Q. I have a non-responding CF with some important academic docs and pictures. Local IT guys and one data recovery firm were helpless while another firm claims to be able to recover for $900. I am wondering if I should take the chances. Of course I know it depends if I value my data as much as to pay $900. While I can not price the data, the cost does seem to be pretty high....
A. Your chances depend on why your CF has failed, data may be recovered by completely dismantling the card and read data directly from the memory IC's, in which case $900 is about right, but even then it's not guaranteed
How easy is it to have a hard drive repaired without formatitng it?
Q. I have an external hard drive that all of a sudden will not show up on the computer, it never got banged around or anything. I have alot of files on there that I really want, but I see that most data recovery services cost around $500 to get your stuff off.
I'm wondering if theres a way to have the hard drive fixed by a computer shop of some sort, or if that would even be cheaper?
I'm just looking for a positive answer here haha.
thanks.
I'm wondering if theres a way to have the hard drive fixed by a computer shop of some sort, or if that would even be cheaper?
I'm just looking for a positive answer here haha.
thanks.
A. Did you try it on another PC? Maybe it is not the drive that has the problem but maybe your USB ports or something on your PC has a problem.
Should I reformat a hard drive before using a data recovery program?
Q. My old hard drive is corrupted and I want to salvage the files on it using a data recovery program I've downloaded. However getting the program to read it is difficult. Do I need to reformat the hard drive? When I go to reformat it says this will erase all data on the disk, but according to other websites I've read it should be fine and I should still be able to salvage files. Which is correct?
A. If you do a full format, all the data on the disk will be overwritten with the formatting data - and you will lose the data you want to retrieve.
There is a type of formatting called "quick format" but that erases all the folder data, and that means you will have even more problems finding the data you want.
You say getting the program to read it is difficult. If the hard drive is failing, then you will have enormous problems getting any program to work right.
If the only problem is corrupted folder structures, then a quick format *might* work to erase all of the corrupted data, leaving the other data. Then your data recovery program would have to scan the entire hard drive.
I use the free Recuva program from Piriform to recover data, but I don't know how it would work in your situation. Recuva has the ability to scan all the hard drive sectors, it is an option. If you can get it to work, you will need another drive to have a place to copy the selected data.
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
Wikipedia article about Recuva:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuva
There are programs available that will read the data directly off the sectors of the hard drive and present it in hexadecimal format, but that doesn't mean you can make enough sense out of the data to be able to recover it. The better programs also cost money.
Monday, March 8, 2010
There is a type of formatting called "quick format" but that erases all the folder data, and that means you will have even more problems finding the data you want.
You say getting the program to read it is difficult. If the hard drive is failing, then you will have enormous problems getting any program to work right.
If the only problem is corrupted folder structures, then a quick format *might* work to erase all of the corrupted data, leaving the other data. Then your data recovery program would have to scan the entire hard drive.
I use the free Recuva program from Piriform to recover data, but I don't know how it would work in your situation. Recuva has the ability to scan all the hard drive sectors, it is an option. If you can get it to work, you will need another drive to have a place to copy the selected data.
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
Wikipedia article about Recuva:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuva
There are programs available that will read the data directly off the sectors of the hard drive and present it in hexadecimal format, but that doesn't mean you can make enough sense out of the data to be able to recover it. The better programs also cost money.
Monday, March 8, 2010
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