DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

So responding to another post on a different topic this occurred to me. I had a hard drive quit on me some time ago and it has some of my photo archives on it that I would like to recover. Has anyone sent a crashed hard drive in to have the data recovered forensically. If so, who did you use and at what cost?

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

You have used the words "quit" and "crashed" which tells us nothing except you have had a problem. Does the unit power up and you can not boot... is it dead dead... no response what so ever etc... tell us as much info as possible. Is it a Mechanical or A Solid State.... brand... part number. [WD xxxxxx ..] size

Can you see why more info is needed....

MichaelH Loc: NorCal via Lansing, MI

My company sent out a drive from a dropped laptop to DriveSavers in Novato, CA. They seem to have a couple of drop-off locations in Southern California. I believe it was about $2,000 to retrieve the data - that is why you want multiple backups.

Stardust Loc: Central Illinois

Without knowing more about your particular situation, average cost of retrieval usually runs $200-400 for a terrabyte or smaller drive. Google your local area and sure there will be plenty of locations. Barring unusual circumstances, usually a 97% success rate.

Business drive mentioned here can run considerably more due to size of drive, importance of getting 100% of the data and/or simply because can charge corporations much more.

TBerwick Loc: Houston, Texas

If, and that's a very large IF, the drive spins up, you may be able to access it via some flavor of Unix. Personally, I use Linux Mint and have had fairly good success accessing and retrieving data from crashed Windows drives that will at least spin up when mounted to a motherboard. Don't attempt this yourself unless you have a pretty firm knowledge for directory structures, moving between mounted devices, etc. If you accidentally erase a directory using Unix under this scenario, it's gone, gone. If that were to happen, then you really would need to employ a data recovery company and they're not cheap.

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

I am going to chime in on IBerkicks, a neighbor Texan.
He nailed right down. If it spins up the chances are 'possibly' less you had a hard drive crash meaning the read/write head damaged the disk. If not it is all recoverable. IF and I mean IF, no hd head damage, all of your stuff on the drive should be recoverable but buddy, ya gonna have to pay for it. I know how this data retrievable is done. IF only the hard drives controller failed then it will be much less expensive to read and copy it off.
IF the there is a head crash it will still spin up, BUT !!!!!
listen to what the previous reply said to you.
If you have the time and puters to test and try to get into it you maybe able to copy them off yourself.
Is this a Windows 7, 10 MAC ????
this matters.
Not to preach, but this is a hard love lesson to keep your files on other devices as back ups.
It is not a matter 'IF' but 'WHEN' a device like a hard drive will fail. Any device will eventually fail.
I know, it has happened to me everyone I know.
Also, see if someone has a hard drive reader. Or plug it up to another puter as an add on device and see if you can open it.
It all depends on the OS level.
Good luck bro.
Bruce In north texas.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I can be recovered but it might not be worth the cost.

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

Thats Ok dude, at least consider some of the options mentioned that do not cost you a lot of money to recover this. Do not give up hope.

steve49 Loc: massachusetts

I had photos recovered from a failed hd.
the guy charged me $75.

not really sure what was wrong w the drive but he recovered everything on it.
worth a shot trying for sure.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

I did and did - data recovery: partial and not at all organized - I had the equivalent of the C drive to page thru folder by folder to find and move files into my organizational structure.
Cost $1,800.
Off the top of my head I don't remember the service. When I complained they told me to send the original disk back. Not knowing any better I had thrown it away.
After paging thru, I'd say about 70% of my files were recovered.
So, back up the back up

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

The problem will dictate the cost of recovery. If just the electronics are bad then a new board or put the drive mech in another box and copy. If the disk itself is crashed(damaged by the head contacting the disk surface) then the disks are removed and placed in a new drive and any data that's left can be recovered. The crash is expensive and results in only partial data recovery.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Just a week or so ago, talking to someone in the camera shop: Very expensive to have that done.
OTOH, if you hard drive is still accessible, you could hook it up to your computer and use a program like Recuva by Piriform and do it yourself.
If the computer no longer recognizes the drive, I'm afraid you'll have to get outside help.

spraguead Loc: Boston, MA

I had what I thought was a drive fail, but got it to work by putting it in a $15 external case. Turns out it was an issue with the pci cable in the tower.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

I don't know where you are in San Diego but I can highly recommend Tech2You. They do an excellent job in their white glove labs and have very reasonable prices.
I had to use them once four years ago when I had a 2TB drive crash. It had 2TB of my life on it. They recovered everything.
Since then I have recommended them to about ten Clients; 100% success for all of them.
https://www.tech2u.com/

NWProdigal Loc: Portland, Oregon

I'm going to chime in here and suggest that before you pay anyone to recover your data, do this: if you have the temerity to open your PC, or use a spare PC, attach your "failed" drive to the cables that connect your DVD/CD drive to that drive and boot the computer up. Then, with Windows up and running, see if the drive shows up. If so, it has not failed. If you cannot access it, but it shows up, right click on the failed drive and select Properties. Then select Check now... from the Tools tab.
Be sure and tick both options, Automatically fix file system errors AND Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. You may have to reboot in order for the disk check to run.

Now, if you cannot see the drive in Windows File Explorer, there's a good chance the drive is dead and you'll need a specialist to try and recover data from the internal platter. It's really up to you whether that is worth the expense. I personally suggest you use a cloud based backup for your photos. Google will give you 100GB of storage for $2 a month.