Re: Laptop HD repair/recovery question
On 11/17/2008 03:12 PM, Bill McGonigle wrote: Alex Hewitt wrote: When I looked into having them recover a customer drive they wanted somewhere north of $3k but their price was proportional to the percentage of data recovered. I've used DriveSavers before and they do a good job. Their pricing is sort of a nice qualifier - if $3K is too much to even consider for the data, then a DIY approach is warranted. If $3K sounds like a bargain not to lose that data, send the drive to them. Last summer one of my drives in my home system failed. My nightly backup was not restarted after an upgrade to SuSE 11.0, and the older backups were gzipped tarballs with a VDI in the middle preventing a full restoration, mostly my emails (10+ years worth) + some financial stuff. I use Aero Data Recovery (www.*aero*dr.com ). They have a flat fee with no fee if they cannot recover. In my case, they were unable to recover, but they recommended another data recovery company, and they would ship to that company free of charge with a 10% discount. It cost me under $1000 for a full recovery of my ReiserFS file system. The company they shipped to wasESS Data Recovery (www.*essdatarecovery*.com, ). Both companies responded both by email and voice. I had also called a couple of companies locally. The problem with some of the companies are they charge you up ront whether they can recover your data or not. They returned my data in an NTFS formatted 255GB drive (I think I paid for a 160, but they gave me a free upgrade to the 255). In any case, beore sending your drive of, look at the company. The first place I looked at was Tech Fusion in Harvard Square. After I sent in a query, I remember dealing with them many years ago, and after looking at reviews and their prices, it was an easy decision to avoid them. first, they charge about $600 up front, and keep about $500 if they are unable to recover. Another issue that effects price is time. In my case, I sent my drive in, and got a reply for either standard or priority. With standard, you get into a FCFS queue, and your drive will wait for a few days. I think in my case, the total time was about 2 weeks, which was fine, and I'm a happy camper,and have changed my backup procedure. -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Laptop HD repair/recovery question
This has been discussed here in the past so good info can probably be found in the archives (RTFA! ;- ) and IIRC the recommendations usually come down to: - Connect the drive to a different system, either directly or using a USB converter, to determine if the problems lie with the drive or with something else. - Proabably shouldn't mount the filesystem in RW mode or do anything else to it that will result in modifications to it until you've made a bit-for-bit copy of the disk using something like (say) dd or dd_rescue. - While the pain is fresh, briefly consider implementing a backup regimen, then discard the notion and resume previous behavior... ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Laptop HD repair/recovery question
On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 10:38 AM, Ed lawson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A friend was recently happily using his Dell Inspiron (Windows XP) when it suddenly displayed blue screen and subsequent boot attempts have lead to a no bootable device message. Running a live Linux CD results in a indication the HD is dead...maybe hosed partition table. Try http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ if you have not already. Any suggestions of NH repair shops to check system/HD, repair and determine if recovery of bad drive feasible at reasonable price and/or best nearby recovery shop? I researched this back in the spring and found no one in NH or VT that was reasonable priced. I ended up sending it to http://www.aerodr.com/ but there was major physical damage to my drive, so they could not handle it. They referred me over to http://www.essdatarecovery.com/ who was able to recover 100% of the data (as far as I have seen: no bad files yet). If there is no physical damage, then the $279 flat rate with Aero should apply, but I also expect there is a local geek that could help you out there as it is just a matter of knowing how to use the right utilities to get the data off. Worse case, you just send a USB drive along with the bad one to Aero and you should have all your data back on the USB drive within a few days. I think Areo will sell you a USB drive as well if you don't have one to send with that bad drive. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Laptop HD repair/recovery question
On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 10:38 AM, Ed lawson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Running a live Linux CD results in a indication the HD is dead... maybe hosed partition table. Be warned that if the hardware is faulty, simply powering it up may be doing additional damage. Unfortunately, making the determination as to hardware vs software is often itself difficult. Depending on value of the data, you may want to just go right to a first tier data-recovery service. These are the places that have a clean room to open the drive up, and equipment to read the data off the platters independent of the drive electronics. On the down side, cost for a recovery will often be $1000. I've used CBL Data Recovery (http://www.cbltech.com/) in the past with good results. They offer a free quote, and you don't pay if they don't get data. Mail-in service. Good luck! -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Laptop HD repair/recovery question
Ben Scott wrote: On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 10:38 AM, Ed lawson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Running a live Linux CD results in a indication the HD is dead... maybe hosed partition table. Be warned that if the hardware is faulty, simply powering it up may be doing additional damage. Unfortunately, making the determination as to hardware vs software is often itself difficult. Depending on value of the data, you may want to just go right to a first tier data-recovery service. These are the places that have a clean room to open the drive up, and equipment to read the data off the platters independent of the drive electronics. On the down side, cost for a recovery will often be $1000. I've used CBL Data Recovery (http://www.cbltech.com/) in the past with good results. They offer a free quote, and you don't pay if they don't get data. Mail-in service. Good luck! -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ I'd echo what Ben just said. I have done recovery operations for customers and have gone as far as ordering an identical part number drive from eBay and then swapping the electronics (the drive was dead when I received it). The operation was a success but if the value of the contents of the drive are high enough you should just pack it up and send it to a recovery company. One such outfit, Drive Savers, was featured on a CBS news program. See their web site at www.drivesavers.com. When I looked into having them recover a customer drive they wanted somewhere north of $3k but their price was proportional to the percentage of data recovered. I have also used Knoppix to mount a Windows NTFS partition and found that the Linux NTFS driver would allow me to access data that Windows would barf on. Again though, if the data is really valuable don't bother with local places, just go to the folks that have the proper facilities to get the job done. -Alex ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Laptop HD repair/recovery question
Alex Hewitt wrote: When I looked into having them recover a customer drive they wanted somewhere north of $3k but their price was proportional to the percentage of data recovered. I've used DriveSavers before and they do a good job. Their pricing is sort of a nice qualifier - if $3K is too much to even consider for the data, then a DIY approach is warranted. If $3K sounds like a bargain not to lose that data, send the drive to them. -Bill ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Laptop HD repair/recovery question
Ditto on the DriveSavers. Here's a quick story... A long time ago (~6 years) I responded to an urgent page from a customer who owned a few video stores in the area (Springfield, VT). I arrived at the head store, introduced myself to the manager and then asked Can you take me to your server? After 15 minutes of searching we found the server. In a storage room, in the back, completely buried with boxes of who knows what. The server was a 486DX2 running DOS 5 and Netware 3whatever. The storage drive, with all their records was dead. It would barley spin, and that's about all. When it would spin, it would scream like a banshee. I advised that the best course would be to ship the drive to drive savers for recovery. The owner agreed. I removed the drive from the server. As soon as I removed the drive I could tell that there was something not right with this drive. As I was moved the drive, I noticed some rattling and by rattling, I mean, there was things moving around in there, freely. Not sounds a drive, good or bad, should be making. I overnighted the drive to DriveSavers. In 1 week we had the data back on a DVD. Drive savers also sent back the damaged drive. Being the curious cat I am, I opened the drive up to find loads of fine black grit. The heads were swinging free across the platters, and the magnets were non-existent (the black grit, I'm assuming). The platters showed signs of the drive heads skimming back and forth, probably during shipping and in the parking area, a nice, silver band could be seen where the heads had worn through the surface of the platter. They recovered the data. 100%. I would have figured the drive (and data) was destined for the green monster (dumpster) with the damage I saw. DriveSavers can do some amazing work. ali-gRespeck/ali-g ~k On Mon, 2008-11-17 at 15:12 -0500, Bill McGonigle wrote: Alex Hewitt wrote: When I looked into having them recover a customer drive they wanted somewhere north of $3k but their price was proportional to the percentage of data recovered. I've used DriveSavers before and they do a good job. Their pricing is sort of a nice qualifier - if $3K is too much to even consider for the data, then a DIY approach is warranted. If $3K sounds like a bargain not to lose that data, send the drive to them. -Bill ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Laptop HD repair/recovery question
On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 4:47 PM, H. Kurth Bemis [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: They recovered the data. 100%. I would have figured the drive (and data) was destined for the green monster (dumpster) with the damage I saw. DriveSavers can do some amazing work. Yes, DriveSavers has an excellent reputation and a great marketing department. I would probably send my million $ data there as well, but it I think they are very pricy from a competitive stand point. Aero is not likely to make things worse and if they do, it is highly unlikely that it would matter to ESS. Both offer flat rates and charge nothing if you don't get the exact data you want. The deal I got from ESS was if they get all but one file, and it is a file I really want, I pay nothing. Of course, if you don't pay, you don't get any of the data either, but they will tell you what was recovered before they charge you anything. Again, I'm sure DriveSaver's is as good as any other service, if not the best, but it is worth mentioning that most of the examples in their extreme museum http://www.drivesavers.com/fun/museum-of-disk-asters.html are not likely to have caused physical damage to the magnetic media. The drive I sent to ESS has suffered a massive head crash and I proceeded to scratch the hell out of the platters while trying to get the data off the drive myself. I only started looking for recovery services once the drive stopped spinning up altogether (nasty noises while it tried though). That's some seriously scratched media. They only thing I can think of that would be worse is if the platters had been cracked for warped in some way. ESS got 100% of my data back. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Laptop HD repair/recovery question
Ed lawson wrote: Any suggestions of NH repair shops to check system/HD, repair and determine if recovery of bad drive feasible at reasonable price and/or best nearby recovery shop? There have been some great recommendations so far. Go for those if you can. If you can't... I often get customers who are so po they can't pay attention. One had a hard drive failure and it was relatively minor by comparison to the stories others have told. The partition in question usually wouldn't mount no matter how I tried (Win, Linux, various recovery CD's, different machines, etc.). Sometimes though it would mount. Once. I could get one file or so and then ...nothing. The customer was clear that I was his last resort, as he couldn't afford any of the outside services I recommended to him. If I couldn't recover his data (6+ years of work, some 15 years of archived emails...), that was it and he'd have to start over. He was quite devastated at the prospect... As a last resort I tried the old wives' tale of freezing the drive. I stuck it in the freezer in my shop for an hour. Then I took it out, immediately wrapped it in a towel so it would stay cool and not form condensation. I rapidly plugged it into a physical drive copy machine and started a raw partition copy to a known-good, blank HDD of slightly more size. Miraculously it worked. I burned the data to a DVD and off he went. (In the mean time, I sold him a new HDD and installed it for him.) No, I normally wouldn't try something that questionable with most customers. This was an old friend and I know the work he had saved. I also made sure he knew that this might not work at all. He was OK with that. Like I said... his last resort. Just something else to think about. Brian -- --- | [EMAIL PROTECTED] Proprietor: http://www.JustWorksNH.com | | Computers and Web Sites that JUST WORK | | Work: +1 (603) 484-1461Home: +1 (603) 484-1469| --- ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
