Data recovery

[Max Morrison]

Anyone have experience with data recovery outfits?  A friend's 12"  
iBook HD got twisted and of course he's never done a backup.  
Appreciate any comments.


max
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[Eric Johansen-2]

On Dec 5, 2007, at 3:12 PM, Max Morrison wrote:

> Anyone have experience with data recovery outfits?  A friend's 12"  
> iBook HD got twisted and of course he's never done a backup.  
> Appreciate any comments.

I've had a little experience w/DriveSavers re. their success or lack  
thereof.  I have recommended a few clients to them, but they  
generally declined on the recovery once they were given a firm price.

Sadly, one former client ok'd the job, then stiffed them on the bill.  
They went out of business, and last I heard, reopened at a new  
location with a new name. No... they aren't my client anymore.

DriveSavers is expensive, but that's the ONLY negative I've heard  
about them.  My recollection is that they'll do a free evaluation and  
only charge if the customer chooses for them to go ahead on the  
recovery.

Their reputation is excellent.  Good luck.




Eric Johansen
Off Key
Arcadia, CA 91006
[phone]    [phone](fax)
email:  ejohansen@...  or   ericjohansen01@...   or    
ericjohansen@....
web:  www.offkey.com
4D Solutions Partner --- Apple ACN - Certified ACHDS (10.3) ---    
Filemaker Solutions Alliance


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[Chuck Miller-2]

First thing I would try is drive genius from Prosoft engineering.  
That is what drive savers uses first.
Regards

Chuck

On Dec 5, 2007, at 6:12 PM, Max Morrison wrote:

> Anyone have experience with data recovery outfits?  A friend's 12"  
> iBook HD got twisted and of course he's never done a backup.  
> Appreciate any comments.
>
>
> max
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[Charles Albrecht]

On Dec 5, 2007, at 3:12 PM, Max Morrison wrote:

> Anyone have experience with data recovery outfits?  A friend's 12"  
> iBook HD got twisted and of course he's never done a backup.  
> Appreciate any comments.

For my personal drive, I went with a local outfit that spent a long  
time on my drive only to give me an extract with 21,000 "unknown"  
files grouped by file type "Unknown016363.jpg" - useful in my case,  
because it was images I was interested in - but any document type  
they didn't recognize (beyond, say, jpg/bmp/tif/pdf/doc/ppt/avi/mp3/
rtf/wav/xls) didn't come out in the process. So, notably, no email,  
text or html files came through the process, nor did any compressed  
archives.

Were I to do it again, I would try the free ddrescue utility (http://
www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html) on the drive first  
before weighing a $2400 cost against a 10% recovery.

If dealing with a data recovery company, I would ask to see a sample  
of the typical report they might give you after the initial analysis  
when you consider whether the recovery has been sufficient to warrant  
the full cost of recovery. In my case, it consisted of the Resources  
from the iTunes app bundle and 8 gb of Unknown files with file sizes  
and no directory hierarchy. Given the staggering number of unknown  
files, I'd have liked to see some aspect of the embedded metadata  
from those files in the report (exif tags and the like). Also, given  
that it's an iBook, I'd be sure to ask them whether they have  
experience with HFS-Extended filesystems.

But seriously, the next time I start to get IO errors on a failing  
drive, I'll create an image with ddrescue myself and sift through  
what I extract at my leisure. In the meantime, I'm getting a little  
more religion about backups.

That's my 2 cents,

-C


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[Max Morrison]

Erik, Chuck, Charles...

Thanks again a lot for the feedback.


max
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[Justin Leavens]

On Dec 5, 2007 3:12 PM, Max Morrison <maxxie@...> wrote:
> Anyone have experience with data recovery outfits?  A friend's 12"
> iBook HD got twisted and of course he's never done a backup.
> Appreciate any comments.

If the drive is making an audible noise (click, squeal, etc), send it
to DriveSavers. Recovered client's data as well as my wife's laptop
drive.

The question is, of course, what is the data worth.
--
Justin Leavens, Just In Time Consulting
justin@...
[phone] phone / [phone] fax
4822 Norwich Ave, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
4D Consulting, Apple Consultants Network Certified Member, Reseller of
AcctVantage and JobOrder
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[Max Morrison]

On Dec 7, 2007, at 8:45 PM, Justin Leavens wrote:

> On Dec 5, 2007 3:12 PM, Max Morrison <maxxie@...> wrote:
>> Anyone have experience with data recovery outfits?  A friend's 12"
>> iBook HD got twisted and of course he's never done a backup.
>> Appreciate any comments.
>
> If the drive is making an audible noise (click, squeal, etc), send it
> to DriveSavers. Recovered client's data as well as my wife's laptop
> drive.
>
> The question is, of course, what is the data worth.
> --

Thanks, Justin.



max
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