Data recovery problem

[connor_us65]

I posted last week about my computer (15" pbook g4 1.33 GHz) crashing. I called Mac outfitters today to see how the repairs/stauts was on my machine. They said that the hard drive needs replaced as well as the optical drive (I just had a new optical drive installed 6 months ago!). They said they tried a few ways to get the data off but that they need to try several other things, too. Apparently there hasn't been any data retrieved thus far. As you can imagine I’m really nervous/upset/worried about this. I have heard through several people that there is always a way to get the data off and that sometimes you have to send it away to a company that specializes in this. I guess my question is: do these places really work? I really don't care what the price is...I just need all of my lost data. Any thoughts or recommendations of a place to send my hard drive if Mac outfitters cannot successfully mine my data?

[IcemanND]

I have used Ontrack datarecovery with great success of the dozen plus drives I have sent in they have only not been able to recover a dozen files on one drive.

It is not cheap to have this done though.

[Mordac85]

Data recovery services (as long as the company is well established) can be relied upon to recover most data as long as the drive is not too badly damaged physically.

If you can see the drive in the BIOS you can try slaving the drive into another system and trying to pull your off from the other OS *or* boot from a BartPE CD and see if you can access the drive. If the other OS can't "see" the drive, chances are your only recourse is the data recovery serivce.

[gabriel_409]

Yes, these places really work. They use techniques which can include the disassembly of the drive and direct examination of the drive surface. Depending on just what is necessary (it is unlikely that your drive requires anything that extreme, but hard drives that have been through fires often do), it could be several thousand dollars. I most certainly hope more conventional methods of data recovery will prove effective. There are many companies doing data recovery services. Try Salvage Recovery Lab. I contacted them once and I got my problem solved. They got 90% of my data back. I was extremely happy to get my data back. You can call them at 1 203-973-0242. I think you will have to send the drive physically.