Scratched HD.. no chance of data recovery?

HD crashed. I tried to recover to no avail. I sent the HD off to recovery company (Gillware). They reported that the platters had been scratched and recovery was not possible. I am having HD sent back to me. Gillware was great to work with and does not charge unless they can recover your data.

My question is whether anyone knows of a recovery service that can recover data from scratched platters. I have some photos that I would pay dearly to recover. The HD is a 2.5 inch Seagate Momentus

 

It'll cost upwards of $1600 for a recovery, which doesn't guarentee all the data. Are your pictures worth that much?

 

We have used Data Doctors for our HD's at work. They have always been able to recover some if not all of the data.

http://www.datadoctors.com/

 

Yes, I will gladly pay the $1600 to have the pictures recovered... there are hundreds of them. I understand if some are unrecoverable, but if 90-95% are recovered, then $1600 is worth it to me.

 

I wouldn't use ANY tool that requires the drive to be on. The fact that its all scratched up tells me the mechanical parts are messed up, and further use (even for recovery) will DEFINITELY damage more of your data.

Whatever has been scratched is gone, but if you can get the REST analyzed you MIGHT get something. But I don't think it is going to be 90-95%...

Try to find a company that can give you a listing of what they can recover before you are asked to pay. That way you have the choice to recover or not.

I hate to say this, and its going to be painful...

You need to backup ALL your data onto multiple discs next time.

 

Yeah, i'm with greg on this one. DO NOT TURN THE DRIVE BACK ON. I'd find a reputable disk drive company. Here in TX, there is a company called FlashBack Data that does this kind of stuff. You should be able to find something in NC.

BTW, I have a few friends that went to Cary High. The IMPS right?

 

Thanks for the feedback. Gillware Recovery is one of those companies that charges based on what they recover. They reported that the platter is badly scratched and they could not recover any data. They are sending the drive back to me.

I recognize my posting is akin to a hail-mary pass.... but I am hoping that there is some company out there, with the technology/skill to recover what data remains. Of all the data on the drive, it is the photos I wish to recover. They were probably 5%-10% of the 100 GB drive.

Surfasb: you are correct, the IMPS are here.

 

Well, you've already had one professional data recovery company look at it, and they said it was too badly scratched. To me, that makes it seem quite likely that other companies are going to say the same.

As far as I know, once the platter is scratched, there just isn't much to do.

The only way I could imagine getting different results is if you send it to a company that charges for just looking at it. You usually get what you pay for, and a company that doesn't charge for looking at the disk might not look as closely as one that charges money for it. Probably. Maybe.

But they'll probably still say the same.
So the question is, are you willing to fork out a few thousand bucks for a, say, 10% chance of recovering, maybe 20% of your images?

 

you can keep trying other companys, but most likely you will fail

once a disc is scratched the data is gone, but they might be able to piece together of whats left

 

What a professional recovery center will do is magnetically pull the information directly from the platters.

You'll obviously get areas where data is not retrievable, but this process can be used on not just full platters, but even ones that have broken into pieces.

However, when you're talking about pictures, with data loss this significant, you'll be hard-pressed to find many full, undamaged images.