iMac HD failure - Data Recovery Companies?

[cadet311]

A friend I work with has a first gen iMac (old school see through blue one.. yeah really old) and it has finally kicked the can and the HD has failed. On that computer are 10-15 years of important files that he needs recovered.

Does anyone have any experience with any data recovery companies? If so, who do you recommend? He understands it is an expensive proposition, but the files on there are worth a considerable amount of time and effort.

Thanks

 

[Lanbrown]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/saving-data-a-head-crash,1044.html

Tell your friend to get a backup solution in place; it is far cheaper than a recovery service.

 

[MacDawg]

Before you go to an outside company, you can try Disk Warrior or Data Rescue II or File Salvage

You can also try JFileRecovery or SafeCopy

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[cadet311]

Thanks for the help, but the software solutions will not work. Those have been tried. Solely looking for information on HD Data recovery.

 

[Lanbrown]

Thanks for the help, but the software solutions will not work. Those have been tried. Solely looking for information on HD Data recovery.

That is why I posted the link to Tom's Hardware. There is no one solution for data recovery. The cost and the success rate for a full recovery is dependent on what is wrong with the drive. You will need to follow the guide in the link.

 

[srl7741]

EnCase

EnCase is the way to go if you need to recover files

EnCase Wiki

Yes it's expensive but it works and worth every penny. I've used it many times.