Hard drive recovery

[LeslieG]

I guess my hard drive is toast. I took it to a repair shop. They told me they couldn't retrieve anything from my hard drive. I'm a little suspicious of them, because they didn't know how to put my DOS-based files back on my computer. (I know, don't ask why I still have some DOS files.) I don't know much about computers, but should I take my hard drive somewhere else, or is it pretty easy to determine if the data is unable to be retrieved?

 

[JustineMarie]

My hard drive went too a couple months ago and I took it to the geek squad at best buy. They told me that they could probably retrieve all my stuff but it would be 1700$. I told them that my stuff wasn't worth that kind of money. That is insane.

 

[luvmy3]

$1700
My dh has retrived data from a few people's hard drive, maybe he should start charging for it

OP I don't think it would hurt to take it somewhere else to see what they say. Either they will say the same or they will be able to do it, hopefully for less than the pp's quote.

 

[rflorek]

The IT guy at my job had a friend whose hard drive was toast and that was where she had ALL of her family photos stored - the only copies of all of her children's photos, etc. He could not recover anything, so they had to send it off to some company (can't remember the name) and they were able to get the data off for somewhere over $2000 - but she was willing to pay because they were precious photos.

Moral of the story: always have a backup copy of all important data, if not multiple copies.

 

[surfergirl602]

after having an older hard drive crash on me, I got an external hard drive for christmas and backed everything up on it. that reminds me that I need to do an update. I would check your phone book for a computer repair service that does it out of their own home, on the side, etc. We did that when we kept ketting the blue screen of death. He was wonderful, soooo much cheaper than a store, and did what he did because he liked it, not because it was a job. He ran a little repair service from his home to bring in some extra money, and it was worth it for both of us. He fixed my multitued of problems for under 200.

 

[tayandjensmom]

Just picked my computer up last week. Had a virus they could not fix. Had to take me back to factory install, replaced the hard drive, and saved all my photo's and documents. Paid 229.00 for everything. I took it to a local repair company. Good luck to you. Lisa

 

[BrettS]

I guess my hard drive is toast. I took it to a repair shop. They told me they couldn't retrieve anything from my hard drive. I'm a little suspicious of them, because they didn't know how to put my DOS-based files back on my computer. (I know, don't ask why I still have some DOS files.) I don't know much about computers, but should I take my hard drive somewhere else, or is it pretty easy to determine if the data is unable to be retrieved?

It really depends on what's wrong with the drive. Some problems are very easy to get by and all or most of your data can be retrieved fairly easily. Other problems are much more complex and can take a lot of effort. Since the repair shop wasn't able to retrieve anything, I suspect that your issue may be one of the more complex ones, and unfortunately complex means expensive.

On Track Data Recovery (www.ontrack.com) is one of the best data recovery companies out there and I have used them in the past. If you really really need to get your data back, then I would suggest talking to them. If anyone can retrieve that data they can. Unfortunately, however, as other posters have mentioned, you should expect to pay several thousand dollars for this.

 

[zumbergc]

it depends. I had this happen a few months ago. We had an external drive die on us, and well had some pics that were only on there.
Asked around at the stores, IT guy at work. We heard the $1700 charge as well, pretty much if they have to do some work and fix it , it will take some man hours. however if its something easy, you still get stuck with the big charge.

I went the do-it-your self route. Mine was different since it was an external drive and sometimes the drive is fine, and the controller /box is what broke.
I went to a computer store - microcenter, and bought something to power the drive exernally, and read the data thru a usb port.
Then powered the drive up, and lucky for me, got the data off.

You need to know if its a PATA or SATA drive. Lucky me had a mix, it was powered like a pata drive, and data like a sata drive. So, if depening on the age of the drive you may find that too if it was during a transition time. Also be careful, you probably want a volt meter. some of the converters i bought, the power wasn't really clean and wasn't at the proper voltage. So, I ended up mixing power from my other computer system, as the power from the converter (no worky), power from my computer system (got data off).

If you are going to go this route, you need another working computer, know a little but about taking your computer apart (safely), and if you goof up, be willing to take the consequences (all data could be gone cause you goofed something up). Plus, sometimes you end up with nothing in the end, or paying more for someone to fix the mistakes you made.

 

[NYCDiane]

Moral of the story: always have a backup copy of all important data, if not multiple copies.

Moral of the story should be, don't store all your important pics on the computer. You should have photo albums/scrapbooks, along with having the pics on CD ($2.99 at most drug stores, sometimes free).

I could never understand why people make "online scrapbooks"..... I guess it's a novel idea in this tech age, but isn't a "scrapbook" just that? A SCRAP-BOOK..... scraps of your memories through photos, ticket stubs, report cards, ribbons, etc, etc, etc.... You can't put all that in an "online" scrapbook.

 

[mrsklamc]

Moral of the story should be, don't store all your important pics on the computer. You should have photo albums/scrapbooks, along with having the pics on CD ($2.99 at most drug stores, sometimes free).

I could never understand why people make "online scrapbooks"..... I guess it's a novel idea in this tech age, but isn't a "scrapbook" just that? A SCRAP-BOOK..... scraps of your memories through photos, ticket stubs, report cards, ribbons, etc, etc, etc.... You can't put all that in an "online" scrapbook.

No, actually, the moral of the story is still that you should have backup copies of all your important data. PP was not just talking about pics, and not everyone has the same emotional attachment to physical scrapbooks that you do.

 

[DISfan0829]

Do you hear the drive motor turn on at all when it powers on? Before giving up there are a few things you can try short of spending a lot of $$ for a professional service to try to recover the drive:

1) To make sure it is not the hard drive controller you can try the drive in a different system and see if it is recognized
2) People have sometimes reported success by cooling down the drive. I am not talking about freezing it but put it into the fridge and let it get cold and then see if that helps.

 

[dis-happy]

I was just talking to my sister about this issue. She lives in Seattle, home to all those computer tech people. When her hard drive failed she found a local guy with his own business who didn't charge her an arm and a leg, plus he was fabulous, has some program that the FBI also uses to get files off hard drives. I'm planning to send my dead hard drive to her so she can bring it to the same guy.

 

[windycitymom]

I could never understand why people make "online scrapbooks"..... I guess it's a novel idea in this tech age, but isn't a "scrapbook" just that? A SCRAP-BOOK..... scraps of your memories through photos, ticket stubs, report cards, ribbons, etc, etc, etc.... You can't put all that in an "online" scrapbook.

Actually, you can put it online! I am an independent consultant for Heritage Makers (where you can create digital scrapbooks, posters, cards, etc.). You upload your photos to their site. The photos are stored on their server so if anything ever happens to your photos (or harddrive), you can get actual copies since your photos are stored online.

Anything you can scan (reports cards, ticket stubs, ribbons, etc.) can be put into a storybook because you are making a jpeg of it. All you do is upload the jpeg to your secure, password protected site.

Your digital scrapbook (project) is stored online too - which means you can order multiple copies of the same book. Since the project is stored online, you can also go in and change it at anytime. With regular scrapbooking, you only get one. I had one client who made a 50th Anniversary scrapbook and then ordered additional copies to give to all of the siblings.

I can only speak for Heritage Makers, I don't know how the other computer based companies work.

 

[darrengs]

If the drive powers up I would recommend Spin Rite from GRC:

http://www.grc.com