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I have a fairly new external hard drive that recently took a tumble, and is now in need of some rescue. 350+ movies, and all of my MP3’s for the last year have been sent to the gallows, so I’m hoping I can bring them back from the dead.
Any ideas on talented tech guys in Chengdu who can do data recovery?
It really depends on the current state of the drive – in most cases recovery is possible, but it may require some manual labour (like ripping it apart :D) Does it spin up at all? Click clack? Power on?
If you go to computer city, some guys may take a crack at it – and that’d be the best cost-effective route. If you send it to an authentic data recovery service they’ll operate in a clean room and as long as the platters aren’t f’d up (unlikely) they’ll be able to read your data onto another device. That’d be expensive. You’d also likely need to buy another drive.
Also, can you write the make/model/ of your drive? is it in an enclosure?
That’s why I say ‘talented’, I definitely don’t want someone dabbing dirty fingers all over the drum!
It’s a Seagate external, though I’ve stripped it out of it’s encasement leaving the drive housing only. Don’t have a model number to hand. It’s ‘clicking’ following a fall, so chances are it’s just a damaged drive arm, leaving my data intact.
Try this, recommended by one of my Sr. IT guys, says “hd recovery #1 in Chengdu”:
金海硕, found here: http://www.jhswx.com/contact.html
贵宾专线：400-652-5257 传真号码：028-85289202
邮箱地址：[email protected]
QQ：1509059299
通讯地址：成都市人民南路四段1号时代数码大厦A座14楼A3
Some other things to check: when you rotate it around (try all directions) do you hear any rattle at all inside? When you rotate it along its flat side down axis, do you hear/feel the platter spin?
It’s still in it’s casing, I’m not prepared to open the drive to test it’s integrity, I just want it taken care of in a clean environment. Hopefully the guys you’re directing me to are a step in the right direction.
Thanks.
If they don’t operate in a ‘cleanroom’ or they fuck it up, please let me know so I can yell at someone. 😀
Definitely don’t open it up yourself. Be sure to update us. I’m curious of how this will turn out & how much it will cost here.
Quick update on this;
I’ve been quoted 2300 RMB for full recovery (approx. 800GB data total) by jhswx (Digital Plaza), which seems a little on the high side. Unfortunately I do want the data recovered.
Incidentally the drive is a Barracuda (XT I think).
Ouch. That’s more than I would have imagined. Does that include a replacement drive / fully repaired drive or *just* the data extracted?
Might want to try this route: 1-800-475-0143.. maybe skype them or somethin and see if it’s significantly different to get it done in the US directly from Seagate recovery specialists.
I’ll also get some other options from the guys here, maybe something comparable but cheaper available.
That’s just straight recovery, no new hardware included in that price, which is incidentally double the original cost of the drive. Laowai’s special price perhaps.
I think shipping it to the U.S. And back is only going to bump the cost again, as well as time, so any options you can unearth here will be greatly appreciated.
I’m wondering now you mention Seagate’s in house recovery if they don’t have agents/service points in mainland China?
They don’t, but I meant call them up just to get a ‘standard price’ for something like that as if you were in the US, so it’d be easier to sort out whether you’re gettin the special laowai price 😀 I know back in the day $500 for a full recovery of some badly damaged drives would be about right…
That being said, local shops should be able to 1) beat that by a mile, and 2) provide a guarantee of no data, no dough…
There are options, my guy is calling around to get a quote based approximately on the issue you described, and the amount of data / drive type. When I told him you were quoted 2300, he said this exactly: “2300,, my god”
Will get back to you soon when I have info..
Bad news mate, his words, ctrl-v:
the price almost. If need to open it, RMB2000 +
LOL I was actually thinking that’s a pretty good price if they have to go the whole open it up in a clean room route.
Then again if it’s not a hardware problem that’s a super high price considering you could pretty much recover it yourself for free (if you know what tools to you.)
The clicking sounds like a bad omen, but you never know. I’ve had media that sounded horrible, but that lasted long enough for me to read everything off of it onto another drive.
i was reading this recently on Shanghai Expat.
http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/phpbbforum/data-recovery-for-crashed-hard-drive-t130034.html
Might give you some ideas.
Apparently the clicking noise isnt too bad, means it’s still alive.
I would go for using a new external case for it, this could work. Some people have had success.
Years ago one of my drives died and I did the old stick the HD in a sealed bag in the freezer trick but just limited success.
the freezer trick has worked for me on 2 separate occasions. i just kept putting it back in there overnight until it worked and as soon as i could access it, I used data recovery software to pull stuff off of it and put it on another drive.
I’ve heard about the freezer trick for a long time and have heard a few anecdotal success stories. But, all the people I know who do data recovery think it’s a crazy old wive’s tale.
If it was me, I’d start with the simplest easiest to fix problem & work toward the hardest.
Start with some low level software that ignores file system problems & looks directly at the drive on a physical level rather than a logical one.
Only if that fails would I proceed to any hardware issues.
First, I’d find an identical drive & try swapping out the controller board.
I guess if it didn’t work at that point I would have to realize that I’d have to decide if I want to pay the big bucks or just accept that it’s probably already lost & anything I do at this point is a long shot and liable to do more harm than good.
Until I had given up all hope I wouldn’t try freezing it or opening it up.
“Freezing” the drive may work, for a few minutes. He has 800gigs of data. Freezing the drive can also lead to permanent and impossible data recovery situations. It’s fine if you have a drive with siege-mode drive heads, it’s not fine if you have a drive with a broken/bent arm which can’t read the platter.
Starting the simplest route is a good idea. In this case, I think Brendan has correctly diagnosed the problem based on the situation in which the drive was damaged and the sounds it’s making now. From his words I presumed it is not reading in the system at all as a functional device, otherwise definitely in a very different troubleshooting situation than dismantling the drive..but it sounded like it was not accessible or booting up as a functional device. There are lots of low-level & free software options to detect specific malfunctions with HDDs in a troubleshooting mode, but if your system can’t detect the device as existing that isn’t an option. It sounds like it’s either something inside has dislodged and is preventing the proper mechanical read of the platter, or something has snapped/broken/bent leading to the same problem – if the clicking continues and it is just an ugly noisy drive it’s no big deal (short-term), but his “‘clicking’ following a fall”.
Really depends how much time you want to troubleshoot and how confident you are in your current assessment, and whether you’re willing to risk all of your data with the ‘freezer trick’ which is essentially ‘sometimes’ useful for sieged mechanics not broken mechanics and nothing else 😀
Firstly, as far as the freezer route goes, this is apparently something that was being done 20+ years ago with clunking great IBM drives that were failing due to ‘warping’ caused by operating temperatures. Somewhere along the way it’s a practice that’s been carried over into blogosphere (land of folklore and bro speak), and has miraculously cured the odd drive that perhaps wasn’t really doing so bad after all.
Like I say, my drive took a nose dive to solid ground. Working fine before nose dive, not working immediately after. Pretty safe bet that it’s a mechanical failure/fault. They’ve told me the motor has had it also, and whether I actually believe that or not, the fact is the actuator (drive arm) is definitely fried. There is no read of the drive, so no mounting it. No question that it needs opening up to get to the platter.
@Rick: I think looking at those prices, perhaps my quote of 2300 isn’t quite so bad after all (!!). I recall having retrieved approx. 60GB off of a failed MacBook Pro drive (200GB) around 3 years back, and I’m sure that cost me a little under $200. Inflation is a bitch, apparently!
Man. that’s rough.
About 5 years ago I lost 60 GB of music that I used for DJing. I paid less than ₤50 to get it recovered, but that was in Taiwan.
Some of the tracks came back all messed up though, it’d be 1 minute in then just change to another song. Still catches me out sometimes with stuff I’ve not listened to for ages.
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