Hard Drive data recovery?

[nath]

Hiya,

I've got a dead laptop hard drive - doesn't show up in windows via standard IDE or a usb caddy. I want to send it to a DR company but a quick google provides tonnes of results. Does anyone have any good/bad experiences with any DR companies, and can anyone recommend a good'un?

Cheers!

 

[TdC]

there were questions about this recently Nathan. I can't remember the jist of it, other than that it is very very expensive to get the pros in, and if your drive is pretending to be dead to the world I fear you will need the pros

 

[Kryten]

Before you go down that (very expensive) route it's always worth trying something else - plug it in, find a bootable live Linux CD with NTFS support (latest Ubuntu will do) and see if that has any luck. The different ways in which Linux handles file systems and the mounting of drives means drives often invisible to Windows show up and are sometimes even fully readable - so certainly worth a shot if you haven't already. I've been doing a bit of a data recovery service for a fair few people round here with Maxtor drives all failing with the same electrical problems - and end up either unreadable or invisible in Windows.

 

[Lazarus]

so - just make a bootable CD with Ubuntu, powes up the system wth the CD in the drive and buggered HD connect to see if it will recgonise?

 

[nath]

Actually, I'm not so bothered about trying all the methods. It's for a client and her company is paying. I've told her DR companies cost about 300-500 quid and she's fine with that.

 

[Kryten]

Fair enough, however a couple of quotes I had a while back ended up being nearer the £1000 mark. In which case, if you do successfully find and use one such company charging that little, let me know always useful to know these things

 

[Lazarus]

ok, I have a Ubuntu CD in the drive, and have a menu on the screen showing various options :

Start or Install Ubuntu
Start Ubuntu in safe graphics mode
Install with driver update CD
Check CD for defects
Memory TEst
Boot from first hard disk

I am trying to see if I can recover data from a HDD which windows will not recognise.

However, I keep getting to the kernel with limited commands and I cant find a command to show me the connected drives.

any help?

 

[SheepCow]

Sticking in the fridge/freezer for a bit then using usually gives you about 5-10 mins of working HDD.

Did you get the Live CD? That should start up into a full graphic interface.

 

[Lazarus]

got it from : http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download - Ubuntu 7.04 - Supported to 2008

 

[Deebs]

Listen

If the data is worth something then don't try and recover it yourself, it really is not worth it.

On the other hand, if you don't care if you fuck it up trying to recover try it.

If the drive is making a mechanical noise, STOP. Send it to a company that can recover it.

My bro-in-law rang and asked me to recover his drive. I powered the drive once, heard the noise and immediately shipped the drive to OnTrack who managed to recover over 95% of the data on the drive.

Cost, irrelevant. Why? It allowed his business to continue.