FabSwingers.com forum: IT Technicians advice please

By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

I have lost my drive, hard drive.

It is a private drive and l can't charge it as a business cost.

I have lost drives before and tried software online and all have been rubbish and not worked. I suspect the current problem is a mechanic issue.

I spoke to a software designer who recommended 3 companies and they charge £400- £500 a drive but no payment if they do not get it working.

Is that the going rate?

Are there other cheaper and reliable options?

Folks don't be like me, please, back up your data!

Thanks

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

You mean physically lost or pc not recognising a drive?

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

As the OP states "probably mechanical" I assume they mean not working

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

For what it sounds like you need I'd say that's likely to be the going rate.

If it's a mechanical failure that's going to necessitate the replacement of some very delicate internals in a very sterile environment. It was never going to be cheap.

Suppose it depends how critical that data is/was

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Does your computer recognise the hard drive at all? If it does some of the free software might fix it, if not you probably have bad sectors and will not be enough no matter how much the software development claims. I had a 2tb one recovered for £300 so it's about the going rate

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Oh and my levono tablet has just sopped working,nothing,zilch,its dead?

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"Oh and my levono tablet has just sopped working,nothing,zilch,its dead?"

Plug the charger in and hold the volume up and power button together, this will force a reboot

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By *ricky_DickyMan
over a year ago

Mirfield

Data recovery specialists charge a fortune, usually because the data is often business related and is of great value. A private drive I personally wouldn't consider the data worth the cost of specialist recovery and would be looking at other options to try recover the data. If it's the on board electronics/controller that have failed it maybe possible swap the pcb on the drive. If it's the format data/ magnetic surface that's been corrupted recovery software may be able to salvage some data.

NB. I'm assuming it's not a solid state drive, if it is, then I haven't a clue.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"I have lost my drive, hard drive.

It is a private drive and l can't charge it as a business cost.

I have lost drives before and tried software online and all have been rubbish and not worked. I suspect the current problem is a mechanic issue.

I spoke to a software designer who recommended 3 companies and they charge £400- £500 a drive but no payment if they do not get it working.

Is that the going rate?

Are there other cheaper and reliable options?

Folks don't be like me, please, back up your data!

Thanks"

Can be more or less than £500 depending on size of drive and problem.

If it's just bad data then will be cheaper but if an actual fault with the drive like mechanical and your pc can't even see it then will cost more as needs to be done in a sterilized dust free environment.

It's a specialist job but isn't impossible to do yourself if you read up plenty and you play very carefully.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

We used to do data recovery but if mechanical we had a guy we used to send them to, long time ago now though.

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By *illwill69uMan
over a year ago

moston

"I have lost my drive, hard drive.

It is a private drive and l can't charge it as a business cost.

I have lost drives before and tried software online and all have been rubbish and not worked. I suspect the current problem is a mechanic issue.

I spoke to a software designer who recommended 3 companies and they charge £400- £500 a drive but no payment if they do not get it working.

Is that the going rate?

Are there other cheaper and reliable options?

Folks don't be like me, please, back up your data!

Thanks"

You have lost drives before! So not the first time then...

Pay a data recovery firm to do what they do. It will be expensive but seeing as most hard drives data can be rebuilt even after catastrophic failure I cant see that you will have that much of a problem (other than cost).

But may I suggest you engage you brain and buy yourself an external hard drive (or 2) and make physical backups of your hard drive in future. And if your data is that important you may want to invest in a couple of fireproof boxes to store your backups in and keep one of them in an offsite location (mates house or similar).

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"Oh and my levono tablet has just sopped working,nothing,zilch,its dead?

Plug the charger in and hold the volume up and power button together, this will force a reboot "

Oh thank you

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"Oh and my levono tablet has just sopped working,nothing,zilch,its dead?

Plug the charger in and hold the volume up and power button together, this will force a reboot

Oh thank you

No worries, that will be £45

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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

Thank you for all the comments. To be accurate l have 3 hard drives not working.

The first makes a whirring sound and is not recognised by the PC.

The other 2 are not automatically recognised but when you go into the control panel and look at connected drives they appear but are not hatched and cannot be opened. If that makes sense.

Thanks for the help.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"Thank you for all the comments. To be accurate l have 3 hard drives not working.

The first makes a whirring sound and is not recognised by the PC.

The other 2 are not automatically recognised but when you go into the control panel and look at connected drives they appear but are not hatched and cannot be opened. If that makes sense.

Thanks for the help."

You have either a mech failure or bad sectors on the hard drive. Afraid the only reliable way of getting it back is a specialist. Most guarantee to recover around 95% of the data if it's bad sectors.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"Thank you for all the comments. To be accurate l have 3 hard drives not working.

The first makes a whirring sound and is not recognised by the PC.

The other 2 are not automatically recognised but when you go into the control panel and look at connected drives they appear but are not hatched and cannot be opened. If that makes sense.

Thanks for the help."

I had a similar whirring noise on my drive a few years ago. I took off the case and vacuumed all the crap out, it worked fine after that.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"Thank you for all the comments. To be accurate l have 3 hard drives not working.

The first makes a whirring sound and is not recognised by the PC.

The other 2 are not automatically recognised but when you go into the control panel and look at connected drives they appear but are not hatched and cannot be opened. If that makes sense.

Thanks for the help."

Just out of curiosity, you have tried them in a different computer yes?

The 2 that you can see in control panel sounds like just a data problem, maybe from an improper shut down or a bad sector or something, a few free programs should be able to sort that out.

The one that makes the whirring sound only sounds like the controller is having problems

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By *tephenBunChowMan
over a year ago

Haywards heath/Waterlooville

Try spinrite 6.

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By *ophieslutTV/TS
over a year ago

Central

"Oh and my levono tablet has just sopped working,nothing,zilch,its dead?

Plug the charger in and hold the volume up and power button together, this will force a reboot

Oh thank you

No worries, that will be £45

Plus £300 data recovery and disk protection fee

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

if you manage to recover the data switch to SSD

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"if you manage to recover the data switch to SSD

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By *illwill69uMan
over a year ago

moston

"if you manage to recover the data switch to SSD

Then when it breaks down its gone for good!

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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

I have 2 laptops and a pc and l tried swapping.

I have to confess that it may have been not closing down properly on the two drives.

Once again thanks everybody. As for those charging for advice on proof of Fab identity l will buy you a beer at the Kestrels bar! Unfortunately Kestrels is bring your own!

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By *oodmessMan
over a year ago

yumsville

Are you not insured ?????

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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

Houshold, l was not sure l could claim.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Most IT issues can be improved with coffee.

Pour into keyboard or if desperate, tip the box thingy up and pour coffee in through a vent.

You're very welcome.

Coming soon; marital advice and advanced motor mechanics

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By *oodmessMan
over a year ago

yumsville

"Houshold, l was not sure l could claim."

You definitely can - mine blew a few years ago, I called up PC world who told me it was £700 I phoned the insurer who gave it to a guy, they had it back in a week or whatever sorted with my docs back on. :D

Well worth a try - maybe don't tell them it is business related though, just that your PC blew with all your docs on ???

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By *oodmessMan
over a year ago

yumsville

Totally up to you if you say it's for your business ... it may be covered if it is kept in your house and listed???

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Take ur hard drive out and put it in the freezer for a night, re fit it and try again

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"Most IT issues can be improved with coffee.

Pour into keyboard or if desperate, tip the box thingy up and pour coffee in through a vent.

You're very welcome.

Coming soon; marital advice and advanced motor mechanics

hahahaha

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By *htcMan
over a year ago

depends really, i have recovered data before from a drives that did not load in windows. if you try and scan the drive for bad sectors first which is isolate them, then open it up in linux you might be able to copy the data, windows normally has a issue.

if the drive is spinning up but making clicking sound they only repairable with specialists.

if you do recover the data, always keep backups of everything, buy a portable hdd.

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