DATA RECOVERY SERVICES IN THE UK

[tech_guy]

Who do you use for data recovery - a member of staff has just managed to boot their personal HDD across the room and now it's completely dead dead - not just dead.

 

It's a 320GB jobbie and was nearly full (I'm trying not to laugh here) and they hadn't backed it up....

 

....ever.

 

Recomendations on who to use gratefully accepted.

[Oaktech]

I assume you've tried the HDD out of the enclosure, just to make sure it's not the enclosure?

 

Otherwise, my only recomendation for data recovery is Kroll OnTrack. Data Recovery, Computer Forensics & E-Disclosure - Kroll Ontrack UK

[tmcd35]

I'm 90% certain these are the guys I pointed a senior member of staff here to when she lost her family photos: Data Recovery UK | EADR Data Recovery Norwich, Norfolk

 

She was extremely happy with the price, speed, and amount of data recovered.

[mikkydoos]

Why do people not back things up. I bet you give em loads of storage space to do it aswell.

 

(Snigger)

 

 

I take it no power?

[Garacesh]

Take it out of its enclosure, whack it in a third party caddy (or into a machine), see what happens. I have a caddy from StarTech on my desk for incidents just like this and it works a treat. Get Recuva or Pandora running on it and you'll be golden.

Unless it's a 2.5in HDD not a 3.5in once, in which case, check if it rattles first. If it does, they dun'goof'd and it's game over.

[Ephelyon]

We use DataWreck.

[Roberto]

I've used Kroll Ontrack. Expensive but worth it.

[TwoZeroAlpha]

As @Garacesh says, if it's a 2.5in (and being 320GB thats likely) it may be stuffed beyond recovery. Platters in those are a glass composite thingy (so I'm lead to believe) and once broken are pretty much done for.

 

I seem to recall there was a BBC type show about how much data could be recovered from a drive once disposed of. Reporter removed drive from laptop and threw it out of the window, then said to DR expert, "So you can get all my data from that?"

 

Answer : Nope

 

Kroll Ontrack is good, get what you pay for though. I would caution against being too invasive with any enclosure, last thing you want is a recovery company saying "We could have got it back, if some idiot hadn't opened its box"

[achedgy]

I use Kingdom Data Recovery | Hard Drive Data Recovery UK always found them very good and not 'too' expensive, especially when compared to kroll

[Garacesh]

As @Garacesh says, if it's a 2.5in -snip- it may be stuffed beyond recovery. Platters in those are a glass composite thingy (so I'm lead to believe) and once broken are pretty much done for.

Yes, they are. I have previously dismantled 2.5" HDD's and quite literally, with no hint of exaggeration, the platters are easily broken by hand*. They're much more fragile than even your bog-standard DVD (and we all know how easily they break) and certainly feel like and break as easily as one would expect a thin slice of glass to. If it's a 2.5" drive that's been kicked across a room, chances are it's beyond repair. Even if it's a 3.5" drive, good chance of a head crash there. Be gentle with it.

 

* Would not recommend. I received numerous ouchies.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Garacesh

[webman]

I've used CBL Data Recovery in the past with great success.

[tech_guy]

Yes, it was a 2.5" jobbie - literally booted by accident across the room. We took it out of the enclosure but no joy in any of our caddies. It's dead dead.

 

Thank you for all your suggestions.

[Garacesh]

Open it up. Gief photos. Let's 'ave a look at it, then.

[mikkydoos]

Get him some of these bad boys for next time....

 

 

[tech_guy]

It's gone orf to be looked at by t'experts...

[synaesthesia]

/me points @tech_guy in the direction of the accents thread - that post was so Northern it's stuck in the so-called weatherbomb!