recovery house for damaged HDD

Kelloggs

Hey,

I wrote a few days ago about trying to transfer files from my old HDD on to my new computer *thanks to everyone who tried to help*!!

Heres an update on what happened. I took the HDD along to the local PC Shop (no fix no fee) and he had a look at it. He told me that he was unable to get anything as the HDD was not recognised in the BIOS. The HDD didnt spin up and detect at all on the PC. He also told me the only way in which i may be able to get my files back was to get a new controller board (the green circuit).

After that i contacted the person i bought it from. They have tried to help me but in my opinion they havent offered much.

But anyway what i want to ask you all is do you know anywhere online that would do this repair for a reasonable price? I dont know anything about this part of PCs so wouldnt know where to start for a reasonable price. I hear it can cost 100s and well i dont have the money to be doing that...Although i have so many files/photos which i am going to really regret losing..

Any help would be really appreciated!!

Thanks, Kelly

albertross_2

Some places advertise that they can do it for £99. (it's usually hundreds)... personally I doubt they can do it for that price. If your board has gone, then the first thing they would do is buy another identical drive, which is £30+ before they start. Hard drive recovery is a time consuming process, which is why it costs so much.

Buy Norton Ghost or Acronis Trueimage and back the new one up to DVD's, so it doesn't happen again.

I thought you said that the drive was spinning previously?

Kelloggs

Well, i plugged the HDD into my new computer via a IDE USB wire....the computer made that sound when new hardware is added but from then on you couldnt find it...

albertross_2

Plug it inside your PC case into a power connector, see if it spins.

Kelloggs

The guy at the PC shop did that and he said it didnt spin..

Could you name any of the sites that fix this kind of problem?

albertross_2

http://www.easyrecovery.co.uk/Hard_Drive_Recovery.htm

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=hard+disk+recovery+%C2%A399&hl=en&lr=&cr=countryUK|countryGB&start=10&sa=N

http://www.thetechguys.com/ourservices/yourdata/datarecovery.shtml

The last one is unlikely to fix hardware problems for that price.

Personally, I'd check it myself, to see if your PC can detect it.

chunter

albertross wrote:

http://www.thetechguys.com/ourservices/yourdata/datarecovery.shtml

This is PC World's boys. Would you trust them with a hard disk full of important data?

Kelloggs

Hmmmm, well i bought my current PC from them...fingers crossed things will be ok...Its an HP computer and theyre said to be good arent they...?

To be honest id be willing to pay up to £250 if i was told they would recover the photos etc...

albertross_2

I know.., I doubt they would be able to do anything with it, if it isn't spinning/recognised by the bios, and give a quote from a proper data recovery company. The £60-90 is probably for running spinrite (or similar) on it.

If it were my data, I wouldn't trust the post office not to lose it or damage it either..

Kelloggs

Right, so would you suggest the https://www.easyrecovery.co.uk ? Ive had a quick scan on it and it looks ok...

If they dont retrieve anything then i dont have to pay...

albertross_2

If it's eide, check the jumpers are set to master, and plug it into the original PC, see if it is recognised in the bios, if not, send it off, if so, you may be able to fix it yourself.

What was the original symptom when this first started?