After successfully using software data recovery tools to rescue accidently deleted pics from a friends CF card word has gotten around that I might be someone to turn to when data disappears. So far I have managed to take an image of another friends dying hard drive (it was clicking but still accessable using a USB SATA/ide box) and recover the files using R-Studio. Even if my friends think I am worth asking for help I am most definitely a total noob and I am afraid the next recovery project is beyond me....

The data to be recovered is sentimental to its owner but not essential and my friend has said he can pay up to $US600 but the quotes he got from professional data recovery firms are totally out of his budget (around $2000 - $3000). By the way I Live in Australia and our exchange rate is about $1 australian = $0.90 US.

Here is the situation
OS is windows XP pro
Hard drives are 2 x WD 250 GB Caviar SATA drives set up as RAID0
the drives were partitioned
C: 50GB had windows and program files
F: 225GB of movie iso images
G: 225GB of which 100GB are jpegs and pdf
there is no backup since around 50GB of holiday photos were put on and the task is to recover those photos and any documents from the C:mydocuments

the symptoms were firstly that he noticed some ticking noises on startup but didn't recognise significance of this and continued to use computer normally for about 3 days. Then on morning of fourth day the computer wont boot. It gets to "booting from CD...." and never gets any further.
Looking in the BIOS the only devices detected are the DVD-RW drive and one of the WD250 GB hard drives (it is plugged into the SATA 3 port of the motherboard and is detected as connected to IDE 3. The other drive is plugged into SATA port 4 but nothing shows up on the BIOS.
On closer inspection during start up, the hard drive connected to SATA 3 port (which i will call, hopefully not erroneously, "the good drive") can be heard powering up and warming with normal temp and noise for a hard drive. The drive connected to SATA 4 port (the bad drive) can be heard powering on followed by three ticks about one second apart from each other then powering down (this noise occurs when the computer is first switched on then again while the BIOS is looking for a boot drive.

I have taken both drives out of the computer and installed windows on a new 500GB drive. and the computer works fine but we are left with the problem of how to recover the photos.

The professional places my friend asked have all said that because its RAID they wont offer "no recovery no fee" they insist on up front payment of $500 then they estimate it to be a "hardware failure" which will cost $1700 to repair the broken drive (in addition to the up front $500 fee). They say that if it turns out to be a software issue they can recover the data from the drive for $500 to $750 depending on whether its firmware or PCB.
they will still then charge an extra $250 to ghost (or make an image) of the Good drive, then they will charge a further $200 to $400 to reconstruct the array.

Does anybody know if there is anyway for a newbie to safely diagnose whether the problem is PCB, firmware or head problem. From what I read the software MHDD should be perfect for doing this, but before I try it what are the risks that using this software will damage the data further?

I dont see why we should pay $250 to make an image copy of the good drive, that is something I can do. Now if I can find a way (or find an expert... any volunteers?) who can make an image of the Bad drive, and i have an image of the good drive on two new hard drives how difficult do you think it will be to use software to rejoin the stripes and recover photos that can be put on another large new drive.

My thoughts are if someone can make an image of the Bad drive for me (any ideas on who might be able to do this for me within the budget mentioned?), i will of course image that image so that while i may stuff around as newbies do trying to recover files, the original images will always be backed-up so I can always go back to the professional with both the good and bad disk images and ask them to reconstruct the data. The other thought I have is that after the GOOD drive is backed up (twice) that drive can be used if necessary as a transplant donor for the Bad drive.

If i do want to try to reconstruct the data am I better off doing it from two separate drives or one large drive. Should the drives be 250GB and 250GB or 500GB or does it matter. How hard is it to reconstract the data thats been split across the two drives in RAID0. I have a licensed copy of R-Studio but am willing to buy other software if we can fit the budget.

Thanks to all those who take the time to read my post and especially those that have some advice.

"The drive connected to SATA 4 port (the bad drive) can be heard powering on followed by three ticks about one second apart from each other then powering down (this noise occurs when the computer is first switched on then again while the BIOS is looking for a boot drive. " dead heads?

Don't risk it, spend the money and take it to a Pro. Professional data recovery firms charge $$ due to the time needed to examine disks, spend time troubleshooting and attempting to rebuild. Too many times i get disks which had attempted recoveries done on them the 1st time...changes made and it's been a complete waste of time. I suggest to save your money, when you can afford to send it to a data recovery company send it.

If you don't want to spend the money and want to take a risk, you can try X-Ways Forensics, this program is good for RAID-0 rebuilding as is R-Studio.

Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I have decided to get a pro data recovery person to recover the bad drive. But I think if we are going to pay $2000 to $3000 its reasonable to ask why charge $500 extra cos its RAID and why charge $250 to ghost a perfectly functioning hard drive just because it is one half of the RAID stripes.

If I had a non RAID hard drive that was not recognised by BIOS the recovery fees being quoted in australia are around $600 if its just a PCB, firmware or software problem and $1500 or so if it required clean room disk rebuilding. (keep in mind I have a spare drive for parts)

I don't expect to be able to learn how to recover the data from the bad drive, because its so easy for the data to be lost especially when its done by an amateur, so this part I will try to find a pro to do for me. (anyone keen please message me)

All the pros I have asked have said "we do the whole job or not at all". I'd just like to get some idea how difficult reconstructing files split over a RAID0 is. Why is it the pros wont do the data recovery from the bad disc and let me try to reconstruct it. As long as everything (the recovered images) is backed up I can always go back to them and get them to reconstruct it later.

I'd appreciate the opinions of people with experience - if I was given two new functioning drive images of the two discs from a RAID0 (where one disc had previously failed and was professionally recovered) and both those images were backed up elsewhere Surely I can play around with those images with no chance of losing the data - I have always got back ups of the images. I think its worth my while to try to recover files from those two images if it can save me $750+? If I can find someone who will do half the job and try to recover an image from the bad disk I will try R-Studio and let you all know how it goes...

Ok I have another question cos I have never tried this... If i got two perfectly healthy normally functioning hard drives that are operating in RAID0 (with the XP installed and running from them) and I used norton ghost to make an image file and placed those image files on two new hard drives of a different brand and capacity, would the new drives boot normally? if not how hard would it be to piece together the stripes and recover individual jpegs?

Once again Thankyou to everyone who shares their thoughts.

I would assume they charge to re-stripe as RAID-0's are not always easy or simple, often you need to work out the order of the disks and also the starting sector. Sometimes there is also an offset to consider.

Sometimes tools like RAID reconstructor can pick up the block size and order really quick and then you can put the settings into a tool like File Scavenger. What you need to keep in mind is if a data recovery company is charging you a fee, it's for a reason. The reason is - everything takes time, time costs money for a professional. Sometimes some small operators who are still learing take on jobs at a low cost as they learn on the job, get more experience and like a challenge. For most data recovery firms - they usually have too much work to keep up with demands on time demanded from customers to return the data back ASAP.

I would suggest you try the recovery yourself if you feel it's not worth the cost, but if you don't want to risk it.

Sometimes RAID-0 can be simple and quick but when there is a hardware failure you will find most firms do not want to take on these jobs unless they have the experience.

I would suggest to ensure they actually have a clean room, ask to see it or inspect it or at least see a photo. I know several data recovery firms in NSW in St Leonards and in QLD ship work overseas to their international labs and work is not done in house. This can also take time.

Also - you will find if you are not in a hurry, the data recovery firms usually offer a discount.

Good luck friend.

Also - TerraNova , yep - it sounds like damaged heads or a scratched platter to me. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best vasopressin.

yeah get a pro

Zed - thanks for your thoughts. I guess it comes down to how much the data is worth to the owner, for $3000 it might be better to spend money on another holiday and take more pics and back them up properly next time.
My friend is willing to spend up to $600 or so, time is not important. I'd like to get a pro to get an image from the bad drive and then I will try to play around with the backed up images using R-Studio and RAID reconstructor.
Another thing I noticed is alot of pro data recovery firms who offer reduced price for non urgent work seem to have fees twice everybody else (maybe this is so they have room to discount?). Maybe I am asking the wrong people... will make some more calls tomorrow...

Good luck, i hope you solve your problem.

P.S Like a good car, you get what you pay for - quailty, experience and high standards. So don't send it to a data recovery company in India or someplace like that just becuase they offer a price of $300 US Dollars unless they have some references or testimonials to back them up.

Best of luck.