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Data recovery on a failed laptop HD?

T

tveric

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 23, 2003
400
0
Friend of mine just called me from the Apple store near where I live. She apparently had a HD failure and it's hardware, not software (according to the Genius Bar). Thing is, she absolutely has to recover the data that's been put on her drive since her last backup - work-related, important irreplaceable stuff, etc.

Anyone recommend a good data recovery place? And know about what they'd charge for a job like this? The employee told her that a data recovery business should be able to get most, if not all, of what's on there, because of the nature of the problem. I don't know any more details than that cuz all I got was a phone call.

Thanks!
 
DriveSavers, ActionFront, TotalRecall, Seagate Recovery Services

All are good, professional firms. And they will charge between $1000 and $3000 to recover a dead drive, depending on the size of the drive and the problem. Plus the air freight and the cost of another drive to save the data onto.

Contact these firms for an estimate and their procedures, first.

If its a hardware problem you're not going to get the data back with a software program or with some local guy in his basement.
 
Before spending thousands on data recovery, you should have them try it them selves. With DiskWarrior and Carbon Copy Cloner, if the hard drive isn't too far gone, one should be able to recover the data they need. DiskWarrior is only $99.95 and CCC is free. Even if this doesn't fix the hard drive, these are useful programs to have around. Just download them to another Mac, hook up the computer with the failed HD to that Mac via FireWire. Boot into target disk mode (power on then hold "t") and it should mount to the desktop, if it doesn't start up DiskWarrior and see if it can see it, most of the time it can catch drives that are connected but not mounted. See if you can repair it using DiskWarrior, if so, use CCC to copy the data over to a folder on the Mac it is connected to, or an external hard drive connected to that. Worth a try before spending thousands I would say.
 
CCC won't do a thing if the drive is corrupted and Disk Warrior is for software disk repair, not hardware failures. If one were to run DW on a drive that's suffering a hardware failure, substantial and/or irreversible damage could be done to the data on that drive. OP's best bet is to use a read-only app like DRII, which cannot damage data on the drive. For a $100, its the right tool - not DW or CCC.
 
That would be assuming that the Genius at the Apple store knew what they were talking about, most of the time they don't.

What kind of computer is it?
 
fixedbymike said:
Before spending thousands on data recovery, you should have them try it them selves. With DiskWarrior and Carbon Copy Cloner...
Click to expand...

If the Apple genius is replacing the hard drive due to a hardware failure, absolutely do not do what this person is suggesting. At best you will have wasted money on a program you don't need, at worst you'll make the situation worse. If you're dealing with data that absolutely must be recovered, don't let your friend muck around with the thing and just hire a professional.
 
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