Data Recovery Service

[dguy]

Do any of our resident computer nuts know of a local or relatively-local data recovery specialist?

...as in the type of place you take a dead hard drive to, and they try to extract what's on it?

 

[fiero308]

Tunstall DAta REcovery on .....colonnade rd; east end, at corner of Prince of Wales; in the little plaza there.
they are VERY good; I have used them and they pulled pretty much everything off a 'shot' drive.
They can work on a pretty scary variety of problem drives.  It is not really cheap but if you need the info you are a bit limited in what you can do.
g

[dguy]

Thanks Graeme!!!

[34FieroGT]

Don,

   Unless there is physical damage to the disk platters/heads, you may be able to retrieve the data yourself.  I'm not sure how computer savvy you are, but I have been able to resurrect a few hardrives at work using this method.  Tunstell & Tunstell will perform the exact same procedure and charge you about $2000 to do so!

   As I said, if there's no physical damage, you will need to find an identical hardrive (same model number) to your failed one.  Remove the circuit board on the bottom of the hardrives and swap them.  They're typically held together with a few small torx screws.  The circuit board may have become slightly attached to the hardrive case, but some gentle prying should seperate them.  Reinstall the 'repaired' hardrive and copy your data off.

   If the HD has been physically damaged, Tunstell may be your only hope.  I hope that I've been clear enough here to help.  If not, let me know and I'll try to clarify any questions.

[dguy]

Thanks Tyler. 

I've already tried switching the drive's logic card with that from a known working (identical) drive... no luck.

But...     With it hooked up to a system with a more recent host adapter, and keeping it "on ice" (freezer gel packs), it appears to be a bit more interested in running than it was previously.  Hopefully I can continue to coax it along for at least as long as it takes to copy everything to the new drive.   

[fiero308]

hi Don
just for people who are looking at this, I don't know where Tylers $2K came from; maybe from his personal or corporate experience, but my bill was in the $500 range.  I dont think I would have bothered if it was any more.
just for the info in case anyone is interested.
g