[NLRS] OT: Hard Drive recovery?

[Zack Widup]

Hi Bruce,

Sometimes it is just the data in the boot sector that gets corrupted and the
rest of the hard drive is OK.

You can buy a USB-to-hard drive adaptor at many places for around $25 to
$50. I got one at Tiger Direct. I believe this is the unit I have, made by
Sabrent:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2329300&Sku=M501-1220

I have numerous times had a computer fail to boot, I pulled the hard drive
and hooked it up to this device and plugged it into another computer's USB
port. I was then able to back up all the important data from the hard drive,
then try to fix up the old hard drive's boot sector. Sometimes it was
necessary to remove the partitions(s) and start over with a fresh Windows
install. The worst part of this is you have to reinstall all the programs
you had on it before.

I have had several instances where a computer automatically downloaded
Windows updates via a weak wireless connection and some of the update files
got currupted. This caused problems like the one you describe. Sometimes I
was able to replace the corrupt files on the hard drive via the other
computer using the USB hard drive adaptor.

These devices are so inexpensive they rapidly pay for themselves. If the
hard drive IS toast, you won't damage it further by trying this fix. If the
Sabrent unit cannot read the hard drive, it's probably gone.

73, Zack W9SZ

On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 5:44 PM, Bruce Richardson <w9fz at w9fz.com> wrote:

>
>
> Say, my sister has a dell laptop in which the HD won't boot. She
> went to Best Buy and their Geek Squad sent it (the HD) to their
> regional data recovery center in Louisville (with a clean room).
> They gave a quote of $1600 to recover the data off of it.
> That is beyond reasonable for her.
>
> Have any you been down this road and found anyplace that recovered
> your data with a price closer to what you thought reasonable??  I
> know, there are varying levels of damage requiring varying levels
> of response.
>
> My expectation was in the $400-$600 range.  What have your
> experiences been if you had to submit to professional data
> recovery?
>
> Thanks,
> Bruce Richardson W9FZ
>
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