Hi...I turned my external hard drive on today, and its not working, got a friend to look at it,...but nothing, its broke...I was wondering if anyone knows of a place that does data recovery? I hear that they have like vacum equipment, and they take the actual round disks out...i need helo, my life is on that disk!
While you are waiting for responses from the locals, here's two vendors that indicate they service Cancun: http://www.cancunservice.com/partners/computers/english/index-2.html http://werecoverdata.com/CA/Cancun-Mexico/DataRecoveryCancun-Mexico.htm
I can personally attest to the services of Disk Labs http://www.disklabs.com/ You can get a quote online. A Google search can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/334lf5 which will give you other choices, but be aware, if it's a bargain it's probably not going to work. A note of caution. This can be a very expensive job, and I'm not talking about a couple of hundred dollars. The removal of the disks in a clean room and remounting on a new drive platform involves very special facilities. Not to rub it in, but once you pay for a disk recovery, you learn to perform regular backups. Also, I have to ask, have you tried the drive in another computer? That would rule out the possibility of a controller failure. Also, check your BIOS setting to see if something got scrambled there. A clue would be the wrong date and time. You may wake the disk up just by resetting the BIOS and putting in a new CMOS battery. Whatever the case, good luck.
I went to the page of http://www.cancunservice.com/partners/computers/english/index-2.html " Cancunservice Solutions is your single source for high quality computer service repair, computer support, networking support & IT services in Cancun. We offer support & maintenance services tailored to the computing needs of businesses. Our skills, knowledge and dedication to customer service put us above everybody else." I have heard that so many times here, in English and Spanish for about everything.... and they don't say a lot about them. Do you know them?
No, I don't know them and I don't want to knock people I don't know. My personal experience with 3 computer businesses here in Cancun, but not this one, has been 100% disappointing. I question whether cancunservice.com does their own data recovery on physically damaged hard drives. Un-deleting and format recovery are software-based routines on electrically functioning drive. A dead drive is another matter. My guess is that they send them on to a specialist facility. I could be wrong, but I would feel more comfortable with a firm that does recovery and nothing else.
I agree, data recovery is a very specialised service - and probably not something you'd get the local computer repair shop to do. That reminds me I must back some stuff up
Is it actually physically broken? You didn't mention a particular injury to it other than I guess it won't turn on. Making a short story long, my hard drive on an ancient computer just a month ago also was "damaged" so that we couldn't retrieve data from it. I mean it was ancient (Windows 95 system). The Geek Squad located in a local Best Buy would attempt to do it for about $200.00 or so. After trying with their recovery software, they informed me they had to pass it to the next "level". This entailed shipping it offsite to a partner that would basically take it apart and get the data directly from the disk in a clean environment. I told them to call me before they actually try to get to it and give me a quote. One week later I got the call and it was going to cost $1600.00 :shock: I said, no thanks My bro has a lot of IT friends so I got him to ask around. One of his friends did freelance data recovery and charged only $50.00/hr. We gave him a try, and he succeeded...for $50.00. His technique was to use his data recovery software, and when the hard drive decided to lock up...he banged it lightly on the desk to "loosen" it up. Cutting edge, eh?
Yes, the calibrated bang is a good last resort to free up a "stuck" drive, although you run the risk of slamming a drive head onto a platter and really killling the drive. Tapping on the skinny edge is safer than on the broad top or bottom of the drive case. In either case, you run the risk of creating a bookend. Another old timer trick is to heat the drive with a hair dryer on the odd chance that the spindle lubricant has gelled. The drive may free up long enough to grab the data off of it. Obviously, you can only use data recovery software on a functioning drive. You can try to wake up a siezed drive with the methods above, but if you can't get it spinning, it's off to the 1600 dollar clean room. Actually, I'm surprised by the low price. Back when Data Recovery Labs was the only game in the US, they charged about twice that amount. Nice to see competition acting on pricing.
The other funny thing was, before they even shipped it off for me the Geek Squad rep who was giving some options stated it would probably cost less than $1000.00. I expected an actual quote of much less than $1600.00 when I got the call later!
We Recover Data is an American company with several locations in the US and Canada. They are not in Cancun. Note the New York City telephone number, where their main office is located. As I stated in my reply to Jenleib, and after some phone calls today, I am sure that anyone here in offering data recovery at the hardware level is an agent for a US based lab. You can probably save a bit if cash by eliminating the local contact and dealing directly with the lab, whichever lab you choose.
