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Harddrive crashed.. data recovery service needed now - recommendations?

J

jobpros

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 15, 2012
8
0
I was informed at the apple store that my macbook pro hard drive has crashed and need a replacement. They wanted to put a new one in but also wants to keep my old one.

I'll need to buy my own HD as I won't give my old, so be it not working, HD to them.

I need to send my non working HD out to a data recovery service but don't know which company is actually reputable.

can anyone make a recommendation for me?

Thank you!

We are located in the US
 
If you have access to an IBM PC, I recommend putting your HDD in it and using the DOS program Spinrite. I've personally used it to fix many HDD's over the years, if only to recover data long enough to move it to a better HDD and for maintenance purposes.

Below is my old MBP HDD in a Dell PC with Spinrite working on it.

IMG_2003.JPG


IMG_2004.JPG
 
Just keep in mind that anything beyond the typical data recovery programs that sometimes work if your disk is still spinning up, this stuff can become very expensive. If they're pulling out the platters, I wouldn't expect it to be much less than $1000. Data recovery is quite expensive once you get past the basics.
 
jobpros said:
I was informed at the apple store that my macbook pro hard drive has crashed and need a replacement. They wanted to put a new one in but also wants to keep my old one.

I'll need to buy my own HD as I won't give my old, so be it not working, HD to them.

I need to send my non working HD out to a data recovery service but don't know which company is actually reputable.

can anyone make a recommendation for me?

Thank you!

We are located in the US
Click to expand...

Yes - I recommend you backup your stuff next time. Or better yet use the cloud in general. In this day and age, there should be nothing "on your hard drive" that matters. It should just be an OS. All data of value should be on cloud or off your main drive. This is computing 101 for 2012 and beyond. Dropbox, Box.com, Sugarsync, Amazon AWS, etc etc etc. look them up.

If you truly need data recovery on the drive it will cost you 1k MINIMUM, with NO guarantees. I do agree however, that a homespun (no pun intended) data recover program should do the trick.
 
Bummer - i've been in this situation a couple of times unfortunately with my mac pro and with our raid server.

Both times I used http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/

Yes they are expensive... but they are good. If you need your data, I would use them. If you have business insurance, it may cover it - mine did in the case of my server dying.

Good luck with the drive whatever you do.

Cheers,
Mark

jobpros said:
I was informed at the apple store that my macbook pro hard drive has crashed and need a replacement. They wanted to put a new one in but also wants to keep my old one.

I'll need to buy my own HD as I won't give my old, so be it not working, HD to them.

I need to send my non working HD out to a data recovery service but don't know which company is actually reputable.

can anyone make a recommendation for me?

Thank you!

We are located in the US
Click to expand...
 
packsherpah said:
In this day and age, there should be nothing "on your hard drive" that matters. It should just be an OS. All data of value should be on cloud or off your main drive. This is computing 101 for 2012 and beyond. Dropbox, Box.com, Sugarsync, Amazon AWS, etc etc etc. look them up.
Click to expand...

Ya, because everybody stores their terabytes of source footage on Dropbox...
 
Hi Jobpros

You may want to consider using the data recovery software Data Rescue by Prosoft Engineering http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php

This may be a cheaper option rather than bringing the HD to a repair service shop, travelling time etc. I've used this one time to recover data from an external HD that stopped functioning. Only hassle is the Data Rescue will rename your recovered files. But I have is the old version. Maybe the new version is better.
 
strausd said:
Ya, because everybody stores their terabytes of source footage on Dropbox...
Click to expand...

Indeed. I love storing all of my stuff on unencrypted cloudy storage platforms. In addition, uploading TBs of data is so quick that it's really convenient.

/sarcasm.
 
I don't agree that nothing should be on the HD but OS. Some of us actually use computers in locations that are off grid.

This thread should serve as a reminder that a good backup plan is essential. Time machine to network disks/server and nightly clones has saved my butt many times.
 
Thank you everyone for the tips.

I'm going to install a new hard drive and use the kroll software to recover data from old drive.

new question: how do I install OSX on new hard drive when I install in macbook?
 
jobpros said:
Thank you everyone for the tips.

I'm going to install a new hard drive and use the kroll software to recover data from old drive.

new question: how do I install OSX on new hard drive when I install in macbook?
Click to expand...

You must have a USB key or installation CD's.
 
jobpros said:
I'm going to install a new hard drive and use the kroll software to recover data from old drive.
Click to expand...

You should be aware that there are a handful of consumer data-recovery programs, and they differ from each other. This means that sometimes one will recover data when another one won't.

By all means proceed with the kroll software, but if it fails, then turn to Data Rescue III or Disk Warrior or any of the others. I've used both DR III and DW and both work well -- and in each case, one succeeded when the other didn't.

If you don't want to buy an external enclosure for the drive you're going to try recovering, then pick up a universal SATA-USB adaptor. There are many on the market and they are inexpensive.
 
Diskwarrior also worked well with me. It's reliable and fixes the HD without having to recover data.
 
packsherpah said:
Yes - I recommend you backup your stuff next time. Or better yet use the cloud in general. In this day and age, there should be nothing "on your hard drive" that matters. It should just be an OS. All data of value should be on cloud or off your main drive. This is computing 101 for 2012 and beyond. Dropbox, Box.com, Sugarsync, Amazon AWS, etc etc etc. look them up.

If you truly need data recovery on the drive it will cost you 1k MINIMUM, with NO guarantees. I do agree however, that a homespun (no pun intended) data recover program should do the trick.
Click to expand...

WRONG. Absolutely completely WRONG. You should NEVER trust the cloud as the only storage location for your data.

Store your data on your local disks, and BACK UP to the cloud, or to other local disks. Anything in the cloud can go away any time and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Look at Geocities, MobileMe, and other cloud services that have shut down over the years.

Trusting the cloud is the worst thing anyone can do if they care about your data. It's actually worse than storing your data on a single hard drive with no backups.
 
derbothaus said:
You actually have recovered from a Time Machine backup? lol.
Click to expand...

I have many times when I was writing my little book. Unfortunately I've also encountered times when I could no longer do a backup and ended up simply reformatting the drive and starting again. Never had a problem with a restore though.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
If you have access to an IBM PC, I recommend putting your HDD in it and using the DOS program Spinrite. I've personally used it to fix many HDD's over the years, if only to recover data long enough to move it to a better HDD and for maintenance purposes.
Click to expand...

I wonder if that would work with my Rodime 20 MB hard drive that I used with my Mac Plus. The HD and Mac fell off of a bookshelf several years ago and now won't boot, but I can't tell whether it's the Mac, the HD or both that are at fault.
 
CoMoMacUser said:
I wonder if that would work with my Rodime 20 MB hard drive that I used with my Mac Plus. The HD and Mac fell off of a bookshelf several years ago and now won't boot, but I can't tell whether it's the Mac, the HD or both that are at fault.
Click to expand...

Yes, if it's a HDD and can be interfaced to a PC BIOS, Spinrite will work on it.
 
derbothaus said:
You actually have recovered from a Time Machine backup? lol.
Click to expand...

Likewise, many times. Always have redundant clones handy and sometimes they are the better way to go, but as another option Time Machine really isn't bad/awful/flawed. Most of the time it has actually Just Worked.
 
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