Just recieved my hard drive back from a data recovery company

[maximus2k16]

I've Just received my hard drive back from a data recovery company, whose name i won't disclose just yet, and they offered a "free evaluation" on my 5 year old Seagate 1t/b which has decided to stop spinning correctly (it no longer reads at all, and my Windows 7 will no longer recognize it), so the read/write head is no longer able to function correctly, bearing in mind i checked it before i sent it, all seemed well in terms of physical conditioning anyway, so it was much to my bemusement when they got back to me with a data recovery report saying the media had suffered physical damage on the platters due to a "head crash" and was beyond recovery, of course when i received it back it was as it was before, so it all boils down to what the hell is their agenda in this case? Has anyone dealt with a data recovery company before and received similar dubious feedback? The only agenda i can think of is that they scoured the contents of the HDD and the fact i have a fair amount of pirated content on there (hey, I'm being thoroughly honest at least) they turned it down based on that aspect? Still a very unlikely scenario but it is all i can muster.

 

[drtweak]

Heh. I just had to deal with the same thing for a client of mine. This is the first time I have had to send a hard drive in to a big data recovery company (I used Kroll because they were local. for the free diagnostic sounds like maybe you used Drive Savers? lol) and well this client had a car hit a tele pole, kill power for the hole day, next day PC didn't see a hard drive yet the other 50 PC plus 2 servers (but those are on battery backup so they shut down properly) were fine. the drive would power, on you would hear 4 clicks and then that is it.

Here is the thing. Head Crashes, if that really is the reason, can def cause physical damage to the platters. The thing is it fully unrecoverable, probably not. If it had some top secret shit the goverment would get it off.

They were only able to get 13% of my clients drive image with not a lot of valuable data recovered. I don't know how bad the heads were crashing but if those clicks i heard was the drive trying to spin up, and those heads move across those platters, it will make it very difficult to get anything off.

if the platters are fine there are ways to trasnplant them in a donor and get it off which is what i though they would do and i was so confident in them getting the data but the platters were scratched by the heads trying to access the disk.

You think they would make these drives with a sensor that if the platters are turning THE HEADS WOULDN"T FREAKEN MOVE RIGHT?

And honestly even though THF has a strict no piracy policy, i really doubt every person who was all "We don't help your kind, if you want it buy it" has actaully bought every piece of software they own. In this day and age i'm sure everyone had downloaded something from a program, to music, to movies in their life time. It's just today it is easier to get caught unless you have a VPN service that doesn't keep logs, but i don't see that as a reason of why they would turn you down. I mean movies? unless they are all labled like

Batman.VS.Superman.1080p.bluray.rip.x264.yify.mp4

and it was just Batman VS Superman.mp4 they would have no idea if you ripped your own movie or downloaded it.

A lot of stuff you download are ISO's and have the crack in the the ISO. They can't see that unless they actually open that ISO. Until then it is just 1's and 0's they see, so i doubt that was an issue. It could have just been that bad that recovery would have been too much for them to deal with that it would cost you $$$$$




SOOOOOOOOO



Moral of the story...



HAVE A BACKUP! XD

 

[jimmysmitty]

If they told you it was a "Head Crash" then it was probably a head crash. I don't think they are going through the data nor do they care. A head crash is possible with any drive and if it does that means that the platters will get physically damaged and if so data recovery is near impossible, especially if it hit the part of the platter that has the MFT.

As for the piracy, we do have a very strict No policy on it. I suggest the OP moves on and gives his old HDD a proper burial.

 

[maximus2k16]

Did you not read what i said? I opened it up myself and there is NO visible damage to the platters where the read head has scoured the surface platter like they described it as such, It looks exactly the same as what it did before i sent it in (like a new hard drive) the last thing i need is a dismissive and negative opinion from an entitled admin, probably based on the fact that i mentioned the pirated content. I will now close this thread

 

[Rogue Leader]

Did you not read what i said? I opened it up myself and there is NO visible damage to the platters where the read head has scoured the surface platter like they described it as such, It looks exactly the same as what it did before i sent it in (like a new hard drive) the last thing i need is a dismissive and negative opinion from an entitled admin, probably based on the fact that i mentioned the pirated content. I will now close this thread

Before you go accusing people realize that the head on a hard drive is VERY TINY and it is very possible for there to be a head crash with no visible physical damage unless you use a microscope. You are not an expert in hard drives thats why you sent it to someone who is. The company I work for makes the machines that makes those heads, they are tiny, precise, and if they are off even by a tiny bit they will do damage, which is why hard drives are sealed so tightly. Also did you take the platters apart? How do you know it was not on one of the others?

They had no way of knowing the data that was on your drive without going through the trouble of repairing it, had they done that they would want the money for all the work they would have to do to get to that point. They don't know or care what is on the drive. So please again before you call out and insult folks here please try to keep in mind he ridiculousness of what you are accusing them of.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

1. Check the attitude at the door.
2. Did you check BOTH sides of ALL platters? Doesn't sound like it. The top surface is not the only one that has a head riding over it. And, damage doesn't necessarily have to be visible to the naked eye.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Did you not read what i said? I opened it up myself and there is NO visible damage to the platters where the read head has scoured the surface platter like they described it as such, It looks exactly the same as what it did before i sent it in (like a new hard drive) the last thing i need is a dismissive and negative opinion from an entitled admin, probably based on the fact that i mentioned the pirated content. I will now close this thread

Did you open the drive before sending it in?

 

[hang-the-9]

I've Just received my hard drive back from a data recovery company, whose name i won't disclose just yet, and they offered a "free evaluation" on my 5 year old Seagate 1t/b which has decided to stop spinning correctly (it no longer reads at all, and my Windows 7 will no longer recognize it), so the read/write head is no longer able to function correctly, bearing in mind i checked it before i sent it, all seemed well in terms of physical conditioning anyway, so it was much to my bemusement when they got back to me with a data recovery report saying the media had suffered physical damage on the platters due to a "head crash" and was beyond recovery, of course when i received it back it was as it was before, so it all boils down to what the hell is their agenda in this case? Has anyone dealt with a data recovery company before and received similar dubious feedback? The only agenda i can think of is that they scoured the contents of the HDD and the fact i have a fair amount of pirated content on there (hey, I'm being thoroughly honest at least) they turned it down based on that aspect? Still a very unlikely scenario but it is all i can muster.

Your idea is that they actually took the time to look at your drive, were able to read the data, then sent it back to you saying they can't get the data out? That is a bit like ordering food online, paying for it with a credit card, then staying home and not picking it up as a joke on the food place. What company would pay a tech and time on the equipment to recover data and then say they could not do it? It's way more likely that they just could not get the drive fixed. If you took the drive apart and actually took all the platters out to examine them, you would have dropped the chances of the drive being fixable by a lot, there is a reason they use clean rooms to build the drives with precision tools.