HDD problem

[GTP]

Seagate 1.5TB Portable HDD that I've removed from it's enclosure.
Client said his 4 y/o threw it across the room and now it makes a "ticking" sound.
Windows wont access it. He is concerned about the 1000's of photo's/videos of said brat er child...

He asked if I could get it working. I asked if the photo's/videos were important.
He said they are "precious" and he really wants them back.
I suggested that he send the drive to a recovery specialist. I got him a quote of $650.
He said they were not THAT important and asked if I could try to recover them.

After a 20 minute discussion about the drive "ticking" my limited recovery equipment/experience and urging him to let the experts do it he decided that $650 is way too much to spend.
So he decided that if I can't recover them he would just have to accept the fact that they're gone.

He asked again if I could at least try. So after telling him again that the drive is dead and that recovery is not possible and that me even trying will probably make it harder if he decides to get a professional later, he agreed to me doing it.
I got him to sign a waiver stating that if the files are not recovered he has no comeback on me whatsoever.
I also told him that I would have to charge for the time involved, to which he also agreed.
(Even though I told him it would be the best part of $300 and that he would be better using that for a pro.)

So.....
I finally got windows to recognise the disk by removing it from the box and plugging it directly into a sata port. (and no "ticking")
But.. it is only detected as a 3.69GB partition.
So I fired up MiniTool Partition Expert and ran the "partition wizard" which will attempt to find and repair the partitions.
It's been running for two days and is at 16%.

What should I have done? What else should I do?
Thanks

 

[lan101]

I'm of little help here but it just amazes me with people and their thinking. You pretty much tell him more or less that you likely can't help him. He's willing to spend nearly 300 bucks but yet won't spend 650. Just makes no sense to me people's thought process.

 

[GTP]

You pretty much tell him more or less that you likely can't help him. He's willing to spend nearly 300 bucks but yet won't spend 650. Just makes no sense to me people's thought process.

Yeah, I almost pulled the pin on the job until he said he would pay the charge.
I mean, I could be dishonest and say "hey I couldn't get jack from it - that'll be $300 bucks please" and not even touch it.
But my moral conscience makes me want to at least try....
I'll let the software grind away for a while to see if it finds the partition/s, then stop.
If it's still a mess I'll encourage him to send it to the experts.
I may end up charging him a nominal fee of 1 hours labour or something and leave it alone in case he ever has a change of heart.

 

[Larry Sabo]

What should I have done? What else should I do?

Recommend he set it aside until he decides it is worth the professional recovery cost. You should stop now, as you have no doubt made it even more unrecoverable. It for sure will have head damage and by running MiniTools for two days you have probably scored the platters with the damaged heads, making it totally unrecoverable. These drives are a challenge at the best of times. A head swap and some firmware jiggery-pokery straight away probably had a good chance to recover at least some data, but that chance is long gone.

 

[Diggs]

I didn't see if/where you cloned it off onto something else to do your trials and tribulations?

 

[alexsmith2709]

My devious side is saying take his money, let it continue scanning, hope it ruins any chances of any professional data recovery, if he decides to ever do that, then he can be more than $300 down and still no "precious" pictures.
Some people just have to learn the hard way

 

[Porthos]

My devious side is saying take his money

You should not "advertise" your devious side on a forum of professional techs.

 

[GTP]

Already stopped the operation. I figured that if it's only up to 16% after almost 3 days it will be 3 weeks getting to 100%.
I think it's only fair to stop and let this guy ponder how important the pics actually are.
He was told several times that I would probably cause more damage to the drive by trying , thereby lessening the chance of professional recovery, but he was ok with that.
I wonder if he feels differently when he has time to ponder and realises those pictures are something he'll regret losing?

 

[mikeroq]

As far as I go would be to remove the drive from the enclosure and hook it up. If the partition can't be detected the customer is getting a quote to be sent off for recovery. I'm not going to muck about and make it harder to be recovered by a professional.

 

[backwoodsman]

What should I have done? What else should I do?

I probably would've done much the same as far as trying to convince him to go the pro route. But if he still wanted me to do it, I'd have made him sit on it for a month or so, in the hope that he would realize that if the pictures are worth $300 to him, then a better chance at recovery is worth $650.

If it came down to me trying the recovery, I would've imaged it with ddrescue, then hit the image with photorec. As others have said, by trying to recover partitions, you may have destroyed any chance there may have been for recovery. Never work on a damaged drive any more than absolutely necessary; image it, then work on a copy of the image.

 

[lcoughey]

Drive came ready in kernel panic mode because the firmware was unable to fully load, likely because the heads and/or surface are toast.

As mentioned before, the first step would have been to get a clone, had it truly been possible. I'm probably overdue to update this resource, but it is still good - https://www.technibble.com/forums/resources/data-recovery-process.18/

 

[River Valley Computer]

Seagate 1.5TB Portable HDD that I've removed from it's enclosure.
Client said his 4 y/o threw it across the room and now it makes a "ticking" sound.
Windows wont access it. He is concerned about the 1000's of photo's/videos of said brat er child...

He asked if I could get it working. I asked if the photo's/videos were important.
He said they are "precious" and he really wants them back.
I suggested that he send the drive to a recovery specialist. I got him a quote of $650.
He said they were not THAT important and asked if I could try to recover them.

After a 20 minute discussion about the drive "ticking" my limited recovery equipment/experience and urging him to let the experts do it he decided that $650 is way too much to spend.
So he decided that if I can't recover them he would just have to accept the fact that they're gone.

He asked again if I could at least try. So after telling him again that the drive is dead and that recovery is not possible and that me even trying will probably make it harder if he decides to get a professional later, he agreed to me doing it.
I got him to sign a waiver stating that if the files are not recovered he has no comeback on me whatsoever.
I also told him that I would have to charge for the time involved, to which he also agreed.
(Even though I told him it would be the best part of $300 and that he would be better using that for a pro.)

So.....
I finally got windows to recognise the disk by removing it from the box and plugging it directly into a sata port. (and no "ticking")
But.. it is only detected as a 3.69GB partition.
So I fired up MiniTool Partition Expert and ran the "partition wizard" which will attempt to find and repair the partitions.
It's been running for two days and is at 16%.

What should I have done? What else should I do?
Thanks

Bet you wished you never posted this!!!!!!!!

 

[DataMedics]

figured that if it's only up to 16% after almost 3 days it will be 3 weeks getting to 100%.

Actually you've been at 0% and just wasting electricity for the last three days. Showing that size of 3.69Gb is just a number returned by the PCB when the HDD is unable to initialize it's firmware (as lcoughey already pointed out). Being a Seagate, it's almost certainly got bad read/write heads. Pretty typical.

 

[sapphirescales]

I've been in this situation many times before. I make sure to be 100% honest with my clients and tell them that:

1. A real data recovery center is a better option.
2. The chance of me being able to get their data back (for example, 10%).
3. That me trying to get their data back may ruin the drive and make it IMPOSSIBLE to recover the data at ANY PRICE (or may make the price much higher if they want to try a data recovery center if my recovery fails).
4. The attempted recovery charge must be paid UP FRONT and is NON-REFUNDABLE. It's to cover our time, nothing more.
5. They're going AGAINST my recommendations and will have to live with the consequences.

Sometimes it's worth it to people to pay $300 even if the chance of recovery is small. Sometimes they just can't make themselves pay $650 for their data even if recovery is guaranteed. They'd rather roll the dice. Sometimes $300 is all they've got, and other times they're just cheap or the data isn't worth the $650. This is when this type of service makes sense.

The important thing when offering any service is to MANAGE EXPECTATIONS. Don't undersell yourself, but don't promise the world either. And even if you don't directly promise the world, they might ASSUME you're offering the world unless you specifically say otherwise. I'd say something like: "Look, to be honest the chances of us getting any data off this drive in its current condition is less than 10%. If there's any way you can use a data recovery center, I highly recommend it. They can offer a much better chance at getting the data back. They're a little more pricey but if the data is important to you then I recommend going that route."

 

[nerd2u]

Give him back the drive and sell him a cloud backup solution will cost him far less and keep him out of this situation in the future.

When ever I have a client who complains about the cost of cloud backup I tell them you have to options, 1 spend the money now for cloud backup or 2 spend more then the cost of cloud backup when you have to recover data.

Data recovery isn't a matter of if but when.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[GTP]

Bet you wished you never posted this!!!!!!!!

No, not at all. Great learning curve, not only for data recovery, but also how to proceed with clients who want this in the future.

 

[GTP]

I didn't see if/where you cloned it off onto something else to do your trials and tribulations?

Guilty as charged. Broke my own rules on this one, but thinking that the drive was dead (because it was ticking), I just plugged it in anyway. When (I erroneously thought) it was recognised (but wasn't as pointed out by @DataMedics and @lcoughey) I didn't want to stop there as I thought it may have a "Lazarus" moment and initialize long enough to get the data.
Lesson learned, won't do it again.
I'll now eat my salty bread and water alone, in my cell .....

 

[GTP]

But that's good news, right? At least it means that the problem hasn't been made any worse and the drive can be passed on to a data recovery specialist with a clear conscience.

That's encouraging...

At this point I think I'd just stop, wrap the drive up in appropriate anti-static packaging ready for shipping, stick the contact details for a reputable data recovery firm on the outside and hand it back to the client at no charge.

Are you reading my mind ???

Walking away from an easy $300 is hard but you'll sleep better for it.

The quote of $300 was a "plucked from the air" figure that I thought may give the guy the impetus to go the pro route.
I had no intentions of charging that much even if I did perform a miracle...
And, your right. I wont charge him for anything.

 

[GTP]

*Update*
Just had a tête-à-tête with the client and his wife? (Child's mother anyway)
I explained that if these were baby pictures of my own Daughter I would be devastated to lose them.
He did say they were "precious" earlier and I reiterated that to them again.
In 10,15, 20 or more years when the child is an adult and asks about childhood photo's and there is little to show how would they feel?
Of course the cost was an issue and I did explain that I may have ruined the chances of recovery, but they understand and accept that and have decided to try WITH A PROFESSIONAL!
They both thanked me for at least trying and will hold no grudge or malice if the pro recovery fails.

Moving forward, they are also going with my recommendation of cloud backup.

After a conversation with my data recovery guy, explaining exactly what happened to the drive and what I'd done, he said that there is still a good chance of recovery. If not there is only an attempt fee of a few dollars.

Clients are happy to proceed, so as @Computer Bloke has already read my mind and predicted what's next it's safely packed awaiting the courier.

I just wish I'd had the heart-to-heart with them first.
Here's hoping the pro's can recover it.

 

[LordIntruder]

Well, I wish you and your customers best luck.