A “head crash” is a term that describes what happens when the read/write heads of a hard drive touch the spinning platter causing damage to the magnetic coating that contains the data.

A hard drive is somewhat like a record player in that there are spinning platters (records) that are read by read/write heads on an actuator arm (the tone arm and needle). Instead of the r/w heads actually touching the platter though, it hovers just above it reading the data magnetically. Sometimes it’s a small bump or jarring of the disk, sometimes it’s a small piece of dirt or other particulate on the disk surface. Whatever the cause, if the read/write heads touch and chip or scratch the magnetic coating of the spinning platter(s), that is a head crash!

A head crash has to be handled carefully as once it happens and some coating has been scratched off the platter(s), the problem become worse very quickly. You have to catch it quick before all of your data is literally scratched off. A common disk speed is 7200 RPM – that’s almost 75  mph! A head crash occurring at that speed can be catastrophic.

Be smart. If you hear clicking, clunking, grinding or any other odd noises you could possibly have a head crash. We suggest you pack it up and send it to a company that you know will give you the best chance of recovery.

clicking, head crash, noise

A Live CD is a bootable operating system that resides on a compact disk or DVD and loads into RAM instead of from a hard drive. This can be very handy especially for data recovery when the disk you are having problems with was your operating system disk.

Generally most of our favorite Live CDs are flavors of Linux. This is great because with Linux you have an array of great free pieces of software that can be used to aid in your recovery. Try Knoppix or Ubuntu to get started! Simply download the .iso and burn the image to disk. Then drop it in your CD/DVD drive, set the machine to boot from CD and turn on the power! This frees your hard drives to allow complete access!

Data Recovery, Hard Drives, Linux

When we started looking for a partner for advanced recoveries (major hardware failures and head crashes), there were only 2 real companies to pick from. Kroll Ontrack and Drivesavers.  Any of the other companies that claim to do high level advanced recoveries are in the shadow of these 2 companies. Both are very capable. There are 3 main reasons why we chose Drivesavers and continue to do business with them.

Drivesavers main focus is data recovery:

Ontrack has a law forensics department as well as many others. While this is cool and interesting, Drivesavers on the other hand do data recovery and data recovery only. They have been in business since 1985 and have always been a leader in advanced recovery. We like the idea of a company built from the ground up with one focus – helping people recover data.

Drivesavers will waive the assessment fee for DriveFish customers:

Ontrack charges $100 to just look at the disk, even if they are unable to recover anything from it. This was very important to us and is a really good faith effort on Drivesavers part to do business with our clients. People come to us for assurance that they will get the job done for the most reasonable fee. Drivesavers helps us achieve that goal.

Drivesavers has amazing customer service:

Not that Kroll doesn’t have good service, but Drivesavers stands out heads above the rest. The are incredibly friendly, helpful and easy to work with. Thats the way we do business and we expect our partners to do the same.

We have been happy with the relationship for a long time now and know that our customers appreciate the partnership and the advantages it offers them.

Data Recovery, Drivesavers, fee

At least once a week, we receive a submission that had previously been sent to another recovery company – generally because of false promises and lowball quotes. The following are some of the most insane stories we have received from clients who attempted to do business with less than reputable companies. We have tons of these and it truly was tough picking our “favorites”. We will withold the company names but hope that you will choose very carefully when picking a data recovery partner to work with!

We received a disk from a teacher in Texas who had been told by another firm they could do the recovery for $199. Because the company was in Dallas the teacher tried in good faith to do business locally. When they received his disk he waited over a week for a call claiming that the recovery was more advanced that previously thought. He told them he had received a firm price of $199 and couldn’t afford more than that. When he asked them to send the disk back, they claimed there was a $100 “fee” for diagnosing the drive. Their diagnosis was that the “motor had failed” and that they would need around $700 for parts PLUS the $199 he was quoted. When he refused to pay the “fee” that he was never told about they tried to KEEP his hard drive as ransom! It took threats to the “owner” of the company and 2 certified letters to get the disk back – and only then after agreeing to split the fee and pay them $50. When we received the disk it was covered in stickers with this companies logo on it and a big red X written in permanent marker on the case. Expecting to have to replace the motor, the disk was disasembled and prepared for a motor swap. We found that the motor was working perfectly! The disk was put back together, cloned and within a few hours We completed a full recovery.

A nice girl who was in class at the University of Colorado at Boulder sent us a submission previously sent to another company who lowballed the price and tried to raise it to $2200 once she sent it in. While they gave her no problems when she opted out, when she received the disk she claimed there were DENTS in the case that werent there before. She called us in a panic: “Can they do that?” We of course arent sure they DID but wow – to think they might have tried to damage the disk before sending it back! There were significant hardware issues with the drive but we managed to set her up with all of her lost files – including one key research paper!

Another customer sent us a disk with an email that had us laughing for days. It was a copy of the “diagnosis” from her initial choice of recovery companies. We hear technical double-speak all the time. Companies will use it to confuse the customer and make them think the issue is severely technical and over their heads. This reduces the likelihood that the customer will ask questions or want answers. This techno-jabber however, took the cake:

“…unstable causation unit allowing intermittent access, furthermore causing read errors/logical problems, affecting file system structures within the static loader, etc.  We need to manually rebuild the seeker corridor and decompile corrupted file-system components, adjust file pointers by at least 10 degrees and mount the recovered volume(s) before retrieving data.”

Naturally they tried to raise the price and she opted out. When we received the drive, there were no real issues and we completed a full recovery for her. There definitely wasn’t any trouble with the “static loader” !

We have had a few customers whos disks were LOST. Literally. One account stands out because of how flagrant the negligence was. A computer tech sent a clients disk in to a fly by night company he found on the web with an air carrier and tracking number. The disk was delivered and he even received an email from the company confirming this. After a week or so he wrote in asking about the progress and got no response. It took him another week to finally get a response saying they had “misplaced” his disk and were looking for it. He finally got fed up and demanded answers. They claimed that it had never been delivered. When confromted with the tracking number they said it must have accidentally been thrown away. Finally the guy got a call from ANOTHER recovery company claiming they had his disk, had managed a partial recovery and wanted a credit card number as payment. His disk had been outsourced without his knowledge and he was kept totally in the dark! He was more fortunate than some others whos disks were never found. After he paid the company who called him, he received a bill a few days later for over twice the price from the company who lost his disk! When he had need for another recovery, he called us with this story. We promised him he would never have the same problem with us and he has been a great customer ever since.

Be careful who you do business with!

Data Recovery, fee, Hardware, price

After heavy consideration DriveFish is proud to announce its choice for our recommended online backup solution. Mozy! We looked at all of the heavy players in the industry and Mozy stood heads above the rest. Their software is easy to use, works with Mac and PC, they have great customer support and best of all, they allow you to use 2 gigabytes of backup for FREE. No credit cards, no trial period. Free. We like that. If you need more space or need to backup exchange mail or the like, they have great prices – starting at just 50 cents per gigabyte!

Take it from us – the external hard drive you are backing up on now is just as likely to fail as your system drives. Even RAID isnt fail proof. The only 100% sure method of backing up is doing it remotely with a reputable company like Mozy who keeps your data encrypted and mirrored. Restoring data if lost is a snap! Simply click the Mozy logo below to get signed up – its quick, easy, inexpensive and solid. You can thank us later!

Mozy Remote Backup is good for the Soul.

backup, Mozy, Restoring, solution

Ask yourself these key questions when shopping:

Do they have transparent pricing?
Pricing should be completely transparent to the customer. What this means is that before ever sending the disk in, the customer should be fully aware of any costs associated with the recovery. Many firms will try things like giving an “estimate” or saying “in most cases”. With just a few details, they should be able to tell you the same thing we can: “This is how much it is going to cost.” In our case – this fee is always flat.

Do they answer the phone?
Or even have a phone number? You should be able to communicate fully with the company you choose in your choice of formats. If you like to write long handwritten letters, they should write you back. If you like to talk on the phone, they should answer! We can be reached easily at 866-DRIVEFISH (866-374-8334).

Do they outsource? If so with who? Is this transparent to the customer?
This is very important. We have heard of disks being LOST because of rampant outsourcing. If the company you choose plans to outsource, you need to be kept fully in the loop and confirm each and every decision made about the movements of your data.

What if you don’t have the money? Will they offer advice on trying the recovery yourself?
Most of the “other guys” think we are absolutely nuts for doing this. You should never do business with a company who wont answer any question you may have or won’t offer advice if you want to move forward on your own. Information is free. We don’t make money by knowing these things. We make money by doing these things, better than anyone else.

desicion, Information, shopping

It is hard for people to accept, but we want to help people. We see no future in keeping secrets. Some people may take the tips we have here and move forward with their own recovery. Maybe they will be successful! Others will think twice about endangering the integrity of their data and send it to DriveFish to be safe. One thing is for sure, regardless of whether you are paying us a fee, we are always happy to offer advice and consultation about your data recovery issues. If you aren’t sure what to do next please call us! One of our friendly engineers will be happy to help you understand any questions that you may have. We know it is strange but please accept it! We want to help you get your data back!

To the recovery firms that have sent emails, made phone calls and made threats regarding this blog:

We appreciate your position. You have made a lot of money for a long time by overcharging and price gouging and deception. You would like to keep making that money by doing things like outsourcing and double-charging. While we can’t blame you, we can inform people of your deceptive tactics. Remember before you waste any more paper, telecommunication resources or network traffic sending us threats: The absolute defense against libel is the truth!

consultation, deception, defense

Sometimes more than double! This is a common tactic of some of the data recovery “firms” you will notice while searching for a service provider. They will advertise a low price to gain your business but once you send the disk in – the “problem” with your disk suddenly becomes more complex, the fee goes WAY up, and you are left trying to decide what to do. Unfortunately, many people fall for this tactic and end up paying ridiculous sums for the service. To make matter worse, many of these firms don’t even DO data recovery. They don’t know anything about data recovery. They are simply doubling the price of a reputable advanced recovery company like Drivesavers and outsourcing without your knowledge!

We commonly get disks that have first been sent to companies like this. In most cases they are sent with an email relating the horror story of the experience. The low price, the price hike, having to wait to have the disk shipped back to them because they couldn’t afford the fee etc. We have seen price tags OVER $9000!! Our engineers can only shake their heads while doing a full recovery on that same disk for $199.

While we aren’t going to get into names, we do hope that you will do your research before choosing a data recovery company. Regardless of whether you choose DriveFish, we hope you will call or write with any questions or comments. We will be happy to assist you!

fee, Outsourcing, overcharging, price

We get this question rather often so figured it best to write a bit about it for our customers reference. How do you remove the hard drive from your computer? There is no standard method for doing this as all cases are different. First, is it a desktop or laptop computer?

Note: Before getting started, disconnect all of the cables and wires from your computer, make sure the power is completely disconnected and if we are dealing with a laptop – remove the battery!

Desktop

First we will need to get to the internals of the computer. To do this we need to find a way to open the case. Most modern computers have a simple little “lock” on the back of the computer that when utilized allows you to completly remove one side of the case and exposing the inside of the computer. This is called a “screwless case”. It will generally be a small tab that you can slide one way or the other to release the side of the case.

On some cases, you will actually have to use a screw driver to remove some screws. When doing this make sure you dont remove the screws for the power supply. That is the box towards the top of the case in the back where your power cable plugs in. It should have 4 screws around the square power supply. Don’t bother with these. The screws you are interested in will be around the outskirts of the case and on the back panel. Sometimes it will be what is called a “thumbscrew” – they look like this:

They are just like a screw but designed to be turned without a tool. Simply twist to remove, then open the side of the case.

Once inside, you might feel intimidated by all of the wires and connections. Don’t be! With a little effort you will soon be a master of removing hard drives. The hard drive will be about 4×6 inches in dimension and will have most probably have one of the following 2 cables plugged into it:

PATA(IDE) Cable

SATA Cable (not always red)

Just locate these cables and follow them from the motherboard to the hard drive. Once you have identified the disk, simply securely grip the cables and pull them directly out from the hard drive. No, you aren’t going to  break it. Sometimes you have to exert a bit of force to get the cables to come free.

Once you have disconnected the cables, we need to remove the drive itself from the case. Generally this is a matter of removing a few screws or sliding a couple of clamps. Because there are so many different case manufacturers and styles it would be hard to picture all of the different ways – but you have come this far! Don’t give up now.

Laptop

Again, we face the problem of there being hundreds if not thousands of different laptop case designs and ways to mount the hard drive. The best way to find out just where the hard drive is located on your case, is to check with the manufacturer. On Dell laptops for example, it is a matter of removing 2 screws and sliding the hard drive out. On most Apple laptops, you have to remove the battery and look for screws holding the metal band around the outskirts of the battery. Once removed pull the white tab to slide the disk out.

If you have any troubles removing the disk from your computer feel free to call us! We will be happy to walk you right through the process. If you don’t even want to try your luck feel free to send the entire laptop or drive enclosure.

Desktop, Hard Drives, Laptop, thumbscrew

While you can always set the jumpers on a hard drive you want to recover and slave it in an exsisting system, it is much easier to use a USB enclosure to connect a hard drive to your system for testing/diagnosis. When hooking directly to the system, you risk the integrity of the connections and hardware inside the case. If you are looking for a better way – go pick up a USB enclosure from a local computer store (try to find a locally owned shop) and use that instead!

If you want to order online, here are some good prices:

The only thing you need to be concered with when buying is the connection type of your hard drive.  Generally they are either SATA or PATA (IDE). You need to buy the type that supports your type of hard drive.

PATA (IDE) is on the top, SATA is on the bottom.

Once you connect your disk, simply plug the USB cable into your computer to access (or attempt to access!) the data.

Data Recovery, enclosure, Hard Drives, Hardware, IDE, PATA, SATA, USB