USB Raw data recovery companies

[bossman]

Hi All,

 

Hope this is in the right forum, anyway here goes, usual case of SLT member of staff has found that their USB data stick has suddenly given up the ghost when they least expected it, it has lost its FAT32 table and the last readable sector, I have tried Testdisk to try and recover the data which is still on the USB data stick and recovered most but not the stuff he desperately needs, the irony is that he is my boss and DH and he should know better, the usual scenario of rushing and not allowing his laptop to backup the Data stick when first inserted, cancelling the procedure before it has had chance to backup, as he has said "It takes too long!"

 

Well now he has come to a sticky but hopefully recoverable end,

 

Question? Does anyone have a contact for a good data recovery expert as the data on his data stick is very crucial to the school.

 

Thanks in advance:

 

Remember "Lets be careful out there!"

[NB9457]

I've used Recuva in the past and various other tools to recover files for customers, software was relatively cheap (had 2/3 programs) and the boss used to charge an arm and a leg for the privilege, but people would pay.

[Chuckster]

I recovered a formatted laptop with this: Data Recovery Software - Kroll Ontrack UK

 

It picked up not only all the data prior to the format, but it also recovered data going back years where the laptop had been formatted several times.

[foofighterjim]

If it is just the FAT table that has gone, you may find that certain Linux distros can still read it. Knoppix used to be my go to OS for this but that was about 5 years ago.

[SteveM555]

I've had success with this before, they do a free version but I ended up paying for the full suite.

 

Active@ Partition Recovery restores deleted & damaged volumes &amp disks. Freeware Data Recovery Software Toolkit

[Oddbod]

Data rescue by prosoft engineering for exactly this purpose…

http://Http://www.prosofteng.com/

[difinity]

Maybe it needs to come to an expensive/sticky end for your boss to change his ways and do things properly. Save to device, copy to USB stick.

Send it to Ontack, they do a free evaluation if the above software doesn't work.

[Arthur]

A few of our students have used savemyusb.co.uk in the past, although if the data really is critical I would send it to Kroll OnTrack (as mentioned above).

[Willott]

savemyusb.com looks like an interesting one, and in the grand scheme of things, not anywhere near as expensive as most that I looked at. Suggested it to a friend's daughter whose A Level work was on a knackered stick and believe all was recovered well.

[bossman]

@all

 

Thanks everyone, eventually passed it to Kroll OnTrack, see what they can do for him.

[difinity]

Don't suppose you can give us a ball park figure on how much it will cost can you?

 

Not USB but i have recently had a quote of just over £1600 for a 250Gb 2.5" hard drive. Level 4, internal mechanical failure.

[mrnoisy]

R3 data recovery are very good in Sheffield, about £400 for a 500gb drive, no recovery no fee.

Usb's depends on the size but I was quoted about £200 for a 16gb drive.

[bossman]

@Galway

 

£125.00 for initial diagnostics and approx £250 - £400 depending on how much data and how long it takes to recover.

 

Sounds expensive but for the school to reclaim the data would be invaluable, fingers crossed!!

[john]

Hope they get it back @bossman I assume SLT will be reviewing the school policy on USB sticks after paying all that money out to get it back and re-thinking that they are portable transfer units not life long storage

[jinnantonnixx]

Hope they get it back @bossman I assume SLT will be reviewing the school policy on USB sticks after paying all that money out to get it back and re-thinking that they are portable transfer units not life long storage

 

^^^ This. Definitely.

 

USB memory devices should be for convenient transfer of copies of data. Not for storage. And certainly not for sole copies of data.

[bossman]

@john

 

hehe! and happy Christmas to you

 

It was just a momentary lapse by the DH and he more than anyone else knows that they are only temporary storage devices for transferring data from one computer source to another, he has learnt his lesson,

 

Your right though, too many people don't take head of good sound advice from IT professionals because they just don't listen and feel it will never happen to them.

[MatthewL]

Who would you recommend out of Kroll and R3 for data recovery from a SATA and SSD drives, got 2 that have failed and wouldn't mind getting data especially from the SATA.

[bossman]

@MatthewL

 

We just got 99.8% of files back for our DH using Kroll and they didn't charge too much, he is over the moon and got me quite a lot of brownie points to boot

[twin--turbo]

I once got a department head in tears as her HDD went belly up with all her planning.

 

Said I could do nothing with it so she went to the head in tears, he said, get it sorted.

 

When I said I had been quoted £1600 to have it recoverd he said, get it sorted. (which it was)

 

When I got it sorted the Bursar spat her dummy out and ranted and raved at me saying it was not up to the Head to authorise spend theat money. ( I wanted to say, "Well he's your husband so go and rant at him!!" but I thought better of it) . Department head said "Thanks...."

 

 

 

I use photorec now, if that can't do it then I am not prepaird to recover stuff that is not on our backups.

 

TT