Hello,

yesterday I dropped my notebook while working on it. I tried to catch it but instead it fell even worse – flat open, keyboard and display down. As I picked it up it showed right away the black initial screen offering to press F2 or F12. I tried to switch it on and off several times but it would only show the same screen and then tell me that no bootable system was found.

I can hear that the piep-piep, alarm clock-like sound.

A PC man took my harddisk out (Seagate, 320 GB, NTFS) and tried to connect it to another system but it won't recognize the hard drive.

I contacted Kroll Ontrack and Maintec who offered me fix prices between 750 (Maintec) and 1000 (Ontrack) Euro. The analysis cost 107 Euro. I would like to know wheather you think it is worth it to do the analysis

After reading on the internet and talking to Ontrack on the phone it seems that it is probably a mechanical damage and I can imagine that headcrash is very possible. Now I am wondering wheather it is really worth sending my hdd for analysis. Does anybody know what happens when the hard drive IS mechanically damaged (I've seen pics of „beautiful“ rings on the surface of the drive) through head crash and my switching the notebook on and off several times after the fall? Will the DR give it back to me right away saying there is nothing to do or do they try to recover information which is in the non-damaged part of the hard drive? I am doubting the latter because of the cost efficiency for the DR. However, if first is true I don't want to pay the analysis cost for the DR just opening the hard drive. Is there a possibility to verify whether it is a head crash othewise? Somewhere in a magazine story I've seen on the internet they were talking about a „whole“ through which you could look into the drive. I've found a small DR in Berlin (where I am located) who doesn't seem very trustworthy to me with a proposal free analysis between 5 min.(!) and 4 hours but who claims to have a clean-room-closet(!?). Maybe I could go there and let him open my hard drive for less money. In case there are those rings there is nothing to do but I saved analysis cost at Maintec or Ontrack. Otherwise I let him close it again and send it to another DR. Or is it not possible?

Sorry for such a long text!

Hi you most probably have a head crash and heads are now on the surface (sticktion) thats why you hear the sound "piep-piep".
You should not try to power it up more to prevent further damage, seek out professional help with your drive.
I don't know any DR company in Germany, but in Belgium, England or here in Sweden.

Bosse

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Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

Hi mr_spokk,
thanks for your answer. Do you think that in case of head crash a DR will try to rescue any data? Or as it was my assumption that they will see a head crash and declare there is nothing to do right away.

yes , your data can be recovered and prices you have been quoted are fair too.
your hdd need to be opened in the clean room
similar operation is about £500 in UK

cheers

Nobody can tell without a proper evaluation whether the media damage is significant enough to render the data unrecoverable or not.
Depending on the extent of damage, sometimes a recovery attempt is worthwhile, often not.
It really depends on what is going on...

As far as evaluation cost, ask straight up: what is the $108 for? What kind of service will I get for this amount in both scenarios: when there is significant damage - will there be a recovery attempt or not?

Also, whether a company charges for an evaluation or not does not necessarily tell all about a company's expertise, integrity, how much or little they will do for free or for 108 euros. it often depends.. unless you are told that no matter what the damage and evaluation outcome will be x euros.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

@ibcho: how can you be so sure? I read in forums about several cases where a (well-known) DR declared the hard disk right away non recoverable because of head crash. I HAVEN'T seen posts where a partial successful recovery was described

@labtech: thank you for the evaluation



that's exactly what I was told and what I don't like about it!

it's called experience and honesty mate. of course it's hard to tell before test the drive. as mr spook said , your drive is suffering head stiction on the platters. just go for a professional recovery if you really need the data, if not just leave it
dont try yourself anything mate, trust me your case is not a DIY!
i dont think you will pay for the analysis cost , if you go for the recovery

Usually analysis cost only been paid if the customer decline the quote, if the is a fixed price it's all included.

Bosse

_________________
Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

not in the case of abovementioned Kroll and Maintec...

Here comes interesting & hot question.
Is ontrack indeed has super special tools which others don't have? Having acquired vogon internataional , Ibas and Several other companies ,they surely have proprietory tools. In one of the clean room video ontrack engineers has cleaned platters & even removed for cleaning.Something thought as extreme engineering & last ditch attempt . Most of the cases with pahyiscal damage ( accidental fall) have been unsuccessful with most of the peoples ( scratches on platter or bad sectors in SA).
I wish I could peep inside ontrack cleanroom oneday .

Dropped 2.5" drive is unlikely to be a basic job, that's for sure, but definitely not all of them are unrecoverable.

I believe mr_spokk meant that diagnostics fee usually credited toward a total fee if a client decides to proceed and accepts the data recovered (for this particular job that results in 893 Eur to be paid later).

P.S.
Your nickname sounds curious, please check your PM.

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• Remote RAID, NAS, SAN, VMware, DVR (CCTV), flash and tape recovery. Data recovery support.

I agree (I would not like it either if I was in the same shoes), so I understand your perspective as a customer. No customer would ever like this.

It is more or less about risk and who shoulders it most specifically based on the failure/damage sustained.

From a DR company's perspective, to work on a drive that has media damage, buy several parts, perform the work and come out empty and ruin the parts in the process of attempting to recover the data is not quite appealing. That is a high value loss. I think you would agree with the afore statement as well should you be the person working on the recovery.

Sometimes, if you find the right place, discuss in more detail and make a proposal for a custom service. As long as it is reasonable, I am sure any good company would consider. Worst case scenario you receive a "no".

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

We use Ontrack in media damage cases. Had a Kermit with scratches to top platter visible ( inner side ) New heads gave me ID i imaged a bit of it but top head died almost immediately , followed by 2. Then 0 and 1 started acting up. Sent it to OT. They are imaging it now. AFAIK they have some way of mitigating the damage done , to prevent the donor head from killing itself on it. They recovered multiple cases like that for us. Its rare but it does happen.

Very interesting. Right now I'm finishing recovery on a drive that was called unrecoverable by O. Have seen no signs of disassembling or cleaning. It is not the first case, not the first dozen of cases like this...

Yep, we too have recovered many drives that OT deemed unrecoverable.

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http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Its worth mentioning there is probably a difference between OT labs. Our Toronto location seems knowledgeable. From time to time they tell me they cant make the case and ask for permission to beam it to the mother ship ( Home office lab in US somewhere ) In some cases it comes unrecoverable. In some they do make it there...