laptop hard drive died, i need the data

[astnfan]

I need to know if there is a place online that I can send my laptop to that is the best at extracting data from a dead hard drive in a laptop, or should I find someone who is closer to me?

 

[deathwalker]

Well...are you sure the HD is actually "DEAD" or that you just can't access the OS because of some other reason such as drive corruption? If the drive hasn't mechanically failed it still may be useable. Its not hard to come up with ways to retrieve the data if the drive has not had a mechanical failure....such as mounting it in a external drive and then slaving it into a work system. As far as professional data recovery goes...a little web search on Google or Hotbot could get you that info..and it wont be cheap so the data better be valueable.

 

[bacillus]

if the hdd is still seen by bios then suggest you try using the freezer trick.

 

[ssvegeta1010]

:thumbsup: for the freezer trick

 

[astnfan]

it is still in my laptop and I cannot figure out how to get it out

I dont think it would be wise to put the whole laptop in the freezer.

I am pretty sure the thing is dead becuase it makes this loud clicking noise

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: ssvegeta1010
:thumbsup: for the freezer trick

Yeah, but the swimming pool trick works much better.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: astnfan
I need to know if there is a place online that I can send my laptop to that is the best at extracting data from a dead hard drive in a laptop, or should I find someone who is closer to me?

It's not cheap to have done, but here are the people who do it.


http://www.cbltech.com/

 

[Googer]

I would recomend you try Spin Rite 6 first, It has been know to recover data from failing hard drives that were believed to be inoperable. I will let you know that it is a very slow process when running spin rite and may take a day or so to complete; but there is no better tool than it.
http://www.grc.com/intro.htm

 

[biostud]

ibas

it costs a lot though

 

[Gunbuster]

http://www.ontrack.com/ the are fast and have never let us down.

Downside: it will cost you about $2000

 

[imported_Mitchell]

Not worth it unless it's your entire business's financial records, life savings information and the like. It's a bloddy fortune to retrieve data, requires clean rooms, dismanteling of the HD and removal of the platters to a special device, etc.

You should of backed up

 

[toleraen]

If you have access two another computer, I would recommend downloading Knoppix, and booting that. If it sees the HDD, you can use a windows share to transfer the files over to. Use smb://ipaddress/foldername on the laptop running Knoppix, ip address being the other computer, and the foldername being the name of the shared folder.

Another option would be to buy an external laptop hard drive enclousure, pop out your laptop hard drive, try putting that in the enclousure, and use another computer to try to pull the data off from.

If both of those aren't options, give the freezer trick a try. take the hard drive out first though, leave it in for an hour or so. try putting it back in the lappy.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

if its clicking, try the freezer trick. just figurre out how to get it out.

 

[astnfan]

how long do i need to keep it in there?