Data recovery companies

[Rybo89]

Hello,

My old Samsung galaxy S6 is completely dead and i need to retrieve all the photo's and videos off of the device. The usb connection bit is broke aswell so i cannot do anything with it other than get it sent off to the professionals.

Can anyone here recommend any companies? Not fussed about the price, i just want a reliable place that will retrieve all the camera photos/videos.

Thanks

 

[Myshra]

No clue how Android 6+ encryption works with this type of stuff but hope it goes OK. Checked dropbox/gPhotos/samsung backup? The big name in town is Kroll who will charge the most I suspect but have the rep for it. Get a quote first.

Turbo edit - Kroll will do the repair too i suspect.

 

[Shocky-FM]

It's dead?, as in the battery is dead and you can't charge it using the cable? or the internal flash storage is damaged / corrupt?

The Galaxy S6 if I'm remembering correcting can charge wirelessly and they're pretty cheap, buy one and once charged transfer all the photos and video over wifi,

If the sdcard is damaged then you'll need help recovering the images, a lot of help and good fortune.

Good luck!!

 

[hondo]

For an S5 a new charging port costs circa £40 therefore if its a charging issue, that should see you right.

 

[Rybo89]

Sorry, i should have mentioned a bit more. The screen is smashed and doesn't work at all. Messing about with the phone last night the charge port does actually work. I downloaded an app called FoneLab and managed to get the phone into download mode, and through the 3 stages the program goes through but when it restarts the phone to retrieve the data the laptop cannot detect that it is plugged in anymore. Will only pick it up when in download mode.

So either it is buggered or my fingerprint/swipe password is stopping it from connecting? Personally i think its not even starting up, its doesn't make any noises at all and doesn't vibrate anymore.

Spoke to a company who do all the phone forensics for the police and they have said they can most likely retrieve my data, £50 to send off the phone and the retrieving can cost anything from £100 to £900 depending how hard it is to get past the encryption.

I did save all the photos/videos last week onto my laptop but i think my baby has 'Shift+Delete' the folder when slapping the keyboard. Spent all day yesterday trying to recover them from the SSD but after going through about 15 different programs i found out about a thing called 'Trim' thats in SSD's which has made it impossible to retrieve the data from the SSD. Absolute nightmare moment.

 

[R3X]

Another company here:
https://www.krollontrack.co.uk/services/data-recovery/mobile-phone-recovery/

Am no expect on data recovery for flash type media on mobiles but from the googling articles it looked almost impossible to recover pictures/files from phones, mobile phones don't even show up on as a accessible drive letter on the pc by design. This is the first issue so data recovery software can't work like normal hdd/ssds do.

I am curious how forensics, kroll or other data recovery companies get around finger print/password encryption, is that not the whole point of encryption otherwise why have encryption in first place?

Anyhow to me just like others suggested maybe if the charge port worked partly at least its possible to charge it? try it see if it gets more fuller or try and borrow a wireless charger but maybe you could replace the actual broken screen ? Quick check on ebay and replacement screens cost around £110.

Vids showing you how to do it in 10 mins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyECCSa5hGU

It maybe worth trying to fix the fone yourself rather then spending £500-1k on the recovery, I can't say for sure mind you.

Another potential fix is asking a few mobile fone shops if they can do a recovery by repairing the phone screen just so if can be in a usable state for few minutes, maybe these mobile repair shops got an s6 phone or can temporary use one just so you can get your stuff off it and offer a cheaper and quicker alternative, these mobile phone repairers fix mobiles in minutes its not a sweat for them.


I just googled if you could output the display to the TV via some cable, not sure but someone had the same issue as you and took to a repair shop and got it repaired and data taken off. Scroll to bottom almost its in the comments section.

https://www.mobilefun.co.uk/blog/2015/03/how-to-connect-your-galaxy-s6-s6-edge-to-your-tv/

good luck

 

[Richy888]

Looks like it could be cheaper to repair the phone rather than a data recovery job. You mention you copied your photos to your laptop and got deleted. Might still be possible to recover them from the hard drive so long as the space hasn't been over written? Shift Delete just deletes with no trip to recycle bin? There are programs available that recover deleted files. Files are still on the hard disk until the space is overwritten.

Careful if you send phone off for repair as such as samsung seem to wipe the phone as well as repairing.

I know you don't want to hear it now but ALWAYS backup files you don't want to lose. For a phone plenty of cloud solutions freely available. It's not 'if I lose my data' but 'when I lose my data'. I still come across so many that never bother with backups and I don't even work in IT.

 

[wedrum]

Buy a used s6 then swap the motherboards either yourself or a phone repair company.

 

[Rybo89]

snip


I just googled if you could output the display to the TV via some cable, not sure but someone had the same issue as you and took to a repair shop and got it repaired and data taken off. Scroll to bottom almost its in the comments section.

https://www.mobilefun.co.uk/blog/2015/03/how-to-connect-your-galaxy-s6-s6-edge-to-your-tv/

good luck

Thanks for all that. Im gunna have a ring around and see if anyone has a screen used for temporary fixing just to see if the phone works and retrieve the data that way.

Be lucky though, the phone took a 3 story high drop. Got a feeling more than the screen is broke. Definetly worth the try though

Looks like it could be cheaper to repair the phone rather than a data recovery job. You mention you copied your photos to your laptop and got deleted. Might still be possible to recover them from the hard drive so long as the space hasn't been over written? Shift Delete just deletes with no trip to recycle bin? There are programs available that recover deleted files. Files are still on the hard disk until the space is overwritten.

Careful if you send phone off for repair as such as samsung seem to wipe the phone as well as repairing.

I know you don't want to hear it now but ALWAYS backup files you don't want to lose. For a phone plenty of cloud solutions freely available. It's not 'if I lose my data' but 'when I lose my data'. I still come across so many that never bother with backups and I don't even work in IT.

Yeah, i have gone through a few programs but they have all failed to find the folder. After some researching i found out about the thing called 'trim' that is used on SSD's which can quickly write over dormant sectors, even if there is loads of available space elsewhere. The SSD in my laptop is only 128GB and i think only 30GB of that is used and it is only a month old aswell (so no old data to even be written over yet), so pretty unlucky it has found that sector and overwiped it.

Yeah its a valuable lesson. I will be backing up to my external HD and Cloud aswell as my laptop from now on.

Buy a used s6 then swap the motherboards either yourself or a phone repair company.

Plan.

Ill do it my self if i can find one cheap enough, might actully be better off trying to find a tatty old S6 for sale with a working screen. Rebuilt a few of my sons phones after he has broken the screens and they all seemed to have lasted.


Thanks all for the replies! muchly appreciated

 

[R3X]

3 story drop goodness that may explain why your think its busted, possible it is. If you replaced the motherboard with another s6 that wont quite work I believe since the flash memory is usually soldered onto the motherboard but could be wrong, so your mobiles motherboard needs to be working I believe.

Sounds bit sly but maybe you can ask directly in some of these mobile repair shops the situation and just ask them if they got a spare S6 screen, maybe just to see if tempory it works and try the screen on your mobile to see if it works, if it takes the guys on YT 10 minutes you could haggle some kinda deal if you can borrow it for an hour and just copy the pics to google cloud account or take a laptop and back it up there yourself(faster) or if they can do it at reasonable cost, try and get it done in 2 jobs ie screen check first.....for small price then 2nd data recovery.