Quick Computer question

[hobgoblinn]

This is in the nature of a second opinion. I have a friend who had her hard drive crash. The computer shop told her they could repair it, but not retrieve any of the documents she had on the drive.

Since I know they can get stuff people Try to delete off of computers (illegal porn and the like), I'm thinking this can't be quite true. Maybe these guys can't, but couldn't somebody? And how would she go about finding the right somebody?

C'mon, flist, help me out.

Comments

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

I have always heard great things about DriveSavers:

http://www.drivesavers.com/

They're pricey, but supposedly they're the best.

[snarkysneak.livejournal.com]

It kind of depends on how the drive crashes. Most of the time you can retrieve the data but there are cases where you cannot. She might try taking it to a different repair shop that has different recovery software, but that is about it. I'll talk to my friend Jim and see if he has any other ideas.

[snarkysneak.livejournal.com]

Did they give her any info other than it crashed? That would help.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I passed on the link. Really all I can do. Amazing, how they recovered data from that laptop that went swimming in a amazon river for a couple of days....

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

I passed on willowgreen's link to DriveSavers and she said they told her it was a physical problem with the disk, a manufacturing error. No idea really if they were blowing smoke or not. But thanks for the comments.

[veradee.livejournal.com]

Yes, there are companies that are specialised in retrieving data. There's one in my town (Germany), but it's very expensive. They offer their services to companies that have lost literally valuable data and not so much to private people.

[countrymouse1.livejournal.com]

Here's what I did, recently, when the floppy disc (yes, I still use 'those') that I'd recorded ALL my sons' school records on for the year went bad (AAACK!!!) and I couldn't get it to open. They were able to save the data to a CD, and gave me very specific directions on how to open the CD and retrieve the data (if I wasn't VERY careful in how I try to re-load that old information back onto my computer, they warned me, I stood a great risk of corrupting my hard drive or OS).

The company I used is in Georgia, USA, but I'm sure there are companies like it in your area. However, for all I know they may service folks from all over, so it's worth a call. As one of your earlier folks mentioned, it is pricey, but it was worth it to me, rather than trying to re-create untold hours of work.

Here's the info:
Choice Data Recovery
Division of Cyexx, Inc.
Phone 770-804-9800
Fax 770-925-3131
www.choicedatarecovery.com

Good luck!