Hard drive repair

brookfetish · January 2009

Does anyone know of a good, trustworthy computer hardware repair person in the area? I have a broken external drive that I believe can be fixed...but I don't want to bring it to someone that will rip me off and/or steal my files.

Thanks.

konakazi · January 2009

Mac or PC?

You should try tekserve, particularly if you're a mac person.

I'd suspect data recovery is fairly universal though and would boil down to the delivered format.

However either way, data recovery is VERY expensive so you should seriously consider how vital your files are before you agree to go through the process.

Wait a minute... "BrookFetish".... "steal your files".... Hmmm, maybe I should have a look at this hard drive first! :twisted:

armchair_warrior · January 2009

yeah you probably need data recovery, gonna cost ya some good change.

brookfetish · January 2009

The suspicion is that the drive itself may be fine, just the motor of the drive isn't working properly. Hopefully that would be less expensive.

Yes, it would be worth it. 36gb of music, more than half of which I do not have on a disc, and most every digital photo I've taken.

Sad part is...used the drive to back up my home PC, which is about to crash. The external drive failed first.

konakazi · January 2009

Unless your music consists of live recordings you made yourself or rare out of print international music, it might be more cost effective to use "the internet" to recapture your lost tunes, rather than pay hundreds of dollars to retrieve your personal best of the 80s.

Your digital photos, that's a little tougher, but if you haven't printed them, archived them on CDs, or used them for another purpose, you might want to consider whether or not you really need them.

Sounds like you need to get in the habit of backing up your data on DVDs, and get some more kick ass reliabled external hard drives.

steve · January 2009

Hello.

I have considerable experience with data recovery and provide data recovery service. There are basically several possibilities.

a. The usb/firewire/network interface has failed. Basically, the drive enclosure. Not a horrible deal. It should cost less than $200. to repair.

b. The drive is mechanically and electrically sound, but data is inaccessible. Data recovery is necessary and for the amount of data you are talking about expect to spend between $300. and $1000. You may not need that 36 GB of music which would drive the cost down significantly.

c. The drive is not mechanically or electrically sound. Data recovery will cost a thousand minimum, or be impossible. It depends, it's very technical work at that point.

My company is Quick Byte fwiw. I've been doing business in Brooklyn for over a decade, happy to help you out.

best
Steve

konakazi · January 2009

He's a cylon! Don't trust him!

brookfetish · January 2009

Thanks, Steve. PM sent...check your inbox.

Fingers crossed that it's "A".

steve · January 2009

I'm one of the good cylons....

One thing, I didn't think to say in my original post is that if it is some sort of raid unit, that complicates things. Consumer raid is relatively new, and it didn't enter into my thought process until just now. I did a job for a school that involved over 400 GB of data on a Western Digital Raided Mybook. Not fun.

underthehill · January 2009

If you think the hard drive itself is fine and it's just the enclosure, if you wanna meet up, I can help (no charge). I have different external enclosures that connect via USB which I can hook up your hard drive with and see does it spin up and recognize on a computer.

Just like everyone else said, if it is indeed a problem with the hard drive itself, whether it be the platters and/or the motor within the drive, you are looking into upper hundreds to couple thousands of dollars to get your data back, and there is still no guarantee that you will get your data back.

Hard drive repair

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories