Data Recovery New York - Data Recovery Manhattan - Hard Disk Recovery

So, you can no longer access your files and you have a strong feeling that you may need data recovery. Well, maybe you do …hopefully, you do not. Since the overwhelming majority of Data Recovery (D/R) problems occur with Windows hard drives (HD), this article will only discuss data recovery for Windows HD.

It is extremely difficult to diagnose a problem without any message(s). Do you notice any blinking lights? There must be some. If your computer is absolutely “dead”, the problem is more than likely, hidden within its power supply. There is nothing wrong with the drive or your precious data that’s stored on it. So, stop reading this article and repair the computer.

If it’s too old to repair, you’re better off buying a new one. Any local computer repair shop can transfer your data from the dead one to your new baby. The cost of the data transfer alone should run you about $50 - $200 -- depending whether a computer technician comes to your home, office or whether you come to their shop.

Keep in mind, this is just the data (documents, photos, etc.) and not your programs, like Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop. You will need to re-install those programs on your new computer using the original CDs and DVDs which you have religiously kept in a safe place. If you need help with getting the HD out of your old clunker, please refer to: “GETTING YOUR DRIVE OUT OF THE COMPUTER”.

If your computer turns on, but shows only one or a few messages such as “operating system not found” or “missing boot”, this usually means that the computer can’t find your HD. If it’s a laptop, turn it upside down and put your ear to the bottom, on the other side of the keyboard. Do you hear any clicking? If you do, I’ve got bad news for you. With a 90% probability, your drive is damaged mechanically and the recovery will be very expensive.

What you need to do next is remove your drive from your computer (go to “GETTING YOUR DRIVE OUT OF THE COMPUTER” and then to “CLEAN ROOM DATA RECOVERY”). If you have a desktop, get on your knees and pray like never before while placing your ear to the front, just below the CD or DVD drive. If you hear clicking , unfortunately, your prayers were not answered.

Sometimes your screen will turn light blue and displays incomprehensible text in bold white letters – the famous “Blue Screen of Death”. It could be a virus, something simple or something serious – if your disk sounds normal, proceed as if it’s a virus. Sometimes your computer will keep restarting on its own. Again, it could be a virus, or it could be something serious. The general rule is, if a disk hums, you have a very good chance of getting away with murder–this time.

Some computer people believe getting rid of a virus infection to be D/R – not necessarily. There is nothing to recover, your data is rarely ever affected. What you need is an expert to diagnose a virus infection. Some viruses display “error messages” telling you something like “All your data has been lost!”, some of them produce an effect of a “blank” screen – so that the infected computer appears “dead”. Or it can suddenly make your data inaccessible. BTW, you only get infected from the Internet, and mostly from dubious sites – like spamming, adult sites, music and video sharing, etc.

If you have a teenager in the house and you think you need data recovery, think twice! At the very least download “AVG free” anti-virus program for Windows, if you can. Unfortunately, if you have been infected, it is virtually impossible to download anything, especially an anti-virus program. And many “infections” look very similar to the situations which really require data recovery. Easy to misdiagnose, un-intentionally or not.

Moving on, while your drive is still inside your computer, let’s try something rather simple called going into “SAFE MODE”. Turn on the computer and immediately start pressing F8 every second for about 20 times until the computer starts beeping. If nothing happens, proceed to the next step -- “Going into BIOS”. If the screen changes and another black and white menu-screen appears, this has “Safe Mode” high-lighted, just press “Enter”. Then a long sequence of lines should start rolling from the bottom to the top of your screen.

Then the rolling will stop and nothing will happen for a while. Give it 45 minutes. Yes, you’ve read correctly. Sometimes it takes as long as 45 minutes with “difficult” drives. The screen should come back with your Desktop but everything will be in huge letters and a bit confusing. Don’t worry, it’s actually a very good sign so far.

Now check your most important files and folders. If you can see them, try to open some of them. Since most applications will not run in this mode, try double clicking on text files, pictures - something simple. Then, DO NOT SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER! Quickly start copying off your most precious files or call somebody who knows enough about computers to make copies of your data. Get an external drive and copy your files onto it. This is the successful end of your “Data Recovery”. If you fail to do this and you’re unable to copy for whatever reason or your computer stopped responding, go to the next step, which is: “GETTING YOUR DRIVE OUT OF THE COMPUTER”. After that you may need “Logical Recovery” (if any). You will more than likely be able to copy your data if you attach your drive as a “SLAVE” or a “USB”. Read about “SLAVE AND USB” and then about “LOGICAL RECOVERY”.

“GOING INTO BIOS” or “Going into SETUP”. It might look complicated on paper, but it is not. The point is – if your drive is “recognized” or “shows” in BIOS, this means that your data recovery will not be complicated and, it won’t be that expensive .

Watch the screen carefully when the computer starts up (“booting”) – there is a quick message: PRESS F1 (or F2 or F10 or Esc) for BIOS or SETUP, PRESS F4 or F(something) for BOOT ORDER. As soon as you see this message start pressing Fx or Esc button (upper left on the keyboard) with the frequency once or twice a second, until another message – “going into SETUP (or BIOS) appears. If the computer continues to start normally, shut it down and try this again. If you have to pull the plug to shut it down then do it. Try this three times. If you fail, then abandon this idea and proceed to: “GETTING YOUR DRIVE OUT OF THE COMPUTER”.

Once in BIOS (or SETUP) – read all help messages on the right, on the bottom and navigate to the line which says “Drives” on the left. See if there are any drive models written on the right side, something like ST37xxxxxxx, or WDxxxxxx or something like that. There will be at least one line with your CD or DVD drive – you will recognize it by those letters in it. There should be at least one other across from one saying “Master Drive 1 or 2” or “Drive 1 or 2”. This means that your computer recognizes your hard drive (hopefully you have only one hard drive (this article describes only most common cases here) and you are extremely lucky. After you read the next section, read about “SLAVE AND USB” and then about “LOGICAL RECOVERY”.

“GETTING YOUR DRIVE OUT OF THE COMPUTER” This is either easy or DON’T DO IT! Nothing in between. Most of recent laptops have what is called “user upgradable hard drive”. It means what it says, but in computerese: if you decide to upgrade your HD to a larger one, you can do it yourself. A friend should be able to do it – it’s not a huge favor to impose. You should be able to get the HD out of a “simple” laptop yourself. Call the manufacturer or find it on the Internet whether your HD is “user replaceable” or “upgradeable”. This means that it takes a screwdriver and 5 minutes to take it out.

So Google it: “your laptop model” and “upgradable hard drive”. If you see results which show you how to do it easily, by all means do it. But many older laptops and some Macs are very difficult. Be prepared to pay up to $100 for that HD to be taken out and hopefully, to be put back in for no extra charge -- these are typical the New York City prices. The same thing goes with desktops. Some are easier than others, but unless you have some mechanical and computer skills already, please don’t do it!

If you bring in your desktop to a computer repair shop, you should pay no more than $40-$50 for having the drive taken out. If you don’t know the reputation of the computer repair person, ask them to do it in your presence. Arrange this before coming in. If you can’t bring in your computer, be prepared to pay double. Data recovery companies normally include this in the price of the job.

After your HD is out of the computer (or out of its enclosure) you have to ask your computer-savvy friend to attach it as an internal second (or third) HD in his or her desktop. Or, it takes a $20 adapter (called “USB to IDE and SATA”) to “re-attach” it as a USB to another computer. After this you can see if your drive is recognized in BIOS or “My Computer” and whether you data became accessible, or, at the very least, your drive becomes visible – it means that, most likely, your data is intact and the recovery will not be expensive - $150 to $400.

If you still see the content of your drive, but something is wrong – the drive hangs, the whole computer freezes up or you’re receiving strange messages – you might have virus infection or your drive might have some other, non-mechanical damage. In any case, you MUST GET YOUR DRIVE OUT OF THAT ENCLOSURE! When the drive is out of its enclosure, read and follow procedures described above in: SLAVE AND USB.

We have had three cases when “damaged” HDs were given to us for recovery in their enclosures. One client called us devastated because her drive, which had “her entire life” on it, was “clicking” and the quote she got was $900 (wasn’t so bad). The money wasn’t a major issue. She knew that the chance of success of “clicking” drives was no more than 60-70% …it is actually less than 50. I plugged in the drive and listened to it. It was clicking, but it wasn’t a “clicking” sound I knew so well. It took me no time to get it out of the sleek case. You guessed it! The drive was fine. Something was wrong with the enclosure . To this day, we still don’t know what - probably contacts. She insisted on paying us $100 for a 10 minutes job (We didn’t put much of a resistance…). This does not happen often, but it does.

There are several types of data recovery ranging from very simple to “next to impossible”. Virus infection has been mentioned previously, which isn’t considered data recovery, since one does not require any special training or experience to get rid of it. However, it does not mean that restoring an infected drive to its original condition is always easy. Tons of literature has been written about this.

The next type of “data recovery” is when you accidentally format your drive or delete files. This is also questionable – whether it is qualified as “data recovery”. Not necessarily. Again, any computer repair shop can do it for you for under $100, just as long as you haven’t written anything on your disk. If you are computer literate, there are dozens of “un-format” and “un-delete” programs with free trial versions. Just Google “un-format” or “un-delete”. They cost as little as $10 - $30, some are even free.

LOGICAL RECOVERY - (also known as “software only” or “non-invasive”) - that’s where the real data recovery starts. Your drive is finally out of a computer or an enclosure. It does not make any funny noises, it is recognized by a BIOS (SETUP), but you just can’t get to your data.

The cost of such recoveries should vary between $100 and $400. Large companies charge around $800. It might take a day and it might take two weeks.

What’s wrong? Usually, it’s a bad spot on the surface – like a scratch on an old turntable record. Hard drives are well protected against this, but when a “scratch” becomes bad enough, it can cause problems. There are a few other, less significant reasons as well. The way to recover the data is to start making a copy of all “good” data (“sectors” in computerese) off the “sick “drive – after all, the “patient” may “die” at any moment! Then, we go back and start reading off the “bad” (damaged) data, sometimes reading the same sector thousands and thousands of times, until we get two identical readouts. Then, to the next “bad” sector, and to the next… Most of the time it takes a few hours. Sometimes this process takes days. Sometimes weeks! The larger the damaged area, the larger the drive, the longer it takes.

This is done on special equipment which costs thousands of dollars. All professional data recovery companies have it. They are called Imagers . They make “Images” of damaged hard drives doing data recovery in the process. As sub-functions Imagers can also make a mirror-image of a hard drive, or professionally wipe it out. Arguably, there is software which can also wipe out a drive so it becomes impossible to recover, but somebody in Spain claims that for $1,000,000 he can recover it. There is also software that does very a similar function – “Software Imagers”. It costs only $100 to a few hundred dollars.

The most popular Software Imager – FTK (which is very good) is free. But there is absolutely no comparison between the results when a disk is badly damaged. But if damage is slight, there is no difference, you don’t even need an Imager. Just attach the disk to a computer and run a Data Recovery Program. Often the damage is caused by a tiny particle that got in between the surface and the read/write heads of a drive. The more one uses such a drive, the more damage propagates. A “sick” drive must be used (for the sake of recovery) as little as possible, and the image of it must be created quickly. Hardware Imagers work many times faster than software-only ones. If we manage to create a successful image, we are more than half-way there!

All the work afterwards is done on that image which is usually one messy array of data. In order to make sense of that mess, the data has to be processed by data recovery programs. Very rarely, when damage is very small, the image comes out with the files structure intact – you can recognize your folders and files. This happens in about 1% of all cases. There’s a 99% chance that the imaged drive will not be recognized by Windows (or by MAC) as a formatted drive. The question is - which D/R software should be used? There are several good commercial programs: R-Studio, GetDataBack and a few others. These cost from $100 to $250. Many non D/R companies use those and other, less expensive programs.

Often R-Studio produces good results, but another software program performs even better. Sometimes it is vice versa. One never knows. Sometimes people have to try two, three or four programs. One program recovers files which are corrupted and another recovers the same files which are not! If you recover 30,000 files, how can you guarantee that all files are not corrupted? That is why professional companies rarely use these “mass market” data recovery programs. Very large companies like Ontrack and i365 write their own. Smaller D/R shops buy programs which cost a few thousand dollars each – they are different for each type of HD – Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, Toshiba, etc. Plus, they require constant expensive updates, as new HDs appear.

There is an exception and that is with recently manufactured Seagate drives, when a drive sounds normal, but does not show in BIOS. If it’s an internal booting drive, get in touch with the computer manufacturer. If its external then call i365 -- the Seagate Data Recovery Company. Sometimes it is fixed for free. Have the model and serial numbers ready (Service tag for DELL).

PCB RECOVERY - Drive is dead or sounds normal, but it is not recognized in BIOS or Logical Recovery didn’t work.

The cost of such recoveries should vary between $300 and $600. Large companies charge $1200 and up. It might take a day and it can take up to 2 months

When the drive is absolutely dead, there is a good chance that the problem is in the PCB – Printed Circuit Board on the back of the drive. That is if you can see it. Sometimes it is covered, but is not recommended that you remove the cover unless you know what you are doing or you have a friend who does. That PCB has a fuse, which is there for a purpose, and occasionally it blows. It takes only half an hour to look up the manual for the location of that fuse (there are so many – it’s impossible to remember all variations), then check it with a voltmeter and re-solder. This should cost you about $100 - $200 at most. The way you can check it yourself is not complicated. Simply go on eBay and buy a drive with identical model number. Swap PCBs. If your drive starts spinning, it’s most likely the fuse. You can then bravely go to your friendly neighborhood data recovery place and demand to solder your fuse!

Examine the PCB with a magnifying glass. Sometimes you can see the burn located right on the surface of a chip (a bubble on a little rectangular shape with writing on it). This is a good sign. This means that your data is intact and recoverable. Many people believe that PCB problems is just a matter of swapping PCBs. Occasionally it is. But more often than not, we have to re-solder chips from one PCB to another and “re-load” the new chips with something called “firmware”. This process requires equipment which costs $15,000 -$20,000 plus frequent expensive updates. The best known is called PC3000 or PC3K. Even among data recovery firms not that many can afford it. (We have two).

It happens to be made by the company which also makes the best Imager -- DeepSpar. So, go ahead and buy yourself an identical model drive or a PCB (if you’re lucky to find one) and swap them. But don’t try different models – you might damage the data. Such recovery might take a very long time, depending on how hard it is to find the “donor” PCB. If it’s very rare, e.g. for an old or for a small limited series of special computers, it might take months. It once took us six months to find one drive in Thailand – in a testing lab of the manufacturing plant.

“CLEAN ROOM” RECOVERY also known as HARDWARE RECOVERY or INTERNAL RECOVERY.

The worst is left for last … Your drive is “clicking” or makes some other unpleasant noise. It’s not recognized by BIOS and a hardware-based Imager does not “see” it either. Two D/R places who give free estimates told you that your drive has an inside damage.

The cost of such recoveries should vary between $400 and $800. (Though we saw some ads for less). Large companies charge $1200 and up. It might take a week and it might take two months.

You spent $75 and sent it to Ontrack or i365. The response came with $1200 (or $1800). If, with the response, came the list of files – it’s great news! Actually, your data has already been recovered! Ontrack used to do this in the past – it is not known if they still do it. Nothing prevents you from taking your drive back and finding someone who will do it for half the price. Nothing, except your ethics. The price may not be negotiable.

There is one little quirk. An HD has a seal/screw covered by a label. A D/R engineer can’t really diagnose a drive without breaking this seal. We don’t have to do anything to the internals, just to look – sometimes with a microscope, but nothing else. When an open drive comes from Ontrack or i365, nobody says a word. But if it comes back with a broken seal from an unknown D/R company, even untouched, it gives somebody (not very ethical) an opportunity to tell you that your drive has already been “broken into” and G… knows what has been done to it. As a result, the fee has to be raised! Ontrack or i365 would never do this if nothing was done to the drive. But you must be aware of this situation and either warn the people you give your drive to “not to BREAK THE SEAL!” or, at least, tell them to ask your permission to do it. Without it, a company might assume that it can do whatever they want with your drive to diagnose the problem.

This extremely rare story will illustrate the previous paragraph: A client came to us with an “opened” (broken seal) clicking HD. He told us he showed it to a D/R place nearby and they quoted him $1800. The data was not that important, but it was worth a few hundred dollars to him. With his permission and in front of him, we opened the drive and immediately saw that it was beyond salvation because we discovered a huge scratch, clearly man-made. We began to ask questions and quickly found out that his drive was “going”, then became inaccessible altogether, but still showed in “my computer” and sounded fine. We called his 12-year-old son and found out that he could get into safe mode after 10-minutes wait, but had trouble accessing files. A typical case for a “LOGICAL RECOVERY” at the cost of probably $200. Before that “friendly local” D/R company “diagnosed” it… An extremely rare case. But it happens.

If something is broken inside of your HD, it has to be repaired first. A few people are a bit confused – “Don’t repair it! I just need my data! The hell with that drive – I’ll buy another! I hate this drive!”. And so on. Your anger and frustration is understandable. However, the drive that betrayed you still must be repaired, even for a short time -- at least long enough so it’s image can be made. Or at least the image of its most important files and folders. Even if the drive works only for 25 minutes and that’s all the time we have to copy your data from it – that just might be the data you desperately need! Therefore, it’s very important that you remember where exactly your most important files and folders are, rather than tell us “my documents”. What if “my documents” is 40Gb and all you really need is “my pictures” and “work papers” which is 1Gb? And 38Gb is downloaded movies and music?

First of all, a “donor” HD must be found. Just as in the case of a “matching” PCBs, the “matching” donor HD’s (like in a case of patients in a hospital their blood type must match) model and several other parameters must be the same as in the “patient” drive. And the set of parameters is different for different models. Sometimes it takes months to find a matching drive, but rarely so. Usually, it takes about a week.

A lot is being said about so-called “clean rooms”. It’s not really a room. The derivation is from a biological lab - fully enclosed glass walled room with filters which “suck out” dust and dirt. A “clean room” in D/R is a table-top enclosure with an open front and a filter, which also pumps out dust. If a little speck of dirt lands on a surface of a drive, hypothetically, it can wipe out “War and Peace” worth of data. Costs about $1500. Any D/R firm must have them.

Now you can go to YouTube and search “Data Recovery”. Watch clips “Heads swap” or “Platters swap” and you will get an idea about repairing internals of a HD. Looks easy, but it is deceiving. The “swapping” part itself is not that difficult -- often. “Often” being the operative word. The “not often” cases (for which we are paid the same fee as for the “often” cases) more than make up the difference! Very often it takes two – three attempts of heads-swaps or platter-swaps to fix up a drive in order to image it. The prices are higher for large capacity drives – 1Tb and above. Their design is more complicated and they are more difficult to work on and their donors are more expensive. So, prepare to pay $200 premium for such HDs. After producing an image it goes back to an already familiar process of running D/R software.

In conclusion, we would like to let you know that you should be able to find a D/R place where your HD will be diagnosed in front of your very eyes. In New York City, there are a few places, including our own company, which do it for free (for the time being). In other parts of the country, you may have to pay a small fee – often as little as $25. A technician should demonstrate to you that your drive shows (or not) in “My Computer”, BIOS, USB or Imager. If the place does not have a hardware Imager and you have something other than a case of a very simple “Logical Recovery”, then we highly suggest you re-read this article and then make your decision again. If your data is not recovered, you should pay nothing or pay proportionally to the amount of recovered data.

If you have “MY ENTIRE LIFE” on that HD, do whatever you have to do and go straight to Ontrack or i365. You can save a fortune if you find someone who works for one of these big companies but does the work privately. Or, even better, somebody who works for Intelligence Services or Police in D/R and does this on aside during evenings and weekends. Or, best of all, someone recently retired from one. Imagine someone with all this knowledge who charges 1/3! We do know such a person who we consult sometimes in difficult cases.

Have you noticed how frequently this article has used the words “occasionally”, “often”, “most likely” and “sometimes”? We know how to use thesaurus. These synonyms are not used in order to drive one point down: many borders in D/R are blurred. Many cases are not clear cut. A HD sounds fine but for some reason does not show anywhere – not in a BIOS and not in an Imager. So, get several free opinions! Or pay for one from a large company.

If Ontrack tells you that it is the “hard” damage and it will cost $1800 – it is! Does not matter that the drive is NOT clicking. Even if you can see the drive in BIOS and it sounds perfect, but i365 tells you that a head swap is needed and it will cost $1200 --they are not pulling your leg – it is the truth. But the fact that you can find a D/R firm or an individual who will do the same job for half price is also true.

Rescue Your Data Corporation has been involved in the data recovery business for five years. We have a staff of four highly-skilled employees who work in our Brooklyn lab, where the majority of the work is performed. In our office in Manhattan, we offer free diagnostics. In front your very eyes you will see how your drive responds in BIOS, as a “slave”, as a USB or in a hardware Imager. This is explained in further detail later on.

Incidentally, if you prefer your office or residence in Brooklyn or Manhattan - the cost is $50 (included, if you honor us with your business).

Most of all, we are dedicated to going the extra mile when it comes to data recovery. You can usually reach us 24/7.

We will NEVER, EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE look at your data, unless you give us an email or written permission with a list of files and folders that we are permitted to open. Otherwise, we will look only at your system files.

If you want to never have to depend on data recovery ever again, please go to www.mozy.com or www.carbonite.com -- for only $55 a year, you will have a care-free online backup.

We wish you a successful recovery. And let it never happen to you again.

P.S. We are re-doing our website. This is the link to our old one – it has some explanation on how HDs work and a few clients reviews.