second data recovery company altering the ROM?

[cheadledatarecovery]

I had a very hesitant customer who brought me a drive. I explained the fault (highly degraded media - lots of bad sectors), and he took the drive back. The drive was recoverable, but might have taken a while for cloning. He decided that he did not want to go ahead at that time.

Since then he has taken the drive to two other DR companies. One I know as reputable, the other I don't know much about. Any how, he requested the drive back from the company I knew little about, and asked for it to be sent back directly to me. They were quite upset because they had spent time doing diagnostics and even suggested he was some kind of mole working on my behalf (as if!).

Now when I test the HDD it no longer spins up, but stays busy. Power going to the PCB OK & it looks intact. If I didn't know better I would say that the ROM might have been corrupted. The reason why I don't know better is that I am not very familiar with Toshiba drives (MK1517GAP / HDD2157). Does anyone have any ideas on why a Toshiba drive would no longer spin up when a power surge/PCB fault is unlikely?

Best wishes,
John

[dobrevjetser]

Sure there is no power going to the motor ? Toshiba's are know for their spindle problems.
I've got cases where a bad spindle caused lots of bad sectors to appear. Spindle was rotating, but not at the right speed. Perhaps the shipping has caused the spindle to be really stuck ?
If, however, there really is no power going to the motor, then yes, i would say the rom has been tinkered with.

Dobre

[hddguy]

It is very difficult to establish if a DR firm has tampered with a disk, whether maliciously or unintentional result of the recovery process. I have some cases where rings develop on media during recovery/cloning for example, In this case, you will definitely need native PCB.

Will be interesting if the DR firm advised client they will retain a copy of his data, if recovered, 'just in case'.

[cheadledatarecovery]

Indeed there are plausible explanations (damage in transit) and others. Yes I am quite suspicious, especially as I have seen the email they sent to the customer in which they are quite rude and accusatory.

I've just tried a non-matching donor pcb. Drive spins up as it did before it was sent away to 'DR company 2'.

The sad thing about it is that he was 'shopping around' as he was recently made unemployed so didn't have too much cash to spare. Not sure what I do with this drive now as I can only presume other bits of the drive might have been 'tinkered' with also that will not make it possible to recover the data.

Best wishes,
John

[hddguy]

Has the disk been opened? Personally, in this situation, only thing to do is properley diagnose and determine now if there is anything you can do. You could be lucky to find heads in stiction, or fuse is dodgy.

[dobrevjetser]

I try to take image of rom and if possible SA of every drive that comes in, even if i have to send it back.
That avoids these situations.

Dobre

[HDD Spaz]

Ive seen this before. I bet they quoted an extortionate amount and said we will keep a copy of the data just incase they change their mind.

Whats slightly confusing is to why he sent the drive to you, then sent it to two other companies and then sent it back?

If its had 3/4 surface scans and clones then it should really deteriorate.

[cheadledatarecovery]

Basically he was trying to get things as cheaply has possible. My original quote was 50% less than the nearest as I was discounting the work in respect to him being unemployed. He thought he could get a better offer. Seems that he couldn't and now he's probably going to have to pay twice as much again to the other recovery company he he wants his data back. Very fortunately most of my customers are not like this!

[harddrivespecialist]

If you gave a resonable quote, but customer refused that and sent it to more than one company, just refuse to deal with it. It will save you a lot of time and frastration.

[cheadledatarecovery]

Yes going to, was just trying to do the guy a favour. Guess he is going to have to learn the hard way

[CK]

If a customer sent a drive to us like that and we offered a rock bottom price - and he declines - then sends it elsewhere and finally comes back to me, I think it's a case of tough luck. I certainly wouldn't be offering to help, unless it was at a price higher than what I offered. You are now spending valuable time on a job that is probably going to be fruitless. The grief to money ratio on these jobs is too high and takes your focus away from real jobs.

[dobrevjetser]

Had also a case like this.
Quoted a customer for recovery of a kermit with SA damage.
He said is was to expensive, and other companies offered a much better price.
So i sent the drive back.
To my amazement, i got the drive back about a month later.
Seemed the other company promised a lot on the phone, but once they got the drive, they quoted an exorbitant price.
They also opened the drive. Where it initialy only had a bad SA, now its full of bad sectors also and head are reading unstable.
Where initially this was a very straightforward job, it much more difficult now.


Dobre

[cheadledatarecovery]

I'm going to tell the customer today that it is now not possible/unrealistic for me to complete the work. I am sure he will contact 'DR Company 2' to discuss the matter. Curious to see how they will respond.

Here's an extract from a previous email of theirs:
"Having
> replied to you numerous emails, and performed a free evaluation, and
> virtually guaranteeing a full recovery on a no data no fee basis, I'm sure
> you can appreciate why we would be a little annoyed by the time wasted by us
> on your case."

Something tells me he's going to have pay more for it now

[hddguy]

Here's an extract from a previous email of theirs:
"Having
> replied to you numerous emails, and performed a free evaluation, and
> virtually guaranteeing a full recovery on a no data no fee basis, I'm sure
> you can appreciate why we would be a little annoyed by the time wasted by us
> on your case."

This customer sounds like a right pain to me

[cheadledatarecovery]

hehe, yes I think in all fairness to the other data recovery company I also found his chopping and changing a bit annoying too, and he was one that asked a lot of questions. I too was a bit put out that after myself doing the initial diagnostics tests and a very good quote he took the drive back. So I do understand where they are coming from, but I'm not sure if I would tell him, and certainly I wouldn't do any 'tinkering' with the drive.

[BlackST]

As a rule, I don't accept jobs previously refused and coming back after a round trip, only in VERY RARE case. I save a lot of PITA. Experience....

[harddrivespecialist]

As a rule, I don't accept jobs previously refused and coming back after a round trip, only in VERY RARE case. I save a lot of PITA. Experience....

Only if it was not tinkered with, but not always. Agreed!

[CK]

Reminds me of those jobs where the quote is refused by the customer, who sends it elsewhere, only for the other DR company to outsource it back to us (still with our sticker on it!)

[harddrivespecialist]

Reminds me of those jobs where the quote is refused by the customer, who sends it elsewhere, only for the other DR company to outsource it back to us (still with our sticker on it!)

Are you serious????

I have not seens those yet.

[lcoughey]

Reminds me of those jobs where the quote is refused by the customer, who sends it elsewhere, only for the other DR company to outsource it back to us (still with our sticker on it!)

I haven't seen that yet. Though, I have had a few irate clients threaten to go to my "competition." I've also had a partner's client call me directly, not knowing that we already have their drive, to see if we can give them a second opinion.