[WEB4LIB] Data Recovery

[Dennis Brantley]

Angela Kirchner wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I have a dead hard drive on my hands that will not boot with a boot
> disk.  We need to get the information off of it.  I am thinking about
> the option of a data recovery service.  Does anyone know of a good one
> around the SF Bay area and do they work?
> 

Assuming the data is still there, yes these services work.  But if the
drive failed mechanically, you may have nothing left but a heap of iron
oxide. :-(  Can you hear or feel the drive spinning?  Do the heads seek
(clicking noise) at startup?  These would be good signs.  But the
absence of either or both of these doesn't mean the data is gone.  Does
the drive sound like fingernails on a chalkboard?  Does the drive have
parts rattling around inside.  These would be bad signs.  The data is
probably gone.

If the data is still in tact, a good recovery service can retrieve the
platters from the drive if necessary and recover the data, but it's not
a cheap process.  I know of one company that recently was quoted $16,000
to retrieve the data from their Netware server, and that was after $600
worth of 'see if it can be done' costs.  Kinda makes backups sound
cheap.

--
Dennis Brantley  mailto:dennis at dati.com
Data Access Technologies, Inc.  http://www.dati.com
Internet/Remote Access - CD Networking - Thin Client Computing
(770) 339-6554