Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Computer repair?
- This topic is empty.
-
AuthorPosts
-
March 10, 2009 at 3:52 pm #590026
bigmarkMemberMy hard drive has crashed pretty hard, and I need someone to fix it/save what they can. Any recommendations on where to go? I’ve heard some less than glowing things about Quid Nunc. Has anyone been there since it changed ownership? What’s it like these days? Anywhere else I could go?
March 10, 2009 at 4:45 pm #659975
SueParticipantOne of the WSB sponsors does computer repair/data recovery: CSS (http://www.allcss.com) I’ve never used them, but I do know the owner (Carlos) and he’s a really great guy.
March 10, 2009 at 5:36 pm #659976
KenParticipantI do repair for donations
I have been recovering data for 20 years.
Though drives have progressed far enough that I can’t mount them on a variable speed drill and recover them anymore (20m mfm) I still can do non clean room software based recovery.
If the drive is making a repetitive tapping noise, don’t waste time on anyone without expensive cleanroom facilities or go ahead and decide you don’t really need that data anyway.
I can do an non destructive eval for ya though.
I have recovered data for several lurkers here :)
I have recovered data from windows, unix/bsd slices and linux ext2 and ext3 partitions, cd’s and memory cards and flash drives.
March 10, 2009 at 6:08 pm #659977
bigmarkMemberUh-oh, it is making a repetitive tapping noise. Suggestions on who could recover data from that?
March 10, 2009 at 9:02 pm #659978
KenParticipantFirst you have to determine how much the data is worth to you.
Then figure out if you have that much and if you risk it with a large data recovery firm who will not guarantee anything. I remember some places that charge a base fee and then a price per MB of recovered files. They may or may not be the files that are important to you. If you have a specific file name they may be able to give you a quote on looking for just that data.
There are a couple of processes that the manufacturer can offer the best odds on.
http://seagatedatarecovery.com/
If you have a real hardware failure “disk crash” where the head is impacting the platter, (ting, ting, ting) the best odds (assuming the platter is not heat deformed) can be for the techs to transfer the platters in a clean room to an identical drive (or a test rig that can mimic one) and copy all the data from the undamaged cylinders.
As a DIY kinda guy I have built a plastic box and glued gloves and fans to it to swap hardware around for my own recovery of a scsi drive I had 9 obsolete units of, and knew I could never afford to pay for the recovery, but that is not something I would ever do as a paid job for anyone else. It took me two weeks and I could only recover about half the files I lost.
Get a quote from several of the places you can find on the web. If you can’t afford their price you can try some of the alternative software. A good forensic disk image (assuming the bios still sees the drive) might be written raw to another disk and then the usable stuff teased out as long a one copy of the file allocation table (or equivalent) can be found.
March 11, 2009 at 7:32 pm #659979
QueMemberWe have taken our computer to the guys at CSS and they were wonderful and totally reasonable cost-wise. They did a great job!
March 15, 2009 at 9:56 pm #659980
mblogsdonMemberI’ve had Rob Shiras help me with my computer and he is terrific. His business is next to Tru-Value in the junction area.
Here is his website: http://www.pcmobilehelp.com
March 15, 2009 at 11:53 pm #659981
KevinParticipantRob Shiras has been around West Seattle for a number of years. I have NEVER heard a bad comment about him, and have been tempted to call him myself on a couple of occasions.
March 18, 2009 at 5:14 am #659982
AnonymousInactiveWhat about SpinRite?
March 18, 2009 at 4:36 pm #659983
KenParticipantSpinrite is useful and Steve has been writing damn good assembler code for a long time, but it cannot fix hardware or recover what the controller can’t see. I have 5.0 and have used every version since 2.0. Linux dd and other GNU based utilities can do sector based recovery AND write the data to other disks and across networks.
Did you post in every thread last night? Is this considered a drive by?
March 18, 2009 at 5:55 pm #659984
AnonymousInactiveI am enjoying posting so no this is not a driveby.
I seem to remember Steve describing SpinRite as having the ability to assist in data recovery from physically damaged HDDs, but this was years ago.
I just figured I’d throw that out there in the event Big Mark was exploring other options.
March 28, 2009 at 7:47 am #659985
alki_2008ParticipantHi bigmark, happened across this thread and not sure if you’ve already fixed your HD issue…but I had a similar issue (clicking sound) and was actually able to get the computer to start-up by holding the cpu at a particular angle. Just kept changing the angle (used books, etc to prop it up) and turning the computer on and off until it would start-up. Once it started up and loaded Windows, then I burned my files (the important ones anyway) to a disc and was able to retrieve the data from those discs later.
Not sure if this would work for you at all…but might be worth a shot, as the costs for the clean-room method was a bit pricey. Hope things work(ed) out for you.
June 8, 2011 at 11:16 pm #659986
SueLParticipantI have used PC Mobile when they were really mobile and didn’t even have a store front. Fast, Accurate, Really personable. I never even think of calling anyone else.
June 9, 2011 at 12:42 am #659987
clark5080ParticipantMight I suggest that in the future you back things up to at least one or two other sources like another hard drive or a cloud backup.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.