Physical repair for IDE harddrive

[WDsux]

I luv this OE makes you unprofessional bullshit......I'm at home for christ
sake.
Your being foolish to think that a professional company that makes many
thousands of dollars retrieving data would jeopardize their rep, your being
extremely paranoid. too bad you weren't that way when it came to losing
data....

Still not a single piece of useful advice. Still top-posting
like you've been on the Internet since WebTV. Congratulations
on the upgrade.

 

[JAD]

I told you already but you refuse, you think your gonna get away paying
nothing for retrieving your porn pictures/movires. Get to a lab

Emergency Help - Multiple Solutions - 24/7
(800) 349-5812
(952) 937-5815 (fax)
(e-mail address removed)



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P V X Tech, L L C
Bloomington, MN 55425
(800) 844-7046



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Brian Seaton Systems
Brooklyn Park, MN 55443
(763) 561-0524



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Cybersytech
1075 Hudson Rd, Saint Paul, MN 55106
(651) 495-9232
(651) 495-9233 (fax)
(e-mail address removed)



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Digital Investigation Group
Minneapolis, MN 55401
(952) 920-8353


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Stavrou & Associates
Minneapolis, MN 55401
(952) 920-8353

 

[Eric Gisin]

*** TROLL ALERT ! ***

Ignore all the good advice and take the advice of biggest kook that replies.

On top of that, attack people based on their newsreader and posting style.

Don't expect any more advice from the people who know hard drives.

|
| Thanks, Hugo. Best advice so far. Or, at least, it didn't seem
| the standard help desk/kook system-fryer advice.
|
| I'm not concerned about paying somebody to repair it. I'm
| concerned about somebody copying data, which is why I want
| someone local in a lab that I can monitor. I have Ghost, etc.
| for the recovery once the drive is running again.
|
| The problem in Minneapolis is all the small repair shops seem to
| have disappeared and been replaced by a few large companies that
| do little more than wrap the drive up and send it away. I can
| do that for free and under waranty, so why pay for the same?
|
| It's a multi-head, multi-platter drive, so the data I want off
| of it is probably still undisturbed.
|

 

[kony]

Thanks, Hugo. Best advice so far. Or, at least, it didn't seem
the standard help desk/kook system-fryer advice.

I'm not concerned about paying somebody to repair it. I'm
concerned about somebody copying data, which is why I want
someone local in a lab that I can monitor. I have Ghost, etc.
for the recovery once the drive is running again.

The problem in Minneapolis is all the small repair shops seem to
have disappeared and been replaced by a few large companies that
do little more than wrap the drive up and send it away. I can
do that for free and under waranty, so why pay for the same?

It's a multi-head, multi-platter drive, so the data I want off
of it is probably still undisturbed.

You seem a bit uninformed about data recovery...

If it's really worth recovery, you should NOT be looking for "small
repair shops". That's about the best way possible to screw up the
drive so it's unrecoverable to anyone. Likewise it's a bad idea to
throw it in the freezer or build a fish-tank gizmo.

Contact a professional, first, who won't care what's on the drive and
can be trusted to handle your data. These professionals will likely
tell you to "go away" if you try to supervise them, you are not in a
position to make demands like "monitoring" their work.

THEY will copy off your data then you can dispose of the drive, since
WD will not, should not, take a drive back after it's been altered.
It's unfortunate that your drive failed but taking a handle like
"WDsux" is uncalled for... If you've been around for a while you know
that WD drives are quite reliable, with the exception of a series back
in '97. Of course it goes without saying what you should've done to
the data just in case you might encounter a drive failure...



Dave

 

[Zakalwe]

I love your definition of 'easy'... I would be happy to pay someone ~$600 to
go through that procedure. Think of the $600 as your karmic burden for not
backing up!

Z

 

[mg]

Hi Hugo,

I note you don't mention that the platter alignment needs to be
maintained. Modern drives have servo information that runs VERTICALLY
thru the platters. Destroy this alignment and you also make the drive
unusable.

Why wouldn't you just swap the head assembly and controller card? If
the platters are bad, what can you recover?

Mike G

 

[Al Dykes]

Thanks, Hugo. Best advice so far. Or, at least, it didn't seem
the standard help desk/kook system-fryer advice.

I'm not concerned about paying somebody to repair it. I'm
concerned about somebody copying data, which is why I want
someone local in a lab that I can monitor. I have Ghost, etc.
for the recovery once the drive is running again.

The companies that recover data routinely sign non-disclosure
and confidentiality agreeements.

One of my clients used Ontrack (www.ontrack.com) to recover
investor's data, after he forgot to put tapes in his server's
tape drive, for about a month.

 

[Rod Speed]

The companies that recover data routinely sign
non-disclosure and confidentiality agreeements.

But are unlikely to consider those if they find say child porn.

There's gotta be a reason its that paranoid...

 

[in1984]

But are unlikely to consider those if they find say child porn.

Admission that you/they look at what the recover. The person made it quite
clear that "it" didn't want them doing data recovery, so what would they be
doing looking at the data? The same thing you do outside 10-year old boys'
windows?

There's gotta be a reason its that paranoid...
Projection.
<http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2003081524623.gif

There's plenty of stuff I wouldn't want other people looking at, especially
peeping toms like you. None of it illegal. Just personal. I'm sure you have
some of the same. Like your home video of taking it up the anus from a
transvestite. For me, I like to write. And I do not want people reading my
stories before they're finished, especially if they have a hard time
distinguishing fiction and reality.

 

[in1984]

But are unlikely to consider those if they find say child porn.

Admission that you/they look at what the recover. The person made it quite
clear that "it" didn't want them doing data recovery, so what would they be
doing looking at the data? The same thing you do outside 10-year old boys'
windows?

There's gotta be a reason its that paranoid...
Projection.
<http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2003081524623.gif

There's plenty of stuff I wouldn't want other people looking at, especially
peeping toms like you. None of it illegal. Just personal. I'm sure you have
some of the same. Like your home video of taking it up the anus from a
transvestite. For me, I like to write. And I do not want people reading my
stories before they're finished, especially if they have a hard time
distinguishing fiction and reality.

 

[Rod Speed]

Admission that you/they look at what the recover.

They may not have any choice on that if they
are attempting to do the recovery properly.

The person made it quite clear that "it" didn't want them doing
data recovery, so what would they be doing looking at the data?

They may not have any choice on that if they
are attempting to do the recovery properly.

Reams of your peurile silly shit flushed where it belongs.

 

[in1984]

But are unlikely to consider those if they find say child porn.

Admission that you/they look at what the recover. The person made it quite
clear that "it" didn't want them doing data recovery, so what would they be
doing looking at the data? The same thing you do outside 10-year old boys'
windows?

There's gotta be a reason its that paranoid...
Projection.
<http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2003081524623.gif

There's plenty of stuff I wouldn't want other people looking at, especially
peeping toms like you. None of it illegal. Just personal. I'm sure you have
some of the same. Like your home video of taking it up the anus from a
transvestite. For me, I like to write. And I do not want people reading my
stories before they're finished, especially if they have a hard time
distinguishing fiction and reality.

 

[in1984]

They may not have any choice on that if they
are attempting to do the recovery properly.

All you/they would be doing is a repair, no recovery. To do that properly,
the drive just needs to be put in a computer to verify it no longer clicks and
gets properly recognized by bios.

Quit making pathetic excuses for your obvious desire to copy and stare at
other people's data. No one should trust you or your advice.

 

[Nick]

All you/they would be doing is a repair, no recovery. To do that properly,
the drive just needs to be put in a computer to verify it no longer clicks and
gets properly recognized by bios.

Quit making pathetic excuses for your obvious desire to copy and stare at
other people's data. No one should trust you or your advice.

Well, the drive might not be clicking in any way, but still there
might be some data corruption (bad ECC, cross entries and so on).
So before saying the job is done, a recovery company HAS to open
several random files to check if it's working. But they don't have
time to open each files and read all your private stories thoroughly.
2 or 3 .doc, the same for .xls, peeping at some jpg, looking for .avi
and .mpg if anys, and Voila, it's stamped ok.

Nick

 

[Rod Speed]

All you/they would be doing is a repair, no recovery.

Maybe you would care to explain anyone can be sure
that the repair has been effective if you dont even
check to see if the data can be read from the platters.

Yes, my comment should have used the word repair rather
than recovery. Here it is again with the correct word used.

They may not have any choice on that if they
are attempting to do the repair properly.

To do that properly, the drive just needs to
be put in a computer to verify it no longer
clicks and gets properly recognized by bios.

That aint necessarily repaired properly.
What matters is whether the data can be
retrieved from the platters successfully.

Quit making pathetic excuses for your obvious
desire to copy and stare at other people's data.
No one should trust you or your advice.

Even you should be able to bullshit your way out
of your predicament better than that pathetic effort.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Well, the drive might not be clicking in any way, but still there
might be some data corruption

(bad ECC,

That's clicking.

cross entries and so on).

Doesn't require opening files.

So before saying the job is done, a recovery company HAS to open
several random files to check if it's working.

Nope. Just doing a read to all sectors would be OK.

But they don't have time to open each files
and read all your private stories thoroughly.

Then they are not doing recovery, just a bad job.

2 or 3 .doc, the same for .xls, peeping at some jpg, looking
for .avi and .mpg if anys, and Voila, it's stamped ok.

Sounds like the people to avoid.

 

[in1984]

Well, the drive might not be clicking in any way, but still there
might be some data corruption (bad ECC, cross entries and so on).
So before saying the job is done, a recovery company HAS to open
several random files to check if it's working. But they don't have

Even if I were to buy that line of reasoning, that would give you an excuse to
check if a fat is readable or, if not, if a disk editor is capable of reading
anything from the drive. That gets you a quickie of the partition table and a
few sectors. Either way, peeping at files is unnecessary and suspicious.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I am working in a data recovery company.

So you keep saying ....

I can assure you that even
with a filesystem that looks ok, no clicking noise and the ability to
read all sector, you can be in a real shit to open some files.

Not hardware wise.

Best example : Klez. It leaves the filesystem ok, doesn't damage
the hard drive (it's just a virus), but zeros all the files.
So?

I'll rephrase that:
Then they are not doing recovery, they are doing a bad job.

Can you open 100 000 files and check them completly
to be sure that a bit didn't go wrong ? I you can, congrat.

Like I said, you don't have to, so it's academic.
If the tools say that the drive is in good order,
hardware and software wise, then that should be it.

Opening files is doing a job badly. It means that you
don't have a clue what to do and don't trust your tools.

 

[Nick]

Like I said, you don't have to, so it's academic.
If the tools say that the drive is in good order,
hardware and software wise, then that should be it.

Opening files is doing a job badly. It means that you
don't have a clue what to do and don't trust your tools.

Has I said before, a virus can leave the files system ok, so every
programs will say that the drive are in good order, software and
hardware wise.
Even if the content of each files have been garbled, making them
unsuable for any normal human being.
I do trust my tools, but I won't expect them to be that clever.


Every single one data recovery company in Europe does so. In the form
send to the customer, there is a list of files that has been open by
the company, to reassure the customer and let him be sure that's he is
working. Most of the time, the customer ASKS for specific files to be
open.

Nick

 

[Sambo]

Which doesn't require you to look at it.

Yes, you can do half a job and not check
that the files can be read properly.

Just running a surface scan should be sufficient.

Wrong. That just checks that the sector can be read without
error. Doesnt check that the file system hasnt got corrupted
in the process of the fault that needed to be repaired.

Of course they have a choice.

Even you should be able to do a more convincing
troll than that pathetic effort, trollchild.

It all depends on having some powerful recovery software that
can repair damaged sector contents if possible and relocate the
data to a new sector and update OS structures accordingly.

And the only real way to check how well thats been done is
to inspect the file contents and see if the files can be accessed
properly again, particularly that the app thats used for them
is happy with the repair thats been done on the file.

If that isn't possible the recovery software is to produce detailed
reports of what sectors are unrecoverable and in what files they are.
The drive can then be made usable by force-reallocating the bad sectors.

And the user may well prefer to have whats recoverable
from the file rather than just be told that the file was
affected by a bad sector and get nothing of the file back.

There is no need ever to personally look at files.

Wrong. As always.

And when there is, e.g. to puzzle together lost fragments, the
original user can do that far better than any recovery specialist.

Wrong. As always. Many users wouldnt be able to do that.
Many recovery specialists would be able to do a better job
of that than the worst of the end users, stupid.

Which only requires successful reads without error.

Wrong. As always. A real repair needs to check that
the file system has been repaired as well as possible
as well as just the basic sector level readability, cretin.