Lost DataThe

[cruiser2]

The hard drive on my computer has failed Am having a new one fitted on Monday.
Did a back up onto an external hard drive but the info did not transfer.
Have been given details of a company which may be able to recover them.
Any body had this problem and did you manage to recover the lost information.

[Suff]

Hi Cruiser,

How did it fail? If it failed completely then you are talking about a specialised company which will disassemble the drive. If, on the other hand, it is partially failed, then it might be possible to get the data back.

Essentially you are talking hundreds of £ if they have to disassemble the drive because data matching on the platters is time consuming.

There are programs which will recover the drive if you put it in a USB caddy or external HDD dock. But it depends as to whether the drive is "seen" by the OS or invisible.

[cruiser2]

Suff,
I use a local computer shop when i have problems. He said the hard drive is broken. He will try to recover the information before fitting a new hard drive.
he has given me details of a company he has used which may be able to recover the info. I know it will cost. But it includes photos and videos as well as emails and documents I have typed and saved.
He said the equipment to do th is can cost about fifty thousand pounds which is why he has not got one.
Will let you know what happens

[Suff]

Hi Cruiser,

If he says he's going to try and recover the data, then it's likely that the drive is still visible but physically damaged. In that case, with decent diagnostics, it is possible to recover most of the data on the drive so long as it is not the boot drive. Adding it as an extra drive will allow diagnostic programs to read it and try to recover the data.

Physical damage is always a risk in laptops. One of the reasons Mrs S has a SSD and why my more portable offerings are also solid state. With a SSD, you'll damage the physical case before you damage the drive if you drop it or throw it down. Mrs S is in the habit of just chucking her Laptop around with the machine on. Hence the SSD.

[cruiser2]

Suff,
JUst to let you know that I now have all the data which was lost. So now have two external hard drives with the data on as well as my laptop.
An expensive exercise. Have had very good service including several phone calls to talk me through what I should do.
So hopefully I now have belt and braces if anything else goes wrong

[Suff]

Suff,
JUst to let you know that I now have all the data which was lost. So now have two external hard drives with the data on as well as my laptop.
An expensive exercise. Have had very good service including several phone calls to talk me through what I should do.
So hopefully I now have belt and braces if anything else goes wrong

Brilliant. It is expensive because it is very time consuming and so they price to what they believe you are willing to pay.

I have 3 copies of most data on 3 very different systems. Then I have a 5TB external hard drive with a 4th copy for insurance. It doesn't always work, but it is better than I used to have. Really large drives have made things much better and faster.

Glad you got it sorted.