Hi everyone. I am new here and found the forum through a Yahoo! search (hope you don't mind me coming here for help). Last night I plugged in my WD5000D032 external hard drive and got the dreaded "click of death" as I've heard it called. This being my first external HD and, more importantly, my first external HD to crash or begin to die is making me quite nervous (the understatement of my day). I need to know what my options are... First, I know there are different types of clicking noises but regardless the type of click, are the chances for data recovery good? Next, since I have zero experience with trying to fix something like this myself I'm assuming I'll need to send it out somewhere that recovers data? The HD holds 500GB of data and I believe less than half of that is used on my drive. Can anyone give me an idea how much something like that would cost to recover? Finally, any suggestions about where I can go/send the HD to to actually get that data recovered would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much in advance!

Where are you located?

Ya, good chance still. But , dont connect the drive anymore to pc, which will cos more damage.

_________________
__________
There is no substitute for education and experience
THANK YOU
SHAHI
shahi.mahbub@gmail.com

1 byte or 250GB or the full disk, a full recovery is likely going to cost you from 1000$ to 2500$.

I'm in Long Island.

Okay, I won't hook it up anymore.

Jesus...

If the drive is clicking, you will need professional help. The first thing to do is check out the data recovery companies in NY I bet there are quite a few there.

Next call them, weigh up which ones are more experienced. Ask if they think the problem may be heads or firmware and if they are able to both - in house. This will give you an idea of how much it will cost. My guess is somewhere between 500 - 1500 USD. Get a short list and research these companies. A couple of years ago I would have recommded Action Front - however since Dmitry left, they went tits up and sold out to seagate.

Also, see if it's ok to take the drive there in person. This will give you an indicator as to their location - there are many back-room data recovery companies springing up - nothing wrong with that, but with clicking heads, generally you need a company with a lot of experience and clean room facilities. When you drop the drive off, you will get an idea of how good the company is.

I should have added that the cheapest is not necessarily the best value. Always find out what other charges, is there a diagnostics charge, do they charge extra for spares? Basically get a firm quote before letting them have your drive.

With WD external drives that click I've experienced about 5% PCB failure (easy to fix) and 95% heads/media damage (not easy to fix).

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

I'll start looking in my area. Just doing a basic search I found DriveSavers (even though they're not in my area). How are they?

Now when you say "not easy to fix" do you mean files are lost/damaged forever? Or does that just mean it will cost more to recover because the job will be more difficult?

this. though sufficient media damage would render it unrecoverable.

Drivesavers is a top tier DR company, along with Ontrack etc.

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

Because they are top tier, would that mean I'd be paying even more than the prices already quoted to me on here?

Ontrack has an office in Secaucus. DriveSavers is in CA.

Okay, I've been inquiring at several places and need some opinions...

WeRecoverData.com - They claim the following: We have a Research and Development (R&D) lab that reverse engineers your external hard drive. This allows us to have better success rate than any other company. Free evaluation of the drive. Recovery fee usually ranges from $500-$2500.

Ontrack - Almost the same as above except they charge $100 just for the evaluation.

http://longislanddatarecovery.networks-by-design.com/ - They seem to be the closest to me, but would really like to know what you guys, the experts, think of what you see on their site.

"Ontrack - Almost the same as above except they charge $100 just for the evaluation."
As far as I know, they are pretty good, but will be very expensive.

rchadwick is a next one I would recomend. He is in NJ and based on my observations he will be able to provide you with high quality as Ontrack and will save you at least hundreds of $$$.

_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

I love the R&D quote about reverse engineering.

Translation - we are Ace labs' customers.

Out of all these, Ontrack is very likely to get your data back. However, they will charge you a few hundred dollars/over a thousand dollars more than some of the equally qualified people from this forum would.

With regards to networks by design, I am reading a red flag between the lines of their testimonials.

"He wasn't sure they got everything because the unstable laptop kept turning on and off and they had to start over again many times. That extra effort and patience paid off" - amateur technique. They actually used the damaged laptop as a data recovery workstation, which is not a good idea. Based on that testimonial, I do not believe they can fix your WD drive.

You need a company with demonstrated experience fixing MyBook drives. They are a pain.

I am buying a few of them that are working to get some experience fixing them. It's the only way.

With companies that offer a range of prices, completely ignore the lower price .. If you agree to a price range of x-y the actual charge will be closer to y

I agree with Wise Leo on networks by design, the person in the testimonial could have done that himself. If the company thinks that is worthy of a website testimonial, then that gives you an idea of their capabilities.

Why not go with rchadwick, then you and he can keep us all updated here.

<itch>

_________________
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably don't fully understand the situation. ... Mr Kipling

https://www.mjm.co.uk/

We have positive experience and as far as I remember we don't have evaluation fee now
You can get a quote on http://i365.com/data-recovery/economy.html

_________________
SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.