Labs that can retrieve data from damaged platters?

[randommonth]

Hi everyone,

My WD external hard drive got wine spilt on it and dropped a few months ago. It was never readable by a computer after this time and began to click. I sent it to a data recovery lab who discovered a damaged platter and claimed that the data was irretrieveable. The company was CBL Data Recovery (www.cbldatarecovery.com.au).

Their exact words were: Unrecoverable DOA - Drive clicking, PCB fine , no sign of wine, drive seems it has been knocked while spinning as there is scratches around outside edge and a few dints on platter, where heads have hit.

I'm wondering if there are any companies ANYWHERE in the world that specialise in these sorts of tough jobs, and are capable of retrieving data from seriously damaged drives?

Or am I dreaming that I'll ever get these photos back again??

Cheers

[HDD Spaz]

It might be possible, depends on other factors such as which platter is damaged, how many surfaces damaged, how much money you have to spend. I've seen quite a few cases were disks have been diagnosed as unrecoverable because of media damage because the company don't have the skills to do it.

How exactly did you spill wine on it and then drop it?

[BlackST]

Unless the platters are completely scored/corroded, if the previous attempts made no further damage and if you will to spend from EUR 3000 to 5000, the answer can be YES.

[Alexii]

Depends on the damage , but there is a chance for partial recovery. Job like that can skyrocket. Ontrack outfit in Toronto did jobs like this for ~2k canadian

[maux]

Happy to hear that aren't you?

Recover data from a damaged platter? Yes

Spend lots of money? Yes


The platters are drunk off the wine and will be irritable and antagonistic until they are sober. Check them into AA and brew them some coffee.

[pepe]

the main thing here is WHO can handle WD drives for head swap... as they are a PITA for the most of the DR companies.
it is highly possible that we can recover it, but a tiny glance of the inside of the drive is required to state this with a bit more confidency.
The problem is the distance between Australia and Hungary... but it is not a really big problem.

pepe

[randommonth]

Thanks for all the prompt replies guys, much appreciated.

I should have answered the most obvious question up front. The drive was serving music to my laptop at my recent 30th birthday party. The party was in full flight when my flatmate 'allegedly' pulled a mistimed handstand on the dancefloor (I didn't witness the incident) fell towards the speaker, toppled the speaker which had a glass of wine on it, sending the glass down all over my laptop, covering it and the hard drive next to it in red wine. In the immediate commotion after the incident I think whoever frantically pulled all the electronic gear out of the puddle simply dropped it all in the nearest dry spot, without removing the running drive from the laptop.

I initially suspected liquid damage but it was the 2 data recovery centres that have looked at the drive that set me straight.

Considering the drive was accessing music files at the time of the incident, is it likely that the photos from my recent holiday are safe? They're the only files I want back!

[pepe]

I am afraid we cannot get closer to the solution by talking more about here...