Topic: Data Recovery?
started by: Jason
Posted by Jason on Feb. 13 2002,06:06
Okay folks, I figured this wasn't a big enough deal for an "Ask Slashdot," but I need a data recovery service. Fast. Recommendations?I have (had) a RAID 0 array composed of two 20GB IBM Deskstars. Today, I decided to transplant the array into another machine, an operation which I have completed successfully in the past.
Well, not today. Upon turning on the machine after the transplant, one of the drives (the newer one, as luck would have it) started making < this noise >.
Not good!
Informal comparison with drive noises from IBM's website leads me to believe this is a bad head. No, not the kind that leaves you with lipstick and tooth marks.
To make matters worse, this array contained:
-All of my music
-All of my media (The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, The Critic)
-Photoshop documents for all of my websites
-The last remaining complete archive of detonate.net (as well as all its previous incarnations)
-All of my digital photos
-All of my various writings
-All of my various coding projects
-&c, &c, I can't even remember now. Everything! It's all fucking gone!
...unless someone can point me at a data recovery service that they've had personal experience with. I can't stress this enough. If I ship my drive off to company XYZ which turns out to be you and your uncle in his basement with a hex screwdriver and a copy of IBM's drive fitness test, I will come to your house and slit you from your anus to your forehead.
I need drugs.
Posted by veistran on Feb. 13 2002,06:19
Whee, and the deskstar strikes again. After my experiances with the 75GXPs (not even taking into consideration that my experiances were pretty minor in comparison to many others), I would NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER use a Deskstar in a RAID 0. As far as data recovery services, I don't really have any experiance with any so someone else will have to give advice about that. Offhand, did you good airflow on your drives?
Posted by Del7a on Feb. 13 2002,06:53
Ugh. Sounds like the head is either looking for the start of the drive, or scraping across the platter. If it's the latter, you can kiss your data goodbye on that platter. If it's the former, then you may have some luck.Doing a search on IBM, I found a couple places that may help. **I have not had any dealinigs with any of these companies, but I am going on good faith since IBM seems to recommend them.**
< http://www.diskdoctors.com/ >
< http://www.mdsdiskservice.com/ >
< http://www.drivesavers.com/ > (I have seen some of the comps they have been able to retreive data off of. I think they were featured in MaxPC once...)
< http://www.eco-datarecov.com/ >
< http://www.ontrack.com/ >
Of course, be prepared to pay a high price for what you are wanting.
Del7a
Posted by editor on Feb. 13 2002,07:14
Jason!!!I'll shut up for the evening.
Posted by ASCIIMan on Feb. 13 2002,09:19
I'd probably go with ontrack; although I haven't had any personal experience with them, they've pretty much been around forever and I've never heard anything bad about them (although I have known one or two people that used them and had good experiences).edit - After looking at drivesavers' web site, I remember thay have a pretty good reputation too, so I would probably see if you could get a quote from both them and ontrack, and go with the lower quote. Note that recovery could cost anywhere from $300 or so up to $2000 and up (IIRC).
Also, DO NOT TURN YOUR HARD DRIVE ON AGAIN if you ever want to see your data.
Posted by Anztac on Feb. 13 2002,10:16
Nothing to say here, but that I've missed you man. 
Posted by Hellraiser on Feb. 13 2002,14:44
Good to see you're still around!
Posted by Del7a on Feb. 13 2002,17:41
....reading your post again, Jason, and I just realized something.You are gonna get charged more because you had the drives in a RAID 0. They will probably have to have both drives to reconstruct your data. Unless they can duplicate that drive *exactly*, they will prolly have to have both drives, along with any settings you had. I hope that they can do it, and keep us informed of the service you receive!
Del7a
Posted by CatKnight on Feb. 13 2002,17:51
YO CR0! I know exactly what the problem is. My friend alex has gone through TWO IBM hard drives in one year (free replacement ala dell), both died making that same noise. What dell told him was that an entire batch of IBM drives had the same defect, that they weren't clearing their cache properly and so after time, the motor got fucked up. Alex was able to access his drive for about a week before it finally died completely, however a lot of the files were damaged and unaccessable, and more became damaged as he used it (and was backing up stuff). Your best bet is to see if you can get it to run at all to back up, if not, send back to IBM/dell/whatever.
Posted by ASCIIMan on Feb. 13 2002,20:54
NO, CATKNIGHT. Turning on the drive will most likely scrape the heads across the platters more times (especially if the disks aren't spinning at the right speed), PERMANENTLY destroying whatever data were under those parts. NEVER TURN ON A HARD DRIVE MAKING WEIRD NOISES IF YOU EVER WANT YOUR DATA BACK.
Posted by PTL on Feb. 13 2002,22:03
Good to see you back! All I have for you though are words of sentimental affection at seeing you around. I have yet to encounter the need for data recovery personally so I refuse to give you second hand recommendations. I hope you can recover at least SOME of your data. That would not be a wonderful thing if you were to lose everything. Good luck, hon. {{HUG}}
Posted by RenegadeSnark on Feb. 14 2002,01:02
Jason: Oh, hey, my car got messed up... there's no oil in the engine and no coolant either.CatKnight: START IT UP AND DRIVE CROSS COUNTRY TO THIS REPAIR SHOP I KNOW. THEY'LL FIX YOUR PROBLEM A-OK.
...
:/
Posted by Jason on Feb. 14 2002,01:02
| Quote (CatKnight @ 13 Feb. 2002,09:51) |
| YO CR0! I know exactly what the problem is. My friend alex has gone through TWO IBM hard drives in one year (free replacement ala dell), both died making that same noise. What dell told him was that an entire batch of IBM drives had the same defect, that they weren't clearing their cache properly and so after time, the motor got fucked up. Alex was able to access his drive for about a week before it finally died completely, however a lot of the files were damaged and unaccessable, and more became damaged as he used it (and was backing up stuff). Your best bet is to see if you can get it to run at all to back up, if not, send back to IBM/dell/whatever. |
Fuck, is this guy still hanging around here?
Me:Hey folks, one of the drives in my RAID stripe array has a bad head. Can anyone recommend a data recovery center? I can't get at any of my data at all!
CatKnight The Physicist:I know what the problem is! Something totally different happened to my friend! The cache wasnt being cleared so the motor died! (what?) You should get it working so you can get your data!
Me:Gee, I wish I'd thought of that! *slaps forehead*
Posted by RenegadeSnark on Feb. 14 2002,01:12
Jason: You'll never guess what happened to me. My house got burned down in a terrible fire.CatKnight: Duct tape fixes anything!
Posted by just_dave on Feb. 14 2002,01:14
He may be good at quantum physics but Catknight: dood your computer knowledge BLOWS!!!!
Posted by Wiley on Feb. 14 2002,01:31
Cr0, sorry to hear your pain.I'm pissing myself reading this thread though, so at least one of us is having a good day.
Posted by PTL on Feb. 14 2002,01:37
Well, I'm not having a good day but at least you guys have me cracking up at your crazy, mean, antics!
Posted by Dysorderia on Feb. 14 2002,01:44
| Quote (CatKnight @ 13 Feb. 2002,09:51) |
| YO CR0! I know exactly what the problem is. My friend alex has gone through TWO IBM hard drives in one year (free replacement ala dell), both died making that same noise. What dell told him was that an entire batch of IBM drives had the same defect, that they weren't clearing their cache properly and so after time, the motor got fucked up. Alex was able to access his drive for about a week before it finally died completely, however a lot of the files were damaged and unaccessable, and more became damaged as he used it (and was backing up stuff). Your best bet is to see if you can get it to run at all to back up, if not, send back to IBM/dell/whatever. |
Posted by damien_s_lucifer on Feb. 14 2002,02:26
jason posted! good to hear from you, man, even if the circumstances suck.Data recovery is expensive, but it sounds like your data is worth it (esp. if you had stuff you planned to resell later).
Oh yeah, and DO NOT power that drive back up...
Posted by CatKnight on Feb. 14 2002,04:22
whatever. my friend's drive was making the exact same noise, but he was still able to use it for about a week. a bunch of system files got corrupted, but he was able to back up his important stuff, then he sent it back to dell to get it replaced. so you can all go fuck yourselves 
oh yeah:
| Quote |
| Fuck, is this guy still hanging around here? |
yes, I am. if you don't like it then you can go fuck yourself twice for good measure.
Posted by kai on Feb. 14 2002,06:31
| Quote (Wiley @ 13 Feb. 2002,18:31) |
| I'm pissing myself reading this thread though, so at least one of us is having a good day. |
so whats your idea of a good day?