Hard-drive data recovery

I've got an old hard-drive that died a while back that I'd like like to get some data off.

Could anybody recommend a specialist in London that they've used? I'd rather it was London based, don't want anything getting lost in the post.

And yes, I know I should have backed up everything.

http://www.easyrecovery.co.uk/Hard_Drive_Recovery.htm

PC or mac?

It's fucking expensive if you want proper data recovery. Do you know what exactly is wrong with the drive?

A linux cd and dd can do alot but if there is anything mechanically too broken you will require a company with a clean room. Very expensive.

It's a Macbook.

I was using Aperture and it just crashed, started going click, click, click. Which I believe is pretty standard. I replaced it, and it seems that something has come loose as it rattles when you shake it.

Shaking your hdd.. good one! smacks head in disbelief :P

Shaking your hdd.. good one! smacks head in disbelief :P

Well I actually mean move it slightly.

Slightly one way then slightly the other at speed would this be?

Slightly one way then slightly the other at speed would this be?

No very subtly.

See, Macs do turn your brains to mush.
Sorry, "I'm a PC" user I'm not really able to help further so I'll just annoy you instead. :)

Sounds like it is borked to me.

If you stick it in an HDD caddy and plug it in does the drive spin up/mount, or just click a bit and refuse to play?

Sounds like it is borked to me.

If you stick it in an HDD caddy and plug it in does the drive spin up/mount, or just click a bit and refuse to play?

I tried booting it from another Mac, nothing, so it's a mechanical fault. Actually, it does click a bit and refuse to play.

http://www.datarecoverylondon.co.uk/index.html

http://www.easyrecovery.co.uk/ £250 per drive

*mate used to work for a recovery company. I'm sure it was more expensive than this. Be careful who you choose. Read up if it's that important.

asdflkhjasdgklndasg fucking url piss off i kill yuopuiasegnso'koseng wkonghwe
*

I tried booting it from another Mac, nothing, so it's a mechanical fault. Actually, it does click a bit and refuse to play.

Sometimes as long as the hardrive doesn't get to hot you can recover some stuff from it. Need to let it cool down and then try again. NOTE: This will only work 50% of the time and sooner or later it won't come back alive at all.

Have you tried Disk Warrior... it's dug me out of more dark holes than I care to remember?

The more you try and access the drive, the more chance there is of further damage and data loss. (This is especially true when using OS X as HDs are quietly optimised and cleaned on the fly.) Do not post the drive if you can help it, if something is loose inside then DON'T shake it (actually don't shake anything electrical, it's not a Polaroid)!

It will be expensive and most companies don't guarantee success, it is unlikely you will get clean data back unless a mechanical flaw stopped the disk from engaging at all. If the data is really important then stop playing with the drive yourself and seek proper help. Good luck.

I was going to attempt the "stick it in the freezer overnight (in sealed bags)" trick, but I'd rather get it to someone who knows what they're doing. It's been sitting for a couple of months now, most of it was backed up, but unfortunately for me, not everything.

i have an external USB2 hard drive that is partly faulty (it still seems to spin up and access some data, but some is "missing" (so it's not completely farked). i use a mac, but the drive is formatted FAT32.

can anyone suggest cheap/free/wink wink software to try to recover the missing bits? most of the software i've seen can recover mac-formatted drives, but not FAT32 drives.

Unfortunately those missing bits if not seen by OS X will have been overwritten many times if you're reading/writing to the drive with your Mac (as the drive is pretty much full).

Fat32 can be read/written to from a PC also, you'll find lots of free utilities then I imagine? ...worth a shot?

i have an external USB2 hard drive that is partly faulty (it still seems to spin up and access some data, but some is "missing" (so it's not completely farked). i use a mac, but the drive is formatted FAT32.

can anyone suggest cheap/free/wink wink software to try to recover the missing bits? most of the software i've seen can recover mac-formatted drives, but not FAT32 drives.

With a mac you can dd an image of the entire disk to another hardrive using the diskutils under settings.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh3.html

It's a Macbook.

I was using Aperture and it just crashed, started going click, click, click. Which I believe is pretty standard. I replaced it, and it seems that something has come loose as it rattles when you shake it.

this happened to me. Take it into the Mac store. They plug in a separate hard drive and boot it up so that both hard drives show up on the computer. they move all the info you want from your computer to their separate thingy (real technical i know) and then you give them your computer for anywhere from 2 hours to a day, normally no longer, and they will replace your hard drive because that is probably what is clicking and then you probably have a pin somewhere loose which is what is rattling (that happened to me too, because I dropped my computer.) hope that helps? Oh and if you don't have it, normally they end up just giving you the newest system if they have to replace your hard drive.

With a mac you can dd an image of the entire disk to another hardrive using the diskutils under settings.

...and doing that will put the disk under severe load, finishing it off for good.

(Duplicating a disk will rarely solve a read problem and is not the best approach and it will crudely "stumble" over the data, ignoring any fragmented table allocations or partial data.)

they move all the info you want from your computer to their separate thingy

It sounds as if you went in with a corrupt OS install and they simply accessed your drive remotely, a failed HD (or HD with unreadable data) cannot be read from another computer unless there is simply a software problem or (non-HD) hardware problem on the original comp.

i use file salvage (mac) and have successfully recovered data from supposedly unmountable external drives and from mac laptops with the grey screen and question mark.
but if the drive is clicking then it's a hardware not software problem so it's time for screwdrivers, clean-room and somebody who knows what they are doing.

I've got an old hard-drive that died a while back that I'd like like to get some data off.

Could anybody recommend a specialist in London that they've used? I'd rather it was London based, don't want anything getting lost in the post.

And yes, I know I should have backed up everything.

Just lost a mac to a massive failure so can again recommend WCS in Kingston area:

http://www.wcs.uk.net/

excellent service + they'll fix the mac and you can use it again. yay!

...and doing that will put the disk under severe load, finishing it off for good.

(Duplicating a disk will rarely solve a read problem and is not the best approach and it will crudely "stumble" over the data, ignoring any fragmented table allocations or partial data.)

Depends how mac does the backup, if it is a straight unix dd copy then yes it will fry the drive, if it ain't and it something like ddrescue then it will look for all the good stuff first and then try to recover the knackered sectors.