Data recovery Companies (for home users)

edscdk

edscdk

edscdk

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I looked at older threads and did not find any company recommendations (maybe i just did not look hard enough.)

I have a faulty hard drive and want the photos off it (it is not detected by the bios but spins up)

I'm (well my friend) is willing to pay for data recover as they are his (recently) dead wife's photos.

And idea of usual prices and recommendations of companies?

(swap pcb / freezer are options but due to the dead status of his wife he is willing to pay extra if its the best option)
 
Don't mess with it if it's very important to him. Get it to a professional.

I can recommend fields data recovery in Bridgend.

No company is going to be cheap, usually it's between 400 and a grand.
 
Personally I'd find a company close to you and from what I can see they will all be around £90 (Google) and all do a no fix/no fee.
Even Currys do it but I don't know if I'd trust them :)
 
Out of interest, what do these companies have or do that you can’t do yourself with a good data recovery software package?

Always wondered that.
 
https://www.krollontrack.co.uk

Colleague at work used them after her laptop hard drive failed with the only copy of her wedding photos on it. Drive wouldn't spin up, but the data was successfully recovered after transplant work on the drive. Cost was about £250 IIRC as they had to obtain an identical drive for spares.
 
Draeger said:
Out of interest, what do these companies have or do that you can’t do yourself with a good data recovery software package?

Always wondered that.
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I might be wrong but Data Recovery software is only useful if you can see the drive in the BIOS.
The OP said the drive can't be seen so more advanced tricks will have to be used.

I got lucky with my Sisters hd which had all their photo's on and a free bit of software got everything back.
I've got a faulty drive that can sometimes be seen and then disappears so every now and then I try it to see what I can get off.
Another drive couldn't be seen at all so in the end I binned it.
 
Basic data recovery software related I can do myself.

In depth data recovery is another beast. Experience, a clean room and equipment worth thousands all required.
 
Draeger said:
Out of interest, what do these companies have or do that you can’t do yourself with a good data recovery software package?

Always wondered that.
Click to expand...
Depending on the level of the companies equipment and how much you're willing to spend one of the common ways they can recover data from drives is by swapping the control board if the drive is spinning up but not seen (this requires having an exact spare control board for that drive), other times if the drive isn't spinning up they'll do things like replacing the motor assembly or read write heads but that level of work tends to require clean rooms, they can also I think do some funky stuff with just the bare platters (basically mounting them in a completely new assembly).

It starts out relatively cheap for a quick/simple fix, but can cost thousands per drive if it's really bad.
One of the reasons the likes of Seagate have started to do "data recovery" included with some drives is because they then know exactly what the drives sold with it are, and have both the facilities, and the stocks of spares to do the data recovery (probably spreading the cost like insurance across those drives that never need it, those that only need a quick fix, and those that require major work).

Often if it's an external drive it's possible to simply take the drive out of the enclosure and hook it up to the PC or another caddy (I did this with a 3tb drive).
 
If you want the data back, send it to Kroll.

Their charges are in proportion to how much work is involved. They'll quote a price after an inital examination of the drive. Dont let anyone mess with the drive first - it may make things worse and recovery impossible.
 
blueboy2001 said:
If you want the data back, send it to Kroll.

Their charges are in proportion to how much work is involved. They'll quote a price after an inital examination of the drive. Dont let anyone mess with the drive first - it may make things worse and recovery impossible.
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Agreed. Prices started at £99.

My colleague had the common sense to ask someone who knew what they were doing (i.e. the hardware tech guys at work) first. I took a five minute look at the laptop and once I determined the drive wasn't spinning up, and that the laptop worked fine with another drive in it I recommended she get the professionals look at it and got her a phone number for Kroll...
 
Werewolf said:
Depending on the level of the companies equipment and how much you're willing to spend one of the common ways they can recover data from drives is by swapping the control board if the drive is spinning up but not seen (this requires having an exact spare control board for that drive), other times if the drive isn't spinning up they'll do things like replacing the motor assembly or read write heads but that level of work tends to require clean rooms, they can also I think do some funky stuff with just the bare platters (basically mounting them in a completely new assembly). [..]
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It's even possible to read just part of a physically broken platter, but the cost is even higher than removing the platter(s) and reading them in equipment made for that purpose (which is very expensive indeed). I doubt if data recovery companies could go that far, but it has been done for investigating some crimes and probably by intelligence organisations.

SexyGreyFox said:
Personally I'd find a company close to you and from what I can see they will all be around £90 (Google) and all do a no fix/no fee.
Even Currys do it but I don't know if I'd trust them :)
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I wouldn't trust them to run free recovery software anyone can download. For something this important and on a drive that isn't seen by the BIOS, actual experts with appropriate equipment are the best bet (without anyone else having a go first, in case they manage to do more damage).
 
Angilion said:
I wouldn't trust them to run free recovery software anyone can download. For something this important and on a drive that isn't seen by the BIOS, actual experts with appropriate equipment are the best bet (without anyone else having a go first, in case they manage to do more damage).
Click to expand...

You'd probably get a phone call saying we couldn't do it so we've recycled it.
 
mrbazmondo said:
I've used the freezer trick before, but only for drives that won't spin up.
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If you don't care about getting the data back or not and just want to try a free "trick" then sure go for it.

For important data that you cannot afford to lose, KEEP THE DRIVE AWAY FROM THE FREEZER AT ALL COSTS.
You will likely end up doing more damage to the drive and making a data recovery company's job even harder/impossible.
 
I've used testdisk on many an occasion, usually only on drives that at least detect in windows though.
 
MassiveJim said:
If you don't care about getting the data back or not and just want to try a free "trick" then sure go for it.

For important data that you cannot afford to lose, KEEP THE DRIVE AWAY FROM THE FREEZER AT ALL COSTS.
You will likely end up doing more damage to the drive and making a data recovery company's job even harder/impossible.
Click to expand...
Its not relevant here anyway. The OPs drive spins up. All this does is free bearings that are stuck.
 
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