Dropped external HDD whilsts being accessed, which data recovery experts to recommend

Hi all,

Out of stupidity I dropped an external drive whilst being connected to a machine. As it was fairly newly copied data I did not make a backup yet so please dont preach to me

The drive can be seen by the BIOS and the OS (windows 7) but wants to "format" the drive.

I have tried chkdsk but stopped it soon after a repair process started, in fear of causing more damage.

What could be the possible reasons for not being able to access the drive, and which data recovery service would you recommend in SA?

Is there anything else I can try (without risking further losses) as I believe that these data recovery services are quite expensive, and a lot of money to pay for an individual. Of course I will if I have to (one of the folders is really irreplaceable to me).

Please help me with advice, ideas and suggestions.

Rudi

How much is the data worth to you?

The data retrieval guys will charge a fortune to get to it, if they can. Last quote I had was approaching R7k for one hdd...

Where do you stay? Location is not visible from cell.

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

I used that twice and both times were successful.

This is not my core competency; hopefully an expert will reply.

If the drive is making unusual noises I would disconnect it *now*.

It seems probable that physical damage has occurred. In my opinion this is best left to the (expensive) specialists.

I would suggest a data recovery service that

* has a their own clean room
* only charges if data recovery is successful
* uses non-destructive methods (at least initially)

Intratech meets these criteria. They initially evaluate the chance of recovery as a percentage. This evaluation is free as is the quote that stems from the evaluation. Express service costs extra. I have used them twice in the past (one successful recovery, one unsuccessful attempt where they absorbed the cost of sourcing heads for the drive).

Cost in my instance approx R4000 ex vat for a 500G drive with physical damage.

Whilst I have only good things to say about them I don't have the experience to recommend them over other data recovery specialists. Luckily for me.

In your instance it sounds like a firm that charges per gig recovered may be cheaper if they are prepared to recover only the critical folder for you.

I am unable to recommend software tools for NTFS drives. Disk Warrior for HFS and HFS+ (mac) structures allows one to build a virtual drive from which data can be copied whilst leaving the source data untouched. This allows other strategies to be adopted on the unmanipulated source data if necessary. Perhaps someone can recommend a similar tool for NTFS.

I would personally not try a DIY repair even using this type of tool if the drive sounds strange in any way.

Good Luck

Download a Linux distro that you can use as a Live CD/USB.
Using Ubuntu, I've often been able to read data off drives that Windows insists on formatting, and it's the simplest option.

As they mentioned above, the data recovery companies charge thousands for even portions of a recovered drive.

you'll pay nothing under 1500 if the drive does not turn.

Does it still turn at all?

ChilliGirl said:

you'll pay nothing under 1500 if the drive does not turn.

Does it still turn at all?

Click to expand...

The easiest way to determine this is to hold the drive in your hand while it's running and then slowly to rotate your wrist - if the drive's spinning you will feel a resistance to moving it due to the gyro effect of the platters.

Drive definitely still turns. I am surprised at the cost, although one of the folders is really worth a lot to me, its 10 years worth of work.

The Linux distro sounds like an idea.

I have requested a budget quote lets see what they want to "ruk" me...

I am in Jhb on the East Rand

rudirautenbach said:

Drive definitely still turns. I am surprised at the cost, although one of the folders is really worth a lot to me, its 10 years worth of work.

The Linux distro sounds like an idea.

I have requested a budget quote lets see what they want to "ruk" me...

I am in Jhb on the East Rand

Click to expand...

I did this with several notebook hard drives (most recent one: A friend of mine dropped his laptop down a flight of stairs while it was on)
as well as my Seagate 500GB External HDD which was damaged by me tripping over the cable and the hard drive went flying.

Just mount the drive and start copying to another HDD

I am over the moon. I downloaded a copy of the "Ultimate Boot CD" and was thankfully able to mount, copy and salvage all of my data. Many thanks to those who made the suggestion of the Linux distro (UBCD is something very similar I guess).

I was quoted almost R6,500 by a datarecovery specialist (will not mention the name here...)

So happy!!!!