Gillware, data recovery company failed. Is there still hope?

[Skribblez]

My host just recently sent the hard drive with my sites to a data recovery company called Gillware. Website is http://www.gillware.com - but they failed and gave the following reason:



Unfortunately, your file system was so severely damaged that no data can be
recovered. We will make arrangements to return your drive via UPS. Sorry
we could not help you further.

Gillware Inc.

Do you guys think there's still hope?


The hard drive is now being shipped to a more well known company, Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com and I'm guessing that this is the last hope, because the more the drive gets tampered with, the more chance of permanent data loss.


So yeah.. I was just wondering what you think? If the file system is so severely damaged, do you think it STILL can be recovered?


Really anxious here. Would really appreciate any input.

Thanks in advance :)

[romes]

Who knows man. Theres probally no chance to get your info back, but one last try couldnt hurt. Never know, a miracle could happen.

[James]

Hi neil, hope you're well..

Sorry about what happened but I think chances are extremely slim to none, even if this company is able to recover a fraction of data, it's again most likely most useless.

I think you have to be prepared for the worst.

[Calinax]

Nothing goes for a try but still, minimal chances of recovered data.

[serverorigin]

/shrug

We have used OnTrack on 2 different occasions and they were successful. Not cheap though...We paid close to $2500 per recovery.

Of course..From what I have always heard they almost guarantee a 99% chance of recovery and they are very helpful and fast. We had each recovery done over the course of 3 days and these were full drive recoveries. Including all encrypted data.

[Skribblez]

How bad was your case?

[almightyrecht]

There is an Ontrack (www.ontrack.com) office in Brisbane as well as other locations worldwide.

Give them a call:

Toll Free: 800 872 259
Phone: +61 7 3255 1199

They should be able to help you out.

Recht

[serverorigin]

I don't understand as to how bad was my case? The boot sectors were screwd, the hard drive was knocking and reporting CRC errors -- even when it did boot.

Take in mind...This was after we tried the freezer trick (which has worked in the past). Also tried slapping it on the table to reset the arm, which did get it to working enough to boot almost completely in but stuck again.

I think our total bill on this particular drive was close to $2600

Is your drive hung? It is possible they can take the platter out and replace the disk case/chassis. Otherwise, if it is data corruption....whole different scenario.

I have seen someone take a drive that won't spin up and hook it to a car battery... You would not believe the RPMs!! But if you take it and stick it in a computer and hook the power up quickly enough before the drive spins down, you're golden! Course...this is dangerous, stupid, and definitely last resort.

[BurstnetPR]

Just curious if your data was ever recovered, and if so, by which company? Hope things worked out well.

[amfam]

I've had nothing but great experiences w/ gillware, even though as you guys mentioned they cost like half of what ontrack charged us. I work in IT in wisconsin and my last 2 companies used them exclusively. The one time I've personally seen them fail I pretty much knew that there was no hope before we even sent it. I had tried some software options through a usb cable and the maxtor drive was making horrific grinding noises. I wasn't surprised by the call when the tech said all the data had been stracthed off the platters. To their credit they didn't charge us for their time.

hope it turned out ok for yah. backup is a must these days. you should look into carbonite or mozy.

[jattsingh]

I sent a hard drive to gillware, and they were also unable to retrieve the data. A friend of mine said his company sends everything to ontrack. I sent it to them and they were able to recover 60% of the data. They said that if I hadn't sent it to gillware first I may have gotten more data back. It can be around $200-500 more, but I would recommend doing it right the first time.