ST3000DM001 Recovery, 4th time's the charm?

[aweshark]

Hi folks, I as many of you probably did, have joined this awesome forum due to a recent tragedy.

I'm a film producer and one of my external 3tb seagate drives while sitting on my desk working fine and calmly just suddenly started making the clicking noise of death. I turned it off. Stupidly turned it on just to be sure I wasn't going crazy, then immediately freaked and did hurried research for recovery. In my mania I thought a local place was better than a distant place and chose a place called Data Extractors here in Newton MA.

They were terrible to work with, communication was "down" for weeks, and...they probably ruined my drive.

As soon as I got it back with word that the mechanical issues were too bad to recover anything, I sent it to drivesavers. They too sadly gave me the same news. Then a friend said they thought Gillware might be able to do it. Gillware had the same answer, and also told me they thought the previous technicians ruined it. Great, if only they would say it in writing and sign it, maybe I'd have a case, but still no drive.

Annnyway. It's got pretty damn important stuff on it that can't be filmed again. I know recovery is expensive and I was willing to pay for what drivesavers quoted. Should I try Kroll?

Now I'm researching fringe recovery methods and well, whining here.

Anyone got any suggestions? Other than move on with my life?

Thanks!

[HaQue]

Try Data Savers in Atlanta. http://www.datasaversllc.com There is a forum member here, jono-ats .. There are other US based ones frequent this forum too, If you get the same answer then your last suggestion would be it I think.

[Leo]

aweshark, PM sent.

[aweshark]

Hey folks thanks for the suggestions.

Has anyone besides Leo had luck sending a drive to Seagate for recovery?

Thanks

[Doomer]

Judging by the model it's most likely media damage. And media damage and video recovery are not compatible.
It is most likely unrecoverable.

[labtech]

...a place called Data Extractors here in Newton MA.

Have a website link?
In Google search I get weird results. Is it this: http://www.dataextractorlabs.com? And if it is, seems like site is down at this time.

P.S. If money was not an issue, Seagate Recovery Services could have been the best option as it is their own brand drive to recover. At this point, perhaps could still try them, but there will be some fees for sure.

[aweshark]

Thanks for all your feedback folks. Yep thats them, I wrote a very honest and negative review on google as well.