Hi All

I have a 1TB toshiba external HDD. I suffered a head crash, which has caused reasonable platter damage. What I wanted to know is, do you think recovery of the data is possible? There is possibly only 50B worth of data that I care about on the drive, the rest is essentially worthless.

I've gotten one quote for recovery from a lab, and they told me that it was unrecoverable, however their only explanation seemed to be that there is platter damage (I don't think they were even willing to try - risk too high). I've attached a photo - do you think it's worth getting more opinions? Or is the platter likely just a fancy coaster now and there is literally nothing left that I can do. I'd be interested to know if there is any way of recovering the data whatsoever, even if only a partial recovery (and even if a very pricey job).

Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I think 1TB Toshiba has 2 platters. If media damage is only on one surface that there is a possibility to recover partial data from other 3 surfaces. Theoretically it could be about up to 70% of files (depends greatly on file types and condition of other surfaces, sometimes it's 0%)
The only problem now is to find a DR company that would bother(and have a knowhow) to recover from a drive in such conditions (disassembled). Also keep in mind that original flash chip is vital for recovery and original head stack is preferable.

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thanks for the info doomer - that photo was provided by the original guys that said they wouldn't do it. I presume they are able to reassemble and keep everything aligned when they provide me with the drive again, otherwise why on earth would they go and do something like that? Apart from the damaged head and platter, I believe everything else is fine. It's a pretty large and reputable firm, so I don't (think) they are bullcr*ping me...

saygoodbyetodata.com sorry

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Recuperacion De Datos Dominican Republic

Damn. Is that because of the platter damage? Or because they've now pulled the hdd to pieces?

Both will cause big problems to recover the data. Send it to kroll but expect 5k $ qoute.

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Recuperacion De Datos Dominican Republic

May well have been more easily recoverable before they took it apart, as the damage doesn't look that bad.

But now they've disassembled it (why???) it makes matters considerably more difficult.....

Would you care to name the "lab" that took it apart?

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Alignment for this model is not critical, so as long as it's assembled properly and doesn't have fingerprints it's OK

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doomer - thankyou again! that makes more sense now. you are a gun! thanks everyone else too for the input of course!

As for which company it is.... it actually is kroll lol. that being said, it's kroll here is Aus. I've heard before that they can't do the super complex recoveries here in Aus and have to send the work back to the USA if if its beyond a "standard" mechanical failure (replace heads or pcb or whatever, then image - their standard level 4 $1500 fixed price service with no obligation to go ahead until you receive a complete file listing). I will ask them to quote on taking it to the next level of recovery / sending it to USA if they need to.

Contact TerraNova on this forum, he has a Lab in Perth, we have sent jobs back and forth. If he is happy to take the job, I would think it wouldn't be as costly.

Thanks HaQue! I'll get in touch with TerraNova for sure. Kroll have been good and professional (and recovered a different drive that another mob here in Melbourne wouldn't even touch - i know 2 drives fail in the space of 3 days, neither of which were properly backed up... in short, i'm an idiot. server + crashplan from now on here at home!). However, they have been kinda slow, you only ever get to speak to their sales people and they don't really give any info out without squeezing them. I'm no expert, but I'm no spud either, and all they would originally say to me was the drive was unrecoverable. After I pressed, they told me it was due to "physical media damage". After I pressed further they told me it was a scratch in the platter (likely due to head crash) and sent me the photo. I guess they have so much work coming out of their butts they don't really care lol... plus maybe they figure my data isn't that valuable and isn't worth the effort.

I really appreciate all the help and information provided by everyone here! Thanks!!

They would probably care, but if their lab is sizeable, then getting proper info from the tech, out to the sales/office staff and back to you would probably be kept to a minimum, and general customers probably not needed to do it. A little pressing like you did would do the trick. I wouldn't read too much into that.

All the best!

Hi all. Just a quick update. Kroll gave me a call yesterday to talk about the hdd in more detail. Essentially, they've said the data on their is completely unrecoverable. Although only one platter is damaged and it's not too extensive, the damage is in a super critical area of the drive making it impossible to recover from at all. Which is disappointing to say the least. They have assured me there is literally nothing left that can be done. Looks like I've got some fancy new tabletop coasters then...

Now, this might be me being suspicious, however I would like to know whether labs ever sabotage drives? Not kroll of course! I ask because I gave the drive to a mob here in Melbourne before I set it to kroll, but took it off them as they kept changing they're terms and pricing everytime I spoke to them - first it was $1300 for the job when described on the phone with no data no charge. This became $1800 when I dropped the drive in (and before they had even looked at it), and when I spoke to them the next day they wanted money upfront that was non refundable if there is no data! When I told them to give the drive back to me for another opinion, they were pretty annoyed, and also said I shouldn't be worried about the upfront charges because they would definitely recover from the drive. They didn't report any platter damage, simply the broken head. Now suddenly there is platter damage in the most critical area of the drive making recovery impossible... Foul play maybe? Am I bring overly suspicious? Or we're they simply trying to hold on to the job and get some fees irrespective of their success and didn't properly investigate what the problem was?

Probably
DR companies become pretty annoyed over customers that constantly change their minds
Some labs do sabotage drives but it's very rare and it's an extra effort which people rarely want to make, because it is not that common that a client would go somewhere else for data recovery.
As for reporting heads damage but not reporting media damage it all depends on how much time a tech spent on evaluating a drive.
"The most critical area" is system area but fortunately there are two copies of it on Toshiba drives, located on different surfaces, so, once again, if damage is only on one surface it is still possible to recover the drive. But, once again, it is pretty hard to find somebody that would bother to try to recover from this drive.
Nobody really care about your drive except yourself

PS: there are few people in the world that could recover from this drive and they are usually busy with other stuff, so you drive with media damage wouldn't interest them, unless you want to spend some crazy money.

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To be honest, if Kroll quoted $1500 for that drive, then I say go for it. Personally I'd quote at least that much just because the odds of success are so low and it'll almost certainly turn out to be a waste of time. The risk has to equal the gain.

Most likely the heads will just keep failing no matter how many times they are changed, and no useful amount of data will be recovered. But, sometimes you get a pleasant surprise and it works.

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Doomer - thanks for the reassurance. It's been in my nature to not be as trusting as I should be. However, I will say I didn't change my mind about the recovery. I didn't go ahead with the recovery with the first guys because they weren't giving me consistent and honest information. My issues with them were:

1 - Over the phone, the price was $1300. When I went to drop the HDD off, it suddenly became $1800 before they had even looked at the drive.
2 - I had 2 HDDs that I said I needed recovery from both. They tried to lock me in to going ahead with one of the drives before they would give me any information on the other.
3 - The terms of their service also changed every time I spoke with them. When I told them about the job I told them that there were crashed heads that would need replacing, that I wasn't sure about the PCB or whether there was platter damage. They assured me that even if all of that was the case, I wouldn't have to pay anything unless they got data off the drive. When I finally took the drive off them, they were saying that I would be out of pocket at least $650 irrespective of whether they were successful.

Overall, I didn't have any faith in them. If they were just straight up and honest with me from the start - i.e. quoted the price they knew they would charge for what I was describing, gave me information about both drives before trying to lock me in and told me that if there was physical damage as described there would be upfront unrecoverable costs irrespective of success - I would have left the drives with them and gone ahead. The real issue was it just felt like they were willing to say anything to get the job through the door irrespective of what they actually thought, and once I'd formed that opinion, I just didn't trust in their abilities and I didn't want to incur a heap of cost to just end up sending the drives to someone else. Also, the drive the Kroll ARE recovering from they were not willing to touch, and it is the one that Kroll can't recover from that they were saying all this about.

As to everyone else - yes I am willing to spend money without a guarantee of success, and yes I am willing to spend more than the $1500 originally quoted by Kroll. I have told this to Kroll as well, however they are adamant that they have tried everything under the sun to get data off this drive, and have had multiple engineers look at it and nobody has been able to do anything. They are sending the drive back to me now and have declared the drive completely unrecoverable so i'm not sure if it's worth trying... although Doomer you are saying that the system files are located on another surface as well? Surely Kroll would have known this? Maybe I should take it elsewhere and I try again? Now I'm just confused...

There is a possibility that they don't know how to disable a bad head and that's the reason why the drive refuses to work all together and they can't get to the other surface.
There is also a possibility that there is media damage on other surfaces.

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geez, while the help is much appreciated, it just leaves me further confused and unsure as to what to do next. I'll consider the cost and get in touch with TerraNova and see if (1) he is interested in taking the job on and (2) how much it is going to cost me upfront. thanks all!!!

Matt, the reality is it's almost certain to be a complete lost cause and waste of money. I'm just trying to be honest with you here. Any amount of data that's going to be recovered will be just bits and pieces. Larger files like videos / high resolution pictures / etc. are certain to be lost in a case like this. You'll most likely just end up paying $2000 to get back some text and icon files.

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