Hard drive data retrieval on the cheap?

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

A couple months ago my computer crashed, and the local computer repair shop couldn't get any of the data out of the HD. They referred me to a company called Sea Gate, but just to get a few (yet unreplaceable) pics and text docs out, they quoted me $1,800.

Yeah, no.

Anyone know of a place that'd do it significantly cheaper?

[Randetica]

wow that sucks

the crash wasnt big enough to delete me out of your system though, should try harder next time

[faz]

I recent had a big hard drive crash. Windows wouldnt boot past the flag screen and it wasnt even noticed as a usb drive on any other windows pc. I managed to get all the files off the drive by using a version of linux called "Knoppix". Its boots and runs off the cd so it doesn't need to install anything. Just insert it before your pc boots up and it should boot to the cd.

It was able to instantly see the drive that was connected and I was able to copy all the files to a second hard drive. I'm not sure this will help you as I'm pretty sure I dont know more than a computer repair store but if you have the time and a free cd then its worth trying.

You can download the cd image files here (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html)

[silence7]

MiniPE is a bootable CDrom that has some data recovery tools on it. Totally illegal, yet totally free on the net.. Surprise, surprise.

You'll have to download, burn (usually comes as an ISO (disk image)) it onto a cd and then boot to it.

You can download the torrent. here http://btjunkie.org/search?q=minipe

This is an almost indispensable tool when dealing with computer issues as far as I'm concerned.

You can see a list of the included tools here.
http://www.devilived.com/2007/01/03/minipe_xt_v2k5.09.03_by_digiwiz.html

Good Luck,

Silence7

[tpk]

you should be able to find places that are cheaper with retrievin data than the seagate price you got. the actual process of retrievin data usually doesn't come close to compensate for the price they're charging. it's more that the price is high cause they know anyone that is that desperate to retrieve data from a crashed hd might be able to pay whatever to get the job done.

with that being said i have no idea where you might want to look except for like google. seagate is a hd manufacturer so maybe try with other manufacturers such as hitachi or samsung. though if your hd is a seagate which it probably is i doubt other manufacturers will be willing to help you.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

you should be able to find places that are cheaper with retrievin data than the seagate price you got. the actual process of retrievin data usually doesn't come close to compensate for the price they're charging. it's more that the price is high cause they know anyone that is that desperate to retrieve data from a crashed hd might be able to pay whatever to get the job done.

with that being said i have no idea where you might want to look except for like google. seagate is a hd manufacturer so maybe try with other manufacturers such as hitachi or samsung. though if your hd is a seagate which it probably is i doubt other manufacturers will be willing to help you.

I'm on it (y)