Maximum PC

My mom's hard drive is pretty much dead (the bios knows something is plugged in, but nothing beyond that and the drive makes a noise like the motor is trying to start, but can't). I'm wondering if any of you have experience with a hard drive recovery service, preferably one that will be able give a free (or at least a low-cost) estimate.

Oh no, recovery is never free. If you need every bit back, a 250G drive will cost you $1,200...done it for one stupid 53MB folder and will never do it again. The most low cost tool I can give you is SpinRite. It can take hours to run, but it's doing it's best to pull the data. Here, watch this video: The Tech Guy. It's dated, but really the same today.

And not to put a point on the phalanx that just nailed ya, but do you understand the need for backups now? $50 can get you an annual fee to an online backup service, or $30 can get you a hard drive you can buy from any store, slap it in, and backup to incrementally for the life of your current HDD.

You're hosed for the most part and need SpinRite. There use to be a trial version, but they learned that we usually only need it once. If it's worth $100 you buy it. If it's not, you wipe it.

I was referring to getting the quote to recover the data for free and hoping that it would be a simple fix for them and cost in the hundreds, not the thousands.


I've heard about it, do you think it will work even though the bios doesn't fully recognize the hard drive (it's blank where the disk name should be instead of saying "no disk")?

Do you think freezing the hard drive would help, or is the problem likely electrical and not mechanical?


I do. I've already started looking into the various backup solutions.

I have had really good luck in getting data off of drives that have otherwise appeared dead, by putting them in a static bag and placing them in the fridge for a few hours or even up to a day. It may work just long enough for you to recover what data you need from the drive.

This isn't like shopping for a plumber or an auto mechanic. The best estimate you'll want to get it how much will it cost? and what if you don't recover anything?



I've always been amazed at questions like this. OK, so here's the deal. Talk is cheap...so why not try it? It won't make things any worse. We all have this either work, or not work and you don't know until you try

I had done some googling and saw several places where you'd send them the hard drive, they'd inspect it and give you an estimate of how much it would cost for them to recover the data for free, and then if you like the quote they'd then attempt to recover the data. I was hoping the place someone recommended would do something similar. I know they may not be able to recover anything.


I was asking because I figured there's a chance it could cause more damage (however remote), so if it's not going to help, why risk it. But if it won't cause any more damage, then you are right.

I second throwing it in a freezer. The chance of you recovering the data yourself outweighs the chance of doing more damage to the drive, which probably still wouldn't be enough to stop a professional recovery service.

If freezing it doesn't work(freezer trick has worked for me in the world past).
There is also drop trick... U drop the drive from a few inches on desk, the idea is it may free up bound drive.

But yet you're willing to expend on shipping??

look...any of them should be able to give you something across the phone by telling them what happened. The prices end up varying because of drive encryption, or if it was in a RAID or it was hosed by a virus...simple mechanical failure..there's really two options there...software methods/disk forensics or physically swapping platters.

I'll try the home remedies first (freezing, knocking the platters free, and SpinRite). If those don't work, I'll see about having the professionals recover the drive.

In the mean time, if anyone knows of a good place (regardless of free quotes, etc.), please recommend it.