Data Recovery

[nikonriana]

Hey bros

Thanks for taking your time to help me out here.
all my photos since year 2000 has been saved into my desktop harddisk and it just crashed..
i need to recover those files...
Anyone has any recommendation where or who should i consult?
Thanks a lot

 

[David Kwok]

Hey bros

Thanks for taking your time to help me out here.
all my photos since year 2000 has been saved into my desktop harddisk and it just crashed..
i need to recover those files...
Anyone has any recommendation where or who should i consult?
Thanks a lot

There are data recovery service in Singapore, but it is not cheap. Try http://www.adrc.com.sg/, search in google. There are a few of them.

@ALL:

When are people going to wakeup that they need a good backup solution? Especially for people using large amount of storage space such as photographers and videographers. Seems like most like to take their chances.

 

[nikonriana]

I'm quite dead den... I've about 1 tb worth of files waiting for recovery...

 

[David Kwok]

I'm quite dead den... I've about 1 tb worth of files waiting for recovery...

Have you tried the following, non-destructive, but are so called last resort.
1) Flip the hard disk over and try to start it.
2) Place it vertically and try to start it.

Do the hard disk even have the sound of motor turning ?

If it actually started, don't even bother to turn it off. Copy the data into another hard disk asap.

 

[David Kwok]

The charge will be based on the storage size after recovered. The services motsly come with 2 Dvd with 4.7GB for free. Im cant recall the name that im use.

Curious so how much are you charged at the end of the day and how much of the data you recovered ?

 

[David Kwok]

A word of precaution for those still threading on thin ice. While electronics are getting more and more reliable, they are just as volatile as before. With the ever increasing demand for more storage space as your lovely camera resolution increases, the risk is exponential.

I can't stress how important it is to have a good solution system for most people in this forum. Don't play your chance against storage failure, it is not a matter of whether it will spoilt, it's just when. No electronic products are made to last forever. If you think optical storage such as DVD and CD are your best bet, you might wanna think twice. I have a few of them just couldn't be read after a few years, it's either the drive or the disk itself.

Digital storage is so volatile that in large data centers, you will find hard disk crashes daily. And mind you those are freaking cold, low humidity environment with much more stable power supply versus what you get at home.

Don't trust your backup discipline, as much as human is concern, we are all lazy bums. Once in a awhile you just forget to backup or failed to do in routinely. That's where your unforgettable moments will failed to last.

My recommendation is at least the following:
Configure at least RAID 1 (MIRROR) for the storage of your photos and videos and important documents. May it be dedicated H/W RAID or S/W RAID. Do it. You will not regret when you hear people hard disk crashing like now.

General recommendation
1) Get a network NAS with RAID 1 or 5 or 6. In order of better or more efficient redundancy.
2) Use a UPS for proper shutdown of the unit during power failure. UPS also protect against surge and noisy power supply
3) Switch on 24 by 7, don't shutdown (the more frequent you shutdown and startup, the more likely it will be gone)

If you are more paranoid,
3) Do not use hard disk manufactured in the same batch, use HD that some are newer and some are 6months to 12months older. Same model and size though.
4) Perform periodic backup to a different NAS
5) Use magnetic tapes for backup
6) Perform offsite backup where you store your backup tapes somewhere else like office or "another home".

How much will it cost ? For a good NAS (It's around $10/mth for electrical bills), one time cost between $500 to $2K depends on expandability and storage size.
Products also phase out after a few years, the better and more expensive NAS means they phase out less sooner and have longer support.
Why ? Is hard disk the only thing that will spoilt ? How about the NAS itself ? If your system is still supported by the manufacturer, you are likely to be able to port to another newer model easily without data lost.

Last but not least,
Perform Hard disk test every month to ensure hard disk are not showing sign of failure.

PS: When did turning into the electronic era makes things easier ? It's just another form of discipline to work on

 

[Octarine]

Last but not least,
Perform Hard disk test every month to ensure hard disk are not showing sign of failure.

Smartmontools is available for Linux and Windows. Needs a bit of reading initially, but it helped me to recognize faulty disks long before any data loss could occur.

 

[David Kwok]

Smartmontools is available for Linux and Windows. Needs a bit of reading initially, but it helped me to recognize faulty disks long before any data loss could occur.

That's effectively using S.M.A.R.T provided by the hard disk Erm I could have not made that clear enough in my previous post. Same as what you have mentioned Except I let this performed by my NAS, and I do extensive test every now and then because some of the values don't get updated unless you are doing extensive tests

Good practice in any case, don't get complacent with electronics. They will "byte" at the most inconvenient time :bsmilie:

 

[nikonriana]

Thanks for the advice and yes i've learn my lesson.. haha...
so anyone else has any advice where should i send my recovery to beside PC medic?
I didn't manage to get any PC medic singapore information thru the web..excluding those overseas...

 

[fatigue]

I had a painful experience as well. I was trying to consolidate my files and tried to clear some space in my harddisc.
Then all of a sudden, my harddisc crashed.

I did some research and somehow managed recover the files by replacing the harddisc PCB.
The trick is to transfer the ROM IC from the original PCB to the donor PCB.
Some HDD PCBs are available in ebay

I guess it shouldn't cost a lot if it's just a defective PCB

 

[crabball]

I recovered mine using cbl data recovery service. Recovered 99%+ of my data. N mine was head.failure thus some disk platter was scratched. Spend >1 k for recovery of a 750 gb hdd n brought my own hdd for them to copy over. You can also use theirs but u will need to pay for it. Can call them up for quote before going down

 

[DeepOne]

now that your hard drive crashed, you might want to consider a backup process for the future, backups can be unattended, you can schedule it to run on a regular basis, it will be over and done without you knowing, that also mean you may need an additional drive, these day drives are cheap especially when to compare that to what you could lose.

 

[Lingkang]

I recently went to Sim Lim, to one of the lev 3 shops in the row behind, cant remember the name, to recover data in my old 120gig desktop hardisk. had gotten rid of the PC tower long time ago but kept the HDD thinking i could always access it.. but then did not touch it for bout 5 years. When I tried to plug it in it gave a loud whirring sound but couldnt read. Not sure what the problem was, so sent it to the shop... they told me they had to physically extract the data. Total charge was $200.. and the price also included a hitachi 500gig portable HDD. Well worth the price cos it had many photos and files from 10 years ago..

 

[nikonriana]

That is cheap bro.. haha

 

[farbird]

I can give it a try if u dun mind..

I use testdisk and linux to recover the file...

If can extract, I will charge only $50 for my time, regardless of data size..

if cannot work, I wont charge...

testdisk will only do reading of the fat tables, wont destroy/alter any data existing in the hdd..

however, if it was physical damage, i'd not be able to read and hence unable to extract... u need to go to pro shops..

 

[PhotoTime]

You can try contacting Data Savers. From what I understand, they charged relatively cheaper. The retrieval cost is a case by case basis.

I contacted them few years back, they evaluated, and my data is too fragmented for retrieval, no charge is incurred then. Luckily, I have some backup, and so, not all photos are lost.