How data reovery works

[giza]

Ever wonder if it's possible to get back data from a hard drive that has died? It is.

This article talks about Ontrack, a company which specializes in data recovery. The article itself is rather informative, as it talks about different types of ways hard drives can fail and how recovery is done.

One thing to keep in mind is that data recovery is expensive. Many jobs ago, we had to use Ontrack's services because a certain manager couldn't be bothered to back up her emails like we told her to. The total cost was $1,500. Obviously, backing up your data is a lot cheaper.

Comments

[simbab.livejournal.com]

dd_rescue works wonders for free depending on the type of failure. I would think Ontrack would be more of use if the hard disk had suffered some kind of physical trauma.

[tlttlotd.livejournal.com]

Generally, Ontrack gets called in during just those sorts of crises - stuff like a SAN catching on fire. A couple of jobs ago, we had them do a rush job for us because our CFO didn't think it was a good idea to store the financials on the file server.

[giza.livejournal.com]

If the head carves gouges in the hard drive platter, nothing will be able to retrieve that data. It is effectively physically destroyed at that point.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

I'm still hanging on to a dead hard drive in hopes one day it'll be cheaper, or I'll be rich, and I'll manage to salvage the data since my last backup of it; including an e-mail (gotten shortly before the HDD died) from a friend whose email address I don't have anymore, have no ways of contacting him, and there are 593879856349876398e15 other people with his same name -.-

[lionman.livejournal.com]

CBL Data Recovery Technologies
San Diego, CA, 92020
Free phone is (800)551-3917
Phone is (619)449-1200
http://www.cbltech.com/

Hard Disk Only Data Recovery
10633 Roselle Street
San Diego, CA 92121
24/7 phone is (858)455-0277
http://www.hdodatarecovery.com/

Advanced Data Solutions LLC
2605 Hoover Ave. Suite F
National City California 91950
1-888-994-DATA(3282)
http://www.adv-data.com/

"No Data, No Charge!" purportedly for all three services.

[netcrimes.livejournal.com]

They had a booth at the Cyber Crime Conference. I can get a discount, but it's still so darned expensive.

[tailen.livejournal.com]

Putting the HD in the freezer apparently works wonders too. I've seen several examples of this succeeding by now.

[music4fun.livejournal.com]

Why couldn't you have told Giza about this before he tore my eMac apart, installed a new hard drive and put it all back together with only 2 screws left over ;-)

[tailen.livejournal.com]

The freezer trick is an emergency solution when the HD stops working for whatever reason. It's only temporary so you can extract your vital data from it and then drive a stake through its heart for failing you.

[wildw0lf.livejournal.com]

The cost hasn't changed much, although I've seen recovery bills as high as $2500, and even then, recovery isn't guaranteed.

And yes...MUCH cheaper to back up the first time.