SUMMARY: DEAD HARDDRIVE

From: Thang Victor Dinh (tdinh@mail.irvine-sensors.com)
Date: Fri Mar 22 1996 - 17:09:38 CST


I was able to locate a local data recovery company and the problem was
fixed easily and quickly. It was a combination of logic board and power
supply failure. One Advice though, always check for hardware failure
(logic board and power supply) before going for the drastic and EXPENSIVE clean
room data recovery. They almost talked us into a $3000 clean room
service. Luckily, we only have to pay a few hundreds for their hours and
hardwares.
**************************************************

I received tons of replies. Thank you all !
Dean Licherie
Brad Young
Mark Belanger
Jim Kelly
Benjamin Cline
Ken Ferguson
Alan Hill
Ned Forrester
Roddy McColl
Pat O'Toole
Chris Eastman
Alan Pham
Steve Butterfield

Original Post:
> Urgent help please ...
>
> IS there a way to recover data from a dead harddrive ? Are there
services
> available for this kind of problem ?
>
> Thank you

Replies:

Dean Licherie <dlicheri@eso.org>

Yes there are, symantech is probally the largest corporation that
specialises in HD data recovery. They do a no fix no charge arrangement
and offer discounts if the recovery takes longer thatn 48 hrs. I dont
know where your local symantech provider is but you could use the net or
other resourece eg: yellow pages, to locate one. Alternativelly use one of
the disaster recovery firms...

Brad Young <bbyoung@amoco.com>

I've used Ontrack. Not cheap, but very competent. They'll charge
~$200 (I seem to remember) to diagnose the problem. They'll send
you a firm estimate on the cost for recovery. Ontrack can also
provide expedited service, at a premium..

Ontrack 1-800-752-1333

Mark Belanger <mjb@ltx.com>

Most dead disks I have seen actually had bad power supplies.
You might quickly check the supplies before resorting to data
recovery companies. I understand that the process is quite expensive.
If these companies don't help let me know. Just a quick search
with a web browser revealed many data recovery companies.
Here are a few.

Jim Kelly <Jim.Kelly@Corp.Sun.COM>

Accessible via the web address: http://www.drivesavers.com

        DriveSavers
        400 Bel Marin Keys Boulevard
        Novato, CA, USA 94949

        Phone: 800-440-1904
        Phone: 415-883-4232
        Fax: 415-883-0780
        Email: recovery@drivesavers.com

The web page states:

 We are recommended by major drive manufactures such as Quantum, Seagate,
 Fujitsu, Maxtor, Conner, and Micropolis, as well as by optical and
 removable cartridge manufacturers: Sony, Ricoh, Panasonic, Epson,
 SyQuest, and Laptops & PowerBooks ...

########################################################################

Also accessible via the web: http://www.ontrack.com
########################################################################

        DATA RETRIEVAL SERVICES Up to $700 for evaluation.
        Los Angeles..........301/398-2764 Estimate within 24hrs.
        Clearwater, FL.......813/461-5900

########################################################################

        U.S. COMPUTER MAINTENANCE
        Bellmore, Long Island......516/221-0223

########################################################################

Benjamin Cline <benji@hnt.com>

Yes, there are companies that specialize in recovering data from dead hard
drives. I don't know the names of any off the top of my head. I suggest
you look through the back of some magazines like "PC Magazine" or "Byte"
and look in your local yellow pages under "Data Recovery".
 
Ken Ferguson <ssa@pvdsw.amat.com>

There is a place but I can't remember it off the top of my head. I used to
work for Andataco and we dealt with recovering data for people sometimes.
It's realtively expensive like 1000 - 2000 dollars depending on size of
disk, amount of data recovered. Call them and see, the number should be on the
www.andataco.com web page. Ithink the number is 1-800-443-9191 or 334-9191.

Alan Hill <ahill@lanser.net>

depending on how 'dead' that it is, you have MANY options.
Take a look at the back 20 pages of most Unix magazines, such as
Unix Review, and you will find some of them.
LoneStar, the makers of a bunch of fine products, (starting with tar),
 make a bunch of tools.
Saturn data recovery will take your drive and get the data out of it.

How dead is it? No power? No Fat? No LEDs?

.If you have any worries, I would recommend a FULL SERVICE company that
  is able to take your drive.
.If you want to 'roll the dice', then keep searching for a software
solution.
.If this is just for FUN, then keep looking for freeware & learn dbfs

Ned Forrester <ned@kilowatt.whoi.edu>

You might contact Ontrack. We checked with them on this service, but
did not wind up using it. In our case, we found that we got enough
data by dumping the bad disk and restoring to a new disk. We lost
some files, but none important. Got lucky that time.

Roddy McColl <roddy@visual-ra.swmed.edu>

There's lots of corps who do this for a living. Don't know how big
your hard drive is, but recovery charges are usually quoted in
Dollars/MegaByte!

Pat O'Toole <otoole@poci.amis.com>

I have used Ontrack Data Recovery with good success. I think
out of 3 tries, they were always successful in getting all the
data off of the disk. Of course, your "mileage may vary".
I always talked to Todd Johnson who was very helpful.

6321 Bury Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55346
(800)872-2599

Chris Eastman <chris@cwi.net>

Pick up a trade journal such as Byte magazine, or Computer Shopper - in
the back section there are several companies that will recover data from
crashed hard drives, no matter how bad it looks...

Alan Pham <alanp@zycad.com>

   I know a company call "Ontrack Data Recovery", but it's quite
expensive though. The turn around time would be 4-6 days.

Los Angeles: 1-800-752-7557
Minneapolis: 1-800-872-2599

Steve Butterfield <steveb@pcs1.co.uk>

       I have not used them but hte people below sound as if they know
what they are doing. If you
do use them could you let me know if the service was good/bad.

Best Regards,

Steve Butterfield.

----- Begin Included Message -----

When your customers disk drive crashes hard, who can they call for disk
recovery?

Well, they'll call us first of course, but this sort of disaster
recovery we don't do, so refer them to this company if need be.

Accessible via the web address: http://www.drivesavers.com

*** or ***

        DriveSavers
        400 Bel Marin Keys Boulevard
        Novato, CA, USA 94949

        Phone: 800-440-1904
        Phone: 415-883-4232
        Fax: 415-883-0780
        Email: recovery@drivesavers.com

The web page states:

 DriveSavers' advanced engineering methods enable us to recover data from
 all hard drives, removable and optical cartridges, and floppies.

 We are recommended by major drive manufactures such as Quantum, Seagate,
 Fujitsu, Maxtor, Conner, and Micropolis, as well as by optical and
 removable cartridge manufacturers: Sony, Ricoh, Panasonic, Epson,
 SyQuest, and Laptops & PowerBooks ...



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