Dropped Portable HD - Anyone know someone for Data recovery | GTAMotorcycle.com

Dropped Portable HD - Anyone know someone for Data recovery

C

CanuckDuc

Well-known member
Title says it all - I've called a few from googling it but they want a fair chunk of change. Entire music collection and family photos!
 
They all charge it. Basically it has to go into a clean room with a tech to be opened up. The room rental cost alone is couple hundred an hour. Plus cost of tech. Basically unless the info is priceless to you and you have deep pockets you ain't getting out if its a hardware issue.

Data recovery only happens when ***** REALLY valuable. At that point companies don't bat an eye at dropping $$$ to get it back. Data recovery companies charge accordingly.
 
Does the HD still spin? Clicking noise? Sure that it's not the HD case or cable that is damaged?
 
You can hear it powers up and you can hear it spinning but it cant be seen on my network ever since I dropped it. The music can be replaced with a bunch of work but it more family pics and stuff I would like to have. Lesson learned!
 
CanuckDuc said:
You can hear it powers up and you can hear it spinning but it cant be seen on my network ever since I dropped it. The music can be replaced with a bunch of work but it more family pics and stuff I would like to have. Lesson learned! %
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If the physical media/components inside are OK (i.e. heads not chipped/damaged) I can recover it for less than $300. No charge if not 90% successful. If it's more seriously damaged these guys have the equipment to read the platters directly: http://www.calltim.ca
 
have you tried taking the hd out and plugging it in with a dongle? I'd try that

pm me if you have any issues, or if you want to borrow mine or i can take a crack at it. it's a $20 part and see if your computer can read it...if it can great if it can't try linux or a mac and see if it's detected.
 
Lightcycle said:
I've used these guys before, they recovered everything. But as you know, it's mucho $$$:

http://www.cbldatarecovery.ca
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Good company according to reviews, but there is always that but. If it's just a controller (i.e. hdd spins up but cannot be seen), you can buy the same HDD or just buy a controller board on ebay and swap them. That's the cheap solution (up to $100). IF the head(s) inside hit the platter(s) and the HDD has to be opened in the clean room and platters extracted, then it's $1000+. I have a what used to be 5-months-old Seagate server-grade drive (5 years warranty), which failed - head hit the platter. Seagate said they'll replace the drive. CBL said it will be at least a grand to recover that data. Fortunately, that data was not that valuable to me.
 
You know,
Go buy another hd just like the one you have even if it is used.
get a wood box or some type of large box, cut out a window, get some plastic.
Make yourself a clean box, cut a hole at the top for your vacuum cleaner :)
Assuming the platters are good just swap the platters into the good drive.
You can probably do the same thing in the shower/bathroom.
Steam it up good for 15 minutes so the water will trap the dust.
done and done

or just suck it up and pay the bucks for recovery
I know the feeling about the lost photos.
 
I got quoted 1300. All he said was hold on to hd until it gets cheaper.
 
-D- said:
You know,
Go buy another hd just like the one you have even if it is used.
get a wood box or some type of large box, cut out a window, get some plastic.
Make yourself a clean box, cut a hole at the top for your vacuum cleaner :)
Assuming the platters are good just swap the platters into the good drive.
You can probably do the same thing in the shower/bathroom.
Steam it up good for 15 minutes so the water will trap the dust.
done and done

or just suck it up and pay the bucks for recovery
I know the feeling about the lost photos.
Click to expand...

Yup, a box and a vacuum cleaner to substitute for class 1000 or class 100 clean room. How did we not think about it when we were working with sensors for the Mars rover. Would have saved hundreds of thousands $. Damm.
 
CanuckDuc said:
Title says it all - I've called a few from googling it but they want a fair chunk of change. Entire music collection and family photos!
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Title doesn't say it all...

HD = High Definition
HDD = Hard Disk Drive.

You probably broke the logic board in the external case. Open the external HDD and remove the drive then buy this: http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_19_797&item_id=015289 to get your stuff off the drive. Then either throw it out or buy another external case and put the drive in it. The reason you hear it spinning but it's not detected is probably because the drive gets power but the data part of the case is broken.

BTW, it's always cheaper to backup your stuff on multiple mediums and keep one out of your house then to try to recover it later.
 
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ViperZ said:
Yup, a box and a vacuum cleaner to substitute for class 1000 or class 100 clean room. How did we not think about it when we were working with sensors for the Mars rover. Would have saved hundreds of thousands $. Damm.
Click to expand...

Is he building a Mars rover?
 
Thanks for the guidance folks - I am following up and learning a fair bit. Mostly to back-up your back-up!
 
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I've used cbl before $2k to get back 500 gb of data from a dropped drive that wouldn't spin up.

Personally I would pull the drive and put it in a different case, maybe the hd is fine and its just the case that got damaged.
 
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