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Can anyone recommend a company to retrieve data off of a dead laptop hard drive? I see plenty out there, but was hoping for a personal recommendation.

Backup on my external hard drive is corrupt, so I am double focked, unless I can get my data off of the laptop HD.

GetDataBack located here: http://www.runtime.org/

D/L the trial and test it 1st. See if its able to do anything. If so, let me or Danny know and we can get you a fully functional eval..

i went thru the same HD hassle over a year ago with my accounting computer + external drive, on seperate power bars, lightning hit the building and smoked all the printers, monitors, 3 harddrives, a computer, CC mahcines, a/c units board, and some other small junk. I run invertors to isolate my machines, didnt hurt a 1, it was on a saturday too, so nothing was under load either. but i chased spending 600+ to get my hd's recovered. should have got that in pennys and made a new ground rod instead, not 1 file recovered

Stop!!!

Do this first. Then go to GetDataBack.

http://grc.com/spinrite

Money back guarantee. He will stand behind it.

Have had a copy for years. Has worked many a miracle for me. Any time I have a hard drive even hiccup, it gets the spinrite treatment.

OK, I'm ready to try both software pieces, but this is going to sound elementary, but how do I connect the laptop with the bad hard drive to the laptop that is new?

Exnav wrote:OK, I'm ready to try both software pieces, but this is going to sound elementary, but how do I connect the laptop with the bad hard drive to the laptop that is new?

Depending on the interface. If the old one is SATA, you can connect it to any desktop running SATA and install the s/w there and run it. Alternatively, you can purchase an adapter which will convert either IDE/SATA to USB, then connect it externally.

Ok, hang on.
Is it the hard disk that is dead? Or is it the entire laptop?

It could be as simple as getting an external drive enclosure for the drive.

If it is the drive that is dead and not the laptop it is in, boot with the spinrite cd and go. No connection needed.

MojoScojo wrote:Ok, hang on.
Is it the hard disk that is dead? Or is it the entire laptop?

It could be as simple as getting an external drive enclosure for the drive.

If it is the drive that is dead and not the laptop it is in, boot with the spinrite cd and go. No connection needed.

Gotcha MJ, the HD is dead on old laptop. It's been to a local shop for recovery already and they cannot do anything with it. They recommended sending to a clean room recovery place $$$$ or trying the freeze method. I don't trust this local shop at all. I guess I am going to try buying the Spinrite and burning a bootable CD to run on the old laptop.

Exnav wrote:

MojoScojo wrote:Ok, hang on.
Is it the hard disk that is dead? Or is it the entire laptop?

It could be as simple as getting an external drive enclosure for the drive.

If it is the drive that is dead and not the laptop it is in, boot with the spinrite cd and go. No connection needed.

Gotcha MJ, the HD is dead on old laptop. It's been to a local shop for recovery already and they cannot do anything with it. They recommended sending to a clean room recovery place $$$$ or trying the freeze method. I don't trust this local shop at all. I guess I am going to try buying the Spinrite and burning a bootable CD to run on the old laptop.

Yeah you can try that bootable CD method 1st...worth a shot! I just have access to external drive converters and other PC's to plug into...

Good Luck!!

I've tried everytheing and GTB worked the best, got my old work to buy it. shoot me a PM iuf you want a license.
Normally in that situation I used a mini IDE adater and slaved the drive in a spare desktop. You also need a destination drive to recover the data to, so a boot cd won't work unless you can also connect a spare usb hd as your destination. I would honestly pickup the $10 adapter.

this is what I'm talking about.
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?c ... &sku=17705

I did get Spinrite to fire up, but it does not see the HD that has my info on it. I'm out of ideas.

Thanks for the help guys.

dannygraves wrote:I've tried everytheing and GTB worked the best, got my old work to buy it. shoot me a PM iuf you want a license.
Normally in that situation I used a mini IDE adater and slaved the drive in a spare desktop. You also need a destination drive to recover the data to, so a boot cd won't work unless you can also connect a spare usb hd as your destination. I would honestly pickup the $10 adapter.

GTB?

Exnav wrote:I did get Spinrite to fire up, but it does not see the HD that has my info on it. I'm out of ideas.

Thanks for the help guys.

Can you hear the drive spin up when you turn the computer on? Does it show up in the BIOS setup?

gdb, sorry

if it doesn't show in the bios, you are SOL

dannygraves wrote:if it doesn't show in the bios, you are SOL

Pretty much.

If that is the case, return SpinRite and get your money back.

Danny, Hoof, GetDataBack is awesome for software related screwups. Spinrite rocks for hardware issues. Both are in my toolbox. I Spinrite first to assure hardware is not gonna f it up further, then go for recovery. It is an amazingly effective product.

It initially showed up in the Bios before it went to the shop. I guess it completely fragged because it's not there now.

Re-seat it, or move it to new laptop if it is compatible.

depends on why the laptop died, but you can her a laptop external HDD case, and just plug the drive into another computer and copy the files.

piece of cake, and its CHEAP

MojoScojo wrote:

dannygraves wrote:if it doesn't show in the bios, you are SOL

Pretty much.

If that is the case, return SpinRite and get your money back.

Danny, Hoof, GetDataBack is awesome for software related screwups. Spinrite rocks for hardware issues. Both are in my toolbox. I Spinrite first to assure hardware is not gonna f it up further, then go for recovery. It is an amazingly effective product.

Weird hearing about Spinrite....I browsed the site and it took me way back to the old MFM/RLL days!! That was about the time I used Spinrite frequently...then hard drives got more reliable...albeit not 100% and it was more user error than anything else...whats the acronym...PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair)...lol

yep. then there's PICNIC - Problem In Chair, Not In Computer

OMG MFM! I had a badass MFM in was 80mb and was 2 drive 5 1/4 drive bays tall
On the A+ cert exam they still have MFM Qs

mfm q's on the a+ were dumb as all getout.. who in their right mind would even want to repair a mfm drive now!!! COME ONNNNNNNNNNN

ISBB wrote:mfm q's on the a+ were dumb as all getout.. who in their right mind would even want to repair a mfm drive now!!! COME ONNNNNNNNNNN

Yeah that needs to be updated.... That was when I first started! Oh wait - I worked on 8088's also...with no hard drives!

U know they used the sounds from the old MFM hard drives as sound effects in some sci-fi movies? I used to trip when they did that...