Help recovering data please

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hi guys, my OWC FireWire hard drive just failed and I can't get it to work. I'm going to need to send it out for repair or just for data recovery. What are the best known companies (most reliable and economically feasible) out there? OWC recommended a company that ranges between $500 and $1500 for recovery... I really don't want to pay $1,500 for this... thoughts?
 
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...data recovery. What are the best known companies (most reliable and economically feasible) out there?...

I know a number of folks in the industry. The big secret in the industry is that very few places do their own drive recovery. They take your drive and box it up and send it to Seagate Recovery and then charge you a fortune.

This place has set the industry on their ear:

"$300 Drive Recovery"
http://www.300dollardatarecovery.com

They are in Studio City, California.

Five stars from Yelp:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/300-data-recovery-los-angeles
(Note that they have 348 reviews and 330 of them are 5 stars!)

At this point I've recommended "$300 Drive Recovery" to a bunch of folks over the span of several years, and everyone has been wildly happy with them.

It's important to note that their name "$300 Drive Recovery" isn't a guaranty that the recovery of your drive will always only cost $300. A difficult recovery may cost more. However, in every case that I've heard of, the final cost for the recovery was drastically cheaper than any other quote that the user got from any other drive recovery service. Other drive recovery services are beside themselves in anger over "$300 Drive Recovery"'s pricing, and they have tried to smear them on the Internet. It hasn't worked. "$300 Drive Recovery" offers excellent service and excellent pricing and at this point everyone knows it.

Here is an interesting review of "$300 Drive Recovery":
http://lauren.vortex.com/2016/06/a-rare-endorsement-when-the-disk-drive-fails
 
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Thanks, good reviews overall, but I'm a bit skeptical. Would love to hear about more experiences.
 

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Thanks, good reviews overall, but I'm a bit skeptical. Would love to hear about more experiences.

Don't hold your breath!;) Not many average users "visiting in these here parts" are willing to pay $500-$1500...or even $300 to recover data on a bad HD. Unless the items to be recovered are super valuable/important. But I can't remember a Mac-Forums member doing this in my 9+ years with Mac-Forums. We preach & preach & preach (year after year)...backup, backup, backup.

Depending on what sort of operating condition this HD is in...you can try "Disk Warrior" file recovery software. It has a free trial & will scan the HD in question to see what's recoverable. If it finds a lot of what you want/need to recover...then you pay the $129 for the fully functioning app.:)

Good luck,

- Nick

p.s. If professional file recovery is needed...Randy provided some excellent info & links!
 
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you can try "Disk Warrior" file recovery software.


You beat me to the same suggestion Nick.

And one should maybe add some others but we don't really know the complete situation of the OP and their software and equipment.
But for some other possible alternatives:
Data Rescue
and have a read here: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/10259/data-rescue
and the same for:
Disk Drill (a free version available)
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/35373/disk-drill

I'm not too sure about the recent versions of TechTool Pro
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/4307/techtool-pro





- Patrick
======
 

pigoo3

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You beat me to the same suggestion Nick.

And one should maybe add some others but we don't really know the complete situation of the OP and their software and equipment.

Hey...the more suggestions the merrier!:)

And I hear ya on the exact condition of the HD. Hopefully it's still spinning...the read/write heads aren't making the "clicking" sound...or the read/write head's haven't collapsed onto the HD platters...and potentially scratched them all up (or worn deep grooves in the platters).

- Nick
 
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I'm just curious if anyone has used the Seagate Data Recovery Services directly?

And it doesn't look like they only work on seagate drives which I thought was the limiting factor.

Yes, anyone can use them and they will recover any brand of rotating disk hard drive. But even if you use them direct, they aren't exactly cheap.

Seagate recovery services:
http://www.seagate.com/services-software/data-recovery-services/consumers/in-lab-data-recovery/
http://www.seagate.com/services-sof...vices/consumers/in-lab-data-recovery/process/

Recovery fees start at $599 and can easily be over $2,000 based on your data loss circumstances.

"$300 Drive Recovery" is a much better deal.
 

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@Randy:

We have heard that using TRIM on an SSD makes data recovery on them impossible. (The folks at Data Rescue agree.) What have you heard with regard to that?
 
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@Randy:

We have heard that using TRIM on an SSD makes data recovery on them impossible. (The folks at Data Rescue agree.) What have you heard with regard to that?

I've heard several traditional data recovery services say that recovering data from an SSD is "impossible." (Traditional data recovery services being those that work only on rotating disk hard drives. "RDHD's") I've heard friends in the industry state this as an absolute.

On the other hand, there are a number of recovery services that have sprung up that specialize in recovering nothing but SSD's, and they don't seem to think that it is "impossible" at all. I haven't tried any of them, and I don't know of anyone who has, so I can't tell you how successful they are.

See:

http://www.datarecovery.net/solid-state-drive-recovery.aspx

https://www.securedatarecovery.com/services/ssd-data-recovery

https://www.krollontrack.com/services/data-recovery/ssd/

http://www.24hourdata.com/data-recovery/solid-state-drive-data-recovery

Doing a quick Google search, I also now see that some traditional recovery services that used to tell you that it was "impossible" to recover an SSD, now offer SSD recovery services. My conclusion is that recovering an SSD takes special equipment, and that it is only "impossible" for a service to do a recovery on your SSD if they haven't invested in the equipment and the necessary training to do so.

When I hear from someone who has tried to have their failed SSD recovered, I'll post about it here.

However, my feeling is that it should never come to that. It was always extremely important to have a meticulously maintained backup of all of your data...maybe even two or three backups if your data is extremely important (e.g. if you run a business). If your main hard drive is an SSD, this is even more important, because 1) SSD's can fail at any time, and they often give no warning of impending failure whatsoever, and 2) SSD's are far more susceptible to failure due to common occurrences, such as a fluctuation in the power grid. The bottom line is that if you like your data, back it up! That way you will never need an expensive recovery service.
 

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Thank you Randy. Very informative.
 
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Hi guys. Thanks for the replies.
@Randy - thanks, very informative.

It looks like Apple recommends going to Drive Savers.... thoughts on them?
 
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It looks like Apple recommends going to Drive Savers.... thoughts on them?

Drive Savers is sort of the General Motors of hard drive recovery services. They've been around a long time and they have a good reputation (which may no longer be entirely deserved.)

I've toured Drive Saver's facility a couple of times. They have an impressive facility. And they apparently now feel that they need to charge customers through the nose to pay for it.

I'm not saying that Drive Saver's isn't good. They *are* good. If you are rich, and don't care about money, and don't mind not getting certain file types back (they make you agree to recovery of only certain file types in advance), and not having *any* applications recovered (yes, the bast___s won't recover any of your applications), then they are a good choice. I personally consider any service that meets that sort of description to be one that is ripping me off, because there are other services that will do a complete recovery, for less money. (I really, really hate paying more, for less.) But I fully admit that there are folks that don't care about that. Indeed, there are some folks who only purchase things based on the company's name recognition or their longevity, and Drive Savers is the clear choice for those individuals, because they used to be the go-to place for data recovery way back when.

$300 Drive Recovery has garnered such a good reputation, over a number of years now, from a ton of feedback, they seem like an even better, cheaper way to go.

It's interesting to note that Drive Savers' Yelp reviews aren't quite as good as $300 Drive Recovery's. Most folks were very happy, but read all of the one-star reviews:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/drivesavers-data-recovery-novato
Which isn't to say that Drive Savers isn't good, once again, they *are*. It just serves as an interesting counter-point for how incredibly good $300 Drive Recovery's reviews are. Apparently you *can* have an excellent drive recovery business, make all of your customers ridiculously happy, and not charge them usurious rates.
 

IWT


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@Randy

I much enjoyed your posts, as always.

Irrespective of the pros and cons of SSDs or any other form of data storage, your concluding statements sum up what every computer user must do:

It was always extremely important to have a meticulously maintained backup of all of your data.

The bottom line is that if you like your data, back it up! That way you will never need an expensive recovery service.

As we all know on our Forums, you and we are in a minority. Keep delivering the message:)

Ian
 
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Drive Savers is sort of the General Motors of hard drive recovery services. They've been around a long time and they have a good reputation (which may no longer be entirely deserved.)

I've toured Drive Saver's facility a couple of times. They have an impressive facility. And they apparently now feel that they need to charge customers through the nose to pay for it.

I'm not saying that Drive Saver's isn't good. They *are* good. If you are rich, and don't care about money, and don't mind not getting certain file types back (they make you agree to recovery of only certain file types in advance), and not having *any* applications recovered (yes, the bast___s won't recover any of your applications), then they are a good choice. I personally consider any service that meets that sort of description to be one that is ripping me off, because there are other services that will do a complete recovery, for less money. (I really, really hate paying more, for less.) But I fully admit that there are folks that don't care about that. Indeed, there are some folks who only purchase things based on the company's name recognition or their longevity, and Drive Savers is the clear choice for those individuals, because they used to be the go-to place for data recovery way back when.

$300 Drive Recovery has garnered such a good reputation, over a number of years now, from a ton of feedback, they seem like an even better, cheaper way to go.

It's interesting to note that Drive Savers' Yelp reviews aren't quite as good as $300 Drive Recovery's. Most folks were very happy, but read all of the one-star reviews:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/drivesavers-data-recovery-novato
Which isn't to say that Drive Savers isn't good, once again, they *are*. It just serves as an interesting counter-point for how incredibly good $300 Drive Recovery's reviews are. Apparently you *can* have an excellent drive recovery business, make all of your customers ridiculously happy, and not charge them usurious rates.

Thanks for the recommendation. I used $300 Data Recovery and they got all my files back. I'm sure I saved a ton of money. 100% legit. Now I have 3 redundant drives just in case it happens again. :)
 
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Thanks for the recommendation. I used $300 Data Recovery and they got all my files back. I'm sure I saved a ton of money. 100% legit.

Thank you for getting back to us and letting us know how things turned out!
 
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Kicking Myself...

Dead hard drive from iMac was delivered, today, to a different data recovery company. I listened to the computer repair shop, and figured if it cost a fortune (which I'm expecting) I can always decline, and perhaps I'll be lucky. $300 or so? I am definitely kicking myself, though I greatly appreciate the info.

This, alone, tells me I'm in the right place for information!
 
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This, alone, tells me I'm in the right place for information!

Sorry to hear about your hard drive. However, welcome to Mac Forums!

This is what Macintosh users do; we help each other!
 
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This is fascinating and it seems very much worth considering.

Seagate sells insurance in case your hard drive fails. The insurance is shockingly reasonably priced. $5 for one year, $10 for two years.

They will insure any brand of hard drive (not just a Seagate drive), you can purchase the insurance for a drive you already own, and in the event that your hard drive fails, Seagate provides both data recovery, and a new physical drive!

http://www.seagate.com/services-software/seagate-recovery-services/rescue/
 

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