise and is refusing to work. I just get a Primary Disk Failure message on booting.

It was the C: partition as well. Have taken it out and stuck it in a Linux box but still no joy. Both machines detected the disk but only windows could determine the type. Fortunately it's only the OS and programes plus a few personal docs installed on it but I'd rather not have to reinstall everything.

Would quite like to get the personal stuff back but it's nothing that can't be redone.

Any ideas or am I now the proud owner of a samsung paperweight?

What a perfect start to the weekend

For windows, try Restorer 2000 Pro (maybe after the freezer trick)