# Data Recovery Service for Damaged Hard Drive?



## xarxa (Nov 27, 2006)

Good evening,

My Mom accidentally dropped an external hard drive, and it now appears that the hard drive is damaged and can't be read on its own - I took it to a local computer repair shop and they took the hard drive out and tried to access it separately to no avail.

It sounds like our only option is to use a data recovery service. I understand that there are a lot of options out there and the price range varies greatly.

I thought I'd check and see if anyone on here knew of a good, yet inexpensive data recovery service for a damaged hard drive. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated! Thanks!


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

Good and inexpensive do not go together in that industry. Data recovery services are VERY expensive, and only worth it for VERY valuable data. I promise you, it won't begin to be worth the cost to recover some TV shows and movies.

But if you want to try, this is the place:

http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/


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## kiknwing (Jun 24, 2009)

Because it sounds like a mechanical problem, your looking at at least a couple hundered . I guess this is too late nobut the golden rle for computers is backup, backup, backup.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

DriveSavers is one of the best in the industry. The nice thing is they have a deal with most hard drive manufacturers that they are authorized to open the drive without affecting a warranty if the drive still has one, though dropping it may void it.

This type of recovery certainly is cheaper than say if the system was burned in a fire but they can give you a quote.


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

The data has to be of substantial value to pay the pros to get it for you.
If it's not, then I'd try a DIY method before scrapping the drive altogether.

http://free-backup.info/diy-hard-drive-recovery-for-the-extremely-desperate.html


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

If the shop you took it to says the read system is mechanicaly damaged, there is little hope other than a recovery service. The reason for the cost is the labor and equipment involved. They have to disassemble the drive, remove the platters and set them up in another system to read the data.

Then there's the chance that the platters themselves are damaged.

Another possibility is that the attached circuit board is damaged but the platters and mechanical drive system are intact. It might be possible to have that board replaced.

I guess I'd have to wonder how good the local shop is that checked it and what tests they did.


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

Drivesavers. they have some cheap, slow options now.


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## Getteau (Dec 20, 2007)

My company has used On Track in the past and they do good work. When my laptop drive died, I think it was between 1500 and 2500 to recover the data. IIRC, the process was basically, 
1. Send them the drive
2. They look at it for a set fee
3. They send you a file with readout of what they could recover and the recover price.
4. If you decide to pay for the recovery, they restore the data to a USB drive and mail you the USB drive and your original drive.

They did my recovery about 5 years ago and I think that was the process.


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