Hi Guys,

I accidentally dropped my Seagate 1.5T external drive the other day and it has stop working. It appears the drive will not spin up and I can only hear a beeping sound every few seconds coming from the drive. I have done some research and it might be a spindle motor seizure problem which is common with Seagate drives. I am from San Francisco, anyone will be able to help or direct me to a reliable and affordable data recovery company?

I have received some initial quote from some companies:
Ontrack: 700-2000
Data Rescue Center: 1200+/-
Hard Drive 911: 600-1900
Drive Savers: 700-2700
Low Cost Recovery: 499+parts+shipping (have anyone use them? they are in Glendora, ca)
Data Recovery Group: 1000-1500

Thanks,
Max

The quotes are as expected except the 499+parts+shipping that means nothing to me (summing up everything it can fall in the range of the other quotes) , can be quite similar here (Europe).

I also got an initial quote from Crucial Data Recovery $649.

Since your drive has a seized motor most of the quotes you got will most likely be at the higher end. This kind of recovery can be extremely difficult. So make sure you do your research on who is going to be working on that drive before you send it in.

Sometimes the cheapest option is not the best for this case.

Agreed, I would tend not to trust those low fixed-quotes (I would expect them either to be unsuccessful or come up with some special reason for you to be charged more).

Not that everyone with fixed quoting is bad, just that those are implausibly low for the situation of your drive.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Low Cost Recovery is very reputable company.
It's owned and operated by one of the well known members of this forum.

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www.datarecoveryne.com

Well, I have been surprised before.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

So he is on this forum too? Would you say he has expertise to handle this kind of situation?
I am really debating whether to go with them, crucial data recovery or the data rescue center.

Both low cost recovery and crucial data recovery have much more affordable prices. I do some digging and low cost recovery do have some good review for their services. I do not know too much about crucial data recovery though.

The rescue center is much more expensive but they are local.

Max

What do you mean?

Yes.

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www.datarecoveryne.com

Here is crucial data recovery website:
http://crucialdatarecovery.com/

and

Low Cost Recovery
http://lowcostrecovery.com/

I mean it would surprise me if anyone worth it in the US was willing to deal with a stuck spindle on a 1.5TB drive for $499. I sure wouldn't. But that doesn't mean it isn't possible.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Maybe he hasn't jumped to the conclusion that it's an expensive seized spindle issue. It could be that he's banking on a simple stiction fault, in which case the fee will be pure profit for a few minutes' work.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

On 3.5" Seagate?

Sorry, no chance.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

When I emailed the company I told them that potentially it is a spindle motor seizure after I did some research on it on my own.

a droped 3.5 1.5tb Seagate beeping upon power up - 99.9999999 spindle.

I guess he could also be betting on freeing up the motor without having to do a platter swap. I would say about 10% of the ones i get in that are seized i can free up the motor to spin to speed and recover the data. That is if the heads did not get destroyed of course.

Agree. Maybe on some of the 500GB models it is possible, but not here.

Or even worse.

Get a decent diagnose first. Anyway the spindle is surely fucked up - no way out.