[REQUEST] A Quick Data Recovery Question

[XFalloutX]

How many data recovery places have you reached out to? The guys on this forum have very reasonable pricing, many at ~$300 for many cases with good referral/outsourcing pricing coming out even lower for techs like us.

I dealt with clients in small town, low income places. They never felt their data was worth the $300+

 

[Porthos]

I dealt with clients in small town, low income places. They never felt their data was worth the $300+

Guess the data is not that important then. Also I guess you are not charging enough for your attempts either.

I have clients (most of them) like that.) I make one attempt and if it is not readable, I stop bag it, and move on and inform the client what it would take to get the data and the cost and tell them if it is ever worth the cost to them I inform them they are welcome to send it out and here is the phone #.

 

[lcoughey]

Based on what I read, here are my thoughts.

1. the drop could have damaged the heads
2. the drop could have damaged the surface
3. the drop could have damaged the firmware stored on the surface
4. the drop could have damaged the file system on the surface
5. the drop is unlikely to have damaged the PCB, unless it was severe enough to crack the system board, LCD and other electronic components
6. the freezer cannot fix broken
7. if it doesn't sound bad, it is probably minor damage, right now, which will likely get worse with each time the drive is powered on

When it comes to the value of the client's data, I have found that most techs rarely ever ask the client and when they do, they suggest that the cost of recovery is going to be thousands, thus why clients decline the price. I'm not saying that this is the case with the OP, but it is very common for techs to say that nobody in their areas is willing to pay for data recovery, yet people in their area are sending data recovery jobs across the country and paying the insane rates of labs like Drive Savers.

In this particular case, talk to the client and confirm if the data is worth a few hundred bucks. If not, tell them to set the drive aside, just in case they change their mind, replace it and get them up and running with a new drive.

 

[microtech]

Its set aside at this point. 3 attempts to connect, on 3 separate devices, with both USB and SATA. Safe to say its beyond my capabilities here. Laptop actually belongs to the (semi) adult child of a client, probably nothing more than some music and movies on the device.

 

[Porthos]

Now this the time to sell an external drive and show them how to use Macrium Reflect.

 

[Markverhyden]

Its set aside at this point. 3 attempts to connect, on 3 separate devices, with both USB and SATA. Safe to say its beyond my capabilities here. Laptop actually belongs to the (semi) adult child of a client, probably nothing more than some music and movies on the device.

I'd only try it on two different machines, the second just to say I did. If it's not seen in bios then there is not point in continuing. A drive like this would need, at least, something like a PC3000 which bypasses the onboard firmware as I understand it. Of course the other things, as mentioned by @lcoughey, could add to the misery.

 

[HFultzjr]

Ok,
The truth here guys!
How many of you have at some point in your life tried the Freezer Trick?
I'll go 1st.......................YES!
Many, many years ago before I knew any better.
And no, it didn't work.
I have also tried some other "strange things", to which I will not admit.
Shhhhhh, can you say 'Spinrite".......................LOL.
Then I grew up................

 

[Alexey]

How many of you have at some point in your life tried the Freezer Trick?
I'll go 1st.......................YES!
Many, many years ago before I knew any better.
And no, it didn't work.

Many, many years ago there was a series of hard drives where it worked, or at least where continuous cooling worked. It was because one of the chips overheated and caused drive to stop working. If the chip was cooled, it worked. Can't remember vendor though... Fujitsu maybe. So these things had their valid applications.

 

[lcoughey]

I've tried both the freezer and spinrite in various tests, none of which resulted in any improvement to the failed drives.

 

[GTP]

When I first heard about the freezer trick, I wondered what would happen if I put a "working" drive in there for a few hours...
So, I got an old 80GB Samsung IDE drive that I confirmed was working and stuck it in a bag and put it in the freezer for 3 hours.
Guess what happened?...
After letting it slowly warm to room temperature again, I plugged it in to a computer. Dead. The drive never worked again.

 

[Alexey]

After letting it slowly warm to room temperature again, I plugged it in to a computer.

Some manuals even specifically address this point - once the unit is brought indoors in winter, it cannot be used for at least N hours, with N either 4 or 6 typically. If you are attempting a freezer trick, there is no point in letting it warm up at all, so that's a different story. But let it slowly warm up is the same as let water condense on cold metallic surfaces, and if you do not wait after that for that water to evaporate then it may not end well.

 

[labtech]

lcoughey's diagnosis on the OP's drive is 100% correct, in that order. His thoughts on pricing are dead on.
A lot of assumption and bias out there with regard to advanced data recovery pricing. Things have changed in the last 5+ years, where advanced data recovery pricing has become much more flexible. It is just a matter of finding the right data recovery partner, build a relationship and give it a chance.

 

[GTP]

Some manuals even specifically address this point - once the unit is brought indoors in winter, it cannot be used for at least N hours, with N either 4 or 6 typically. If you are attempting a freezer trick, there is no point in letting it warm up at all, so that's a different story. But let it slowly warm up is the same as let water condense on cold metallic surfaces, and if you do not wait after that for that water to evaporate then it may not end well.

This was back in the Windblows XP days.
I actually left it for most of the day to warm up, maybe 5~6 hours?
The drive showed absolutely no sign of life.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I tried it three times, about 15 years ago. Worked in two of them. Today, I know better.

 

[Markverhyden]

Hey Mark,
Should the freezer be plugged in and running, or can I convert an old not running model for data recovery only?

Never tried it unplugged.... LOL!!!

I actually tried the freezer/cooling thing. 15-20 years ago. One time it was a drive that was running slow as molasses on a winter day and really hot. Did the freezer thing, the drive came up with no recognizable partitions. Obviously it changed the geometry. Let it come back to room temp and had the partition gain. I then put it in a small dorm fridge we had in the tech shop with a 36" IDE cable. It did perform better, enough to get the data in a timely manner. Couple of other times did nothing.

 

[Alexey]

I actually left it for most of the day to warm up, maybe 5~6 hours?
The drive showed absolutely no sign of life.

Bad luck it is then. I was always thinking like if there is nothing to lose (data not really valuable), why not to try stupid things. If it works, it is not stupid. If it does not, well the data was lost already.

 

[backwoodsman]

How many of you have at some point in your life tried the Freezer Trick?

I've done it a whole bunch of times. It worked really well on whatever made Seagate ST225's and variants get flaky back in the '80's. In more recent times, I'll try it now & then as a last resort on a drive that's not worth a more costly method; I've seen it make a difference, but it's usually ineffective.

 

[Porthos]

I was always thinking like if there is nothing to lose (data not really valuable), why not to try stupid things.

And destroy any remaining chance for future recovery by a lab?

If it works, it is not stupid. If it does not, well the data was lost already.

Not always. But after you do stupid things now it is really lost.
The recovery people here on the forum have been shaking their heads at this practice for years yet people still do these things and suggest to others to try it as well.

 

[frase]

I put mine on a BBQ works well

 

[Alexey]

And destroy any remaining chance for future recovery by a lab?

This implies two things,

1. The data is something worth recovery by a lab. Obviously, this is not always the case.

2. The drive will be worse after freezing and unfreezing. Somehow I doubt it, otherwise just sending it by post to a lab in winter would be dangerous. EDITED TO ADD: and also working a laptop outside in winter would damage the drive, which does not happen.

However, if someone from a data recovery lab had a case where freezing/unfreezing did actualy leave damage, I'd be interested to hear it.

I've tried both the freezer and spinrite in various tests, none of which resulted in any improvement to the failed drives.

Luke, I understand how SpinRite may make things worse, but did any of the freezing ever result in deterioration of the failed drives?