Re: HDD Data Recovery

You haven't told us how the hard drive is failing. Data error, system
can't see it, won't boot. What? Why is his data so important?

Dave Hardenbrook wrote:
> This is a follow up to my previous posting about a PC whose hard drive
> got zapped by a power surge. I have been looking into data recovery
> services, and $800-$900 seems the norm, which is WAY beyond the scope of
> my client, who is a low-income senior living in a mobile home.
>
> So, setting aside a bake sale to raise money to recover the data (I *am*
> seriously considering a fundraiser of some kind), do I have any other
> options at this point? The behavior of the drive doesn't suggest
> crashed heads. At power-on the drive seems to spin up normally, but the
> POST displays the error "Primary Master Fail" and the system halts.
> Also, even though the drive make and model shows up in the CMOS and in
> diagnostic programs, the S/N field shows up as a blank. Does this point
> to a firmware or circuit board problem?
>
> Say I were to buy an identical drive and swap circuit boards -- Could
> that possibly solve the problem? I'm not even sure if this can be done
> without disturbing the drives innards, which I know must be protected
> from the contaminants of the open air.
>
> I know I'm proabably grasping at straws at this point -- I'm just
> wondering if there's anything I might try before I proceed with trying
> to raise that several hundred bucks. Why is data recovery so expensive
> anyway? Is it purely the cost of maintaining the clean-rooms? Or am I
> not unreasonably cynical in thinking that there's some price-massaging
> going on, because they know how desperate it is to lose critical data
> that's not backed up...?
>
> --
> Dave

Glenn