date recovery recs?

[mopinko]

yes, the bad thing has happened. my hard drive went squeak, squeak, crunch.......
the geniuses will take their best shot at recovering my data, then DH will take a crack. but i do have to have that data. no, it is not backed up. have a back up drive sitting here, and it is still in the box. yes, i know i am an idiot.
so, if it comes to that, anyone have any experience with any particular company? they gave me a list with a few names, not recommended, exactly, just out there. one was called lazarus, which i thought was amusing. don't remember the rest.
they started out telling me that i had to try to recover the data, then they would fix it. i didn't cry, but i did give them a :wtf: he got authorization to return my dead drive when they were done with it.
way too much stuff on there for me to just walk away. i so undervalue my work sometimes. but there is a year and a half worth of buttons, pr for my artists co-op, a website for the group that i was working on. too much.
i am spoiled, tho. DH has recovered many a squeaking wreck of a drive for me, and never failed.
so. anyone? feel free to flog me for my stupidity if you must.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. Two Words: T I M E ...... M A C H I N E

Once set up, it is THE most worry free back-up solution imaginable. The only things it cannot protect you from are fire and flood. Pestilence is not an issue.

And it is free. Right there in your Leopard Dock. It needs but a spare drive and a few minutes of your time.

Now ...... yes ...... you may have another ..........

[MagickMuffin]

2. My hubby used Disk Warrior on a recovery for me and it worked.

The downside to it was it doesn't recover your file names.

So, you have to rename ALL your files.

My trouble happened when I was clearing out unwanted files, instead of dragging everything to the trash, I would hit the command delete and it ended up deleting the whole folder.:cry:

But Disk Warrior did work.

[mopinko]

3. i was wondering what kind of utilities are out there for mac or in the mac,

but this drive is so dead it doesn't even know it used to be a hard drive. hooked it up yesterday, and it spins, but no computer can even see it.
sigh. this is gonna cost some money. i am hoping my mac medic friend can help.
kicking myself especially cuz i have a .mac account that i never really use. i could be backing up to that.
:banghead:

[crimsonblue]

4. It shouldn' cost that much to replace, depending on what kind of mac you have

If you have an iMac or Mac Pro, then swapping out HDDs is a cinch. MBP and macbook is a tad more user intensive, but straight forward nonetheless. Also, HDDs are pretty damn cheap these days. The best prices on HDDs can be found at Newegg.com. I get all of my computer crap there.

[moggie]

5. It's not the disk replacement which costs

It's recovering data from the dead drive. That's a specialist job, and the companies which do it charge an arm and a leg, because the market (desperate companies and individuals facing the loss of valuable data) will pay.

Nobody skimps on backups after their first dead disk.

[crimsonblue]

6. it's pretty cheap to recover data, if you know which software to use

the "professionals" use commercially available software.

[moggie]

7. Data recovery specialists can do more than that

For example, if the logic board fails (rarer than head/platter problems, but it does happen), software isn't going to help you. In this case, the specialist can repair or replace the logic board to get at the data. If you have a head failure, the best companies have a "clean room" so that they can open the drive and do a "head transplant".

[mopinko]

8. this is why it is so expensive, i am told.

that clean room part. talked to someone called disk savers- minimum $1600. eiy yie.

and fyi, folks- the drive has been replaced. still under warrantee, apple guys took care of it. it is the data that i want. tried to hook it up, but it has no brain.
i sort of disprove your theorem that no one skimps after their first hard drive fails. i have had many fail, DH always makes them cough it up somehow. i think this one just might make it sink in, tho.

[crimsonblue]

9. Give me a fucking break

Specialists? Are you really either that gullible or ignorant?

[moggie]

10. Is this so hard to understand?

Here's a disk:



Notice the controller card. If this fails, perhaps fried by a power spike, your drive is a brick, and no amount of software will help. In this case, the first step to recovery is replacing the controller with a compatible one.

Here's what's inside:



If the actuator fails, the heads aren't going anywhere: again, software won't get you anywhere in this case. You need to replace the faulty assembly, and for that you need a "clean room".

The market supports a range of companies providing data recovery. Inevitably, the majority will just use software, and often have barely more expertise than the customers they serve. They can cope with a good fraction of failures. But as long as people neglect backups (which can include failing to test your backups) and lose valuable data, there will be a niche for companies like i365 (a division of Seagate, the drive manufacturer) and DriveSavers, who can go further and recover from a greater proportion of disasters. It's not cheap, but if you've just lost data worth five figures or more, you'll pay.

[mopinko]

11. i am neither.

i am married to an IT specialist who is the administrator/architect of one of the fastest, most cutting edge computer systems in the country. so, what ever knowledge i might lack is right there next to me.
i probably wouldn't even be asking questions here, except that i have the only mac in the house. (ok, we did get a kid a used mac for x-mas.) the other 11 computers are all windows or linix.