What would you do?

[Rztech]

Hey guys,

I have a client that has a very old laptop that was a blue screening. It would be much quicker to backup the data and reinstall Windows. During backup and transferring, transfers would stop, freeze, etc. Running tests determined the HDD was failing. We suggested to the client to purchase a new harddrive, but wanted a new machine.

Today, we went to transfer data to the new machine from the old harddrive, and it is dead. It is running, no clicking, but doesnt show up in BIOS. The data is important to the client, and I'm wondering...what would you do in this situation? Legally, we are protected(signed form, etc) but we want to do more for the client.

We have updated the online order tracker to inform of the issue. We don't do data recovery (physical) and don't want to do damage to the drive. If you were in this situation, what would you do? Eat the cost and pay another company to recover the data? Refer the customer to a drive recovery company?

Curious on your thoughts, many thanks in advance.

 

[Mainstay]

You are a GP.

This is a situation where you need a specialist.

You make a referral to a trusted recovery lab that you have a good relationship with.

 

[gikstar]

I would ask him to bring in his backup of his files so you could put it on his new computer... No backup, then contact a local recovery company or use one of those on here like the one I use '$300 Data Recovery' in the LA area.
Too bad you don't list the area you live in...
If you feel bad about the situation you can give the service to the client at your cost and handle all the shipping and contact with the recovery company.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I would ask him to bring in his backup of his files so you could put it on his new computer... No backup, then contact a ...recovery company .

^^This^^

 

[JohnKennex]

I would ask him to bring in his backup of his files so you could put it on his new computer... No backup, then contact a local recovery company or use one of those on here like the one I use '$300 Data Recovery' in the LA area.
Too bad you don't list the area you live in...
If you feel bad about the situation you can give the service to the client at your cost and handle all the shipping and contact with the recovery company.

I agree 100% - once the price comes back and the customer freaks out...... lead into the backup solution sales pitch

 

[Rztech]

Thank you everyone for your replies. We are in the Toledo, Ohio area. I believe what we will do is send it to a repair facility to recover the data, pay 1/4 of the price for the client and charge the rest of the price to the client, and transfer the data for free. I guess maybe we should mention about our backup solutions after all is said and done, John

 

[lcoughey]

This is an awkward situation that might have been avoided, had you approached it correctly in the first place. The multiple attempts to backup the data with errors and running a diagnostic on a drive that was clearly failing were likely the things that got the drive to its current condition. You have a few ways to approach this:

1. Take full responsibility and cover full costs of professional data recovery and hope you don't need to find out what happens if the data is no longer recoverable
2. Let the client know that the drive was likely a low cost recovery (Your price: $300 USD with 300DDR and about $225 USD after discount with Recovery Force) but may now require clean room work (Your price: about $900 USD after discount with Recovery Force). Offer to pay the difference if it is actually worse, because of your attempts.
3. Tell the client that it is their fault for not backing up and just resell the data recovery services (not likely to be taken well by the client, I'm sure)

In the future, if you can't simply copy files off a drive, you should stop and do one of the following:

1. attempt to clone with ddrescue. If that has any issues, stop and call your data recovery partner for advice
2. call your data recovery partner for advice before you risk causing any further damage (this is what I'd prefer you do first)

Good luck

 

[Rosco]

Interesting so anytime you get a failing hard drive you guys pay for the data recovery. Even if it comes in failing?

Though i would also recommend as soon as the problem started get it on ddrescue or call data recovery.

 

[Rztech]

This is an awkward situation that might have been avoided, had you approached it correctly in the first place. The multiple attempts to backup the data with errors and running a diagnostic on a drive that was clearly failing were likely the things that got the drive to its current condition. You have a few ways to approach this:

1. Take full responsibility and cover full costs of professional data recovery and hope you don't need to find out what happens if the data is no longer recoverable
2. Let the client know that the drive was likely a low cost recovery (Your price: $300 USD with 300DDR and about $225 USD after discount with Recovery Force) but may now require clean room work (Your price: about $900 USD after discount with Recovery Force). Offer to pay the difference if it is actually worse, because of your attempts.
3. Tell the client that it is their fault for not backing up and just resell the data recovery services (not likely to be taken well by the client, I'm sure)

In the future, if you can't simply copy files off a drive, you should stop and do one of the following:

1. attempt to clone with ddrescue. If that has any issues, stop and call your data recovery partner for advice
2. call your data recovery partner for advice before you risk causing any further damage (this is what I'd prefer you do first)

Good luck

Thanks for your detailed reply. It wasn't obvious at first the drive was failing, as it worked just fine, but the client simply wanted data transferred to a new machine. Upon doing transfers, they would simply stop and our external backup drives would shut off as they didn't get any data transferred to them. We didn't stress test by any means, but it took about 30 seconds before a write error appeared, and it we stopped right there. We did reach out to our partner that handles hard drive issues more extensively then we do on site (for obvious reasons) and they will take care of recovering the data, and we will then transfer for the client. As a semi new business, hard drive data recovery is just something we don't want to do in house until we are 100% sure we meet all qualifications.

Reason I asked was we never had a drive die on us while working on it, it was already brought to us dead. First time for everything

Interesting so anytime you get a failing hard drive you guys pay for the data recovery. Even if it comes in failing?

Though i would also recommend as soon as the problem started get it on ddrescue or call data recovery.

We offer recovery and transfer services, yes. We work with our partners to obviously have a lower cost to set our margins, and then also include in the price a transfer to ether another computer, device, or harddrive.

For anyone curious, we spoke to the client today who was upset by the news but we made sure we explained all options, the data isn't gone, and we will do everything we can to recover it. The client felt very reassured, safe, and satisfied and didn't mind paying the little extra for recovery. We decided to take 50% off normally what we charge, as the client already purchased a new machine from us as well as transfer services, so it was the least we could do as I, personally, would be upset if my data was "gone". We also decided to waive the transfer fee, as honestly, it doesn't cost us anything and we don't want to appear to be taking advantage, money wise, of the situation.

Thank you again everyone for your input!

 

[lcoughey]

Interesting so anytime you get a failing hard drive you guys pay for the data recovery. Even if it comes in failing?

Though i would also recommend as soon as the problem started get it on ddrescue or call data recovery.

I don't think anyone would say that. Most of the time, technicians usually know a drive has come in failing. Perhaps by asking some of the questions in the document I posted yesterday will help make that determination before the drive is powered on.

If your actions unnecessarily caused extra strain on the drive that may have been the final blow to the drive, there is a fine line between, "it is not my fault," and "it is my fault," that your data is not recoverable. If you don't make every effort to protect your client's data as soon as it arrives, there is always a chance that you will get caught in such an unfortunate situation. However, if the first thing you do is ask the right questions before trying to get a sector-by-sector of the drive and it fails during that process, you can say that you made every effort to protect their data. Who knows, you may have gotten enough of the drive cloned that you can just recover the data from the partial clone. At the very least, you can now say that the drive is too damaged for standard services and will need professional data recovery services (in house or outsourced).

If you take your son to the ER with a condition where a doctor could give him something that should stabilize him long enough so that they can operate and save him, but they don't bother with that step and he dies. When you find out that they skipped a step that "probably" was the difference between saving his life and losing it, are you going to say, "oh well, he was dying when I brought him in."

Had the hospital taken that step and the child still died, they could at least say, we did everything we could. But, they didn't and I suspect that a law suit would follow.

Now some like to put the blame back on their clients, "you should have backed up." Yes, they should have. But, they are your client...did you set them up with a fool proof backup? Back the analogy...perhaps there was a step you could have done at home which would have helped prevent your son from needing to go to the hospital in the first place, can the hospital say, "it is your fault, you should have prevented the accident from happening in the first place?"

I know that things aren't always black and white, but you are the experts that your client trusts to look after their precious data. If they were tech savvy, knowing how to backup their files, preventing virus infections and keeping their systems clean, they wouldn't be coming to you, would they?

 

[seedubya]

There's the moral question and the practical question
Moral: Is this genuinely your fault when viewed by a knowledgeable third party? If so you're responsible. If not then onto the ...
Practical: Can you be held legally responsible? Is it cheaper to fix it or lose the client? Will the client believe you if you say you're not responsible?

 

[gikstar]

I just hate it when a drive fails on our bench . I tend to take it personally.

 

[cypress]

I just hate it when a drive fails on our bench . I tend to take it personally.

Yup same here, I can agree with that.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Why it's best to do a quick scan of the drive with like gsmart control short test. If it shows OK then you can at least say you ran a diagnostic that showed no errors.

 

[lcoughey]

Why it's best to do a quick scan of the drive with like gsmart control short test. If it shows OK then you can at least say you ran a diagnostic that showed no errors.

And if it no longer detects after it completes the scan, what do you say? If you aren't copying every sector you read, you are taking unnecessary risks with your client’s data.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I only do the short 1-2 minute scan. If it gives any errors or even hiccups I recommend replacing the drive. If a 2 minute smart scan test kills the drive then that drive was pretty well done anyway in my opinion.

On the other hand if they bring it in thinking it's failing I let them know I'll do what I can, but if their data is valuable to them they may want to take it to a data recovery center.

 

[sapphirescales]

I back up every drive that comes into the shop that shows signs of failure. Even if the client doesn't want it backed up, I do a quick backup of the most important files right away. I back up the data then call the client and let them know that their drive is failing, but I have backed up their data and ask if they have backed up recently. The answer 9 times out of 10 is a definite no and they're VERY grateful that I saved their data for them. The easiest and quickest way to back up files from a directory on a drive that has errors and problems is Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier. I just grab the C:\Users folder and go from there. I've never had a hard drive actually completely fail on the bench. I have however had to spend WEEKS using Unstoppable Copier because the drive takes that long to access data. For that, I charge a data recovery fee. I've done many data recoveries and my success rate is above 90%. I don't use the Unstoppable Copier for data recovery, but if it has to sit in a dock for weeks, I'm not going to just charge them for data backup.

 

[drnick5]

I've had situations like this once or twice before. It sucks, you feel bad, but in reality, theres nothing you can do, every single hard drive will die at some point, we just don't know when. This is why backups are important.

What we started doing was on our sign in sheet, I have a check box for data backup right above where they sign. It asks very simply "would you like us to perform a backup before the diagnostic is performed?"

The 2 answers are:

"Yes! please backup my data and store for 30 days in case of data loss

No "I already have a backup of my data or backup is not needed"

What this does is A) has a conversation about backup and lets them know we are not responsible for data loss (we have language to this effect on the sign in sheets terms and conditions as well). and B) gives you another revenue source. we charge $30 to do this, and store the data on our server for 30 days. in most cases, the data is never needed, but we've had a few occasions where someone comes in a few weeks later asking if we still have their data. We charge additionally to restore data from the backup if necessary.

In your case, I'd ask the client if they have any backups, if they say that they don't, let them know you'll have to send the drive out for recovery. I've used 300 data recovery a few times and they've been pretty good. if the drive is still functioning physically there is a good chance they can recover it. I usually charge $500 for this service, plus the cost of a transfer drive, and take payment up front before sending it out. (this covers shipping both ways and my time to deal with it).

You'll also need to sell a replacement hard drive since they will need something to transfer the data too. I keep a new external hard drive in stock for this purpose and will send it in with the drive to get the data recovered to. when the data comes back I'll either transfer it to the new working drive I install in the computer, or sell it to the client if they just want a raw dump of the data. (I'll then order a new drive to keep in stock).

It sucks, and you probably feel bad, but unfortunately I see all too often clients don't care about backup until they need it and don't have one. Once you get the data back, use this as an opportunity to sell them on a backup service. (if you don't have a backup service, you can become a reseller for carbonite, crash plan, backblaze or several others out there).