FUCKED HDD Under Warranty, 3-7K to recover data, to Replace or Not to Replace?
 

So one of my storage drives just went out the window (Clicking of death) and the BIOS won't even detect it much less the OS. The drive is 60% full and still under warranty (Seagate) ... so I call them up and they say that they can replace the drive and recover my data... and here is the kicker, I ask them if the recovery is going to be covered by the warranty and they say... well no.... it will cost you between 3k to 7K to recover your data.

3K to 7K? Thats a freaking ransom! ... thanks G-d I didn't have anything I need to run my biz in there .. my week is fucked after having lost that data but still nothing that will make me go out of biz ...

Here is the deal... I do have some Tax files, ID and CC scans in that HDD so under those circumstances would u send that drive for "replacement" knowing that someone could bring that drive back to life and steal some important info?

I am leaning towards giving it a proper burial ... that way it can salt & burn its remains and exorcise the sucker if it comes back to haunt me ..or I'd use a "calibration tool" like this guy did in this video:



...lol kidding...

But seriously would u send it to the company for replacement? How much do u trust these hdd manufacturers?

Why don't you just do something to make the data unrecoverable and hope it doesn't void the warranty and send it back and see what happens

PS: Put it in the freezer for a day and a half.. then hook it up.. some times you can pull data off of it by doing that. But it's a one shot deal. After that one time it'll never work again.

do "something" to it without voiding the warranty? mm lemme see... I can't unscrew the HDD cause there is a well placed sticker that would rip if I decide to do so... effectively voiding the warranty... and I can't access the drive at all cause not even BIOS will detect it...

any ideas? I already freezed the sucker for a couple of hours to try to make it work .. I guess I could leave it overnight there but I don't think that'll bust the drive...

Consider how much your data is worth, and the risk of it getting into someone elses hands, versus destroying it and buying a new hard drive.

Now, after you've considered how much your data is worth, figure out a backup strategy so you don't have this situation again... your data is worth it, right? :D

Hard drives are mechanical devices that are made to fine, but not perfect, tolerances. They WILL fail, it's just a question of WHEN.

In your case I don't think I'd risk it. Consider it a writeoff and destroy the drive. Seagate replace RMAs with refurbished drives anyway, which are a pile of crap.

Yeap..... u made perfect sense ... having my id/cc/tax info stolen would be a much bigger problem in itself ... I remember back when I worked at a bank.... I am not a crazy sob but "if I were" I could have wreaked havoc with all those SSN at my disposal.. of course I would have gotten in serious trouble with the FEDs but bank clerks are way underpaid which might be the case with some of the clerks working at these HDD manufacturers who I think would sell my info for a lot less than I would even imagine ....

Time to set my storage to RAID 1

I think most of them they don't even bother checking the fuckin' things... You definitely can't disassemble it.... how about a magnet?

To me $100 bucks for a new 1.5 TB drive is better then risking personal data getting into the wrong hands. Who knows what they do with it as far as disposal once you send the drive in. BTW 3-7k for data recovery is fucking ransom.

Hard drives are extremely cheap these days so it shouldn't be big deal buying a new one. But I wouldn't worry too much about sending it in, if a hard drive has been used for a long time I doubt they'd fix it and send it out (refurb). Most of the refurbished drives they send out probably have only been slightly used.

They also run a low level format normal users can't do. Yes there's tools that say low level format but it's not the same thing. You could also run some tools yourself to overwrite all the data, although anything is recoverable by the right person. But after writing over the drive for a day or two and the formatting seagate will do, it would be extremely hard for anyone to get the data off there. Most people looking for info to steal off old drives go for drives that are easy to recover data from. Most of them would not have the tools to even try to recover data from a HDD in that condition.

I hear ya.. I'll go and buy me 2 1.5 TB HDDs for RAID 1 sexiness ... but as far as the "data recovery costs" ... I was willing to pay maybe 3-700 bucks but 3-7K? ... I almost told the guy to go fuck himself but then again.. he didn't set the price.. he was just a cust serv clerk...

Freezer method likely won't work, since the problem is likely the actuator arm unable to seek as opposed to being stuck.

Two DIY things to try:

1. Try making setting it to "slave"; if still no good, try hooking it up to another computer.

2. Since the problem is likely a seek issue, the data can likely be recovered using low-level data recovery software without opening the drive.

With all that said, assuming none of the data is illegal nor trade secrets, shop prices at the various data recovery places - OnTrack had a good reputation, but not sure how good they are now or even who owns them.

Seagate may be the best choice, nevertheless, since they built the drive and presumably recover lots of them.

SS numbers, tax records, CC numbers (ie. via credit reports), etc are not secrets ... much of what many people think is so sensitive isn't. I wouldn't sweat it ... if the data is worth 10K+ to you in time / hassle to get back, then $3K or whatever for data recovery is a no brainer to get back to business fast.

Ron

Every serious recovery company charges that much. It's not like they just hook it up to any old PC to recover the data. If you want to see why it cost so much check out how it's done (google).

There is a ghetto way of getting your data back though. You can buy the same HDD and switch the disks inside with the disks in the old drive. It's a lot harder than it sounds and doesn't always work. If you want to try it just search google for the details.

you should be able to find local (I see you in LA) that will be around the 1K range on a single drive and no RAID.

I can dig up a couple of places let me know

I'll never buy Seagate again. I have suspicions that their own employees rate and review their products on review sites.

i just had my data recovered from a damaged hard drive - cost me about $1000 - dude who did it did the exact same shit one of those high priced companies would have done.

http://www.micradatarecovery.com/


Try these guys for $650 or $350

Awesome! thanks dude... I'll give this one a go :thumbsup

Well said, can't agree more

Click of death probably means it can't find the marker data on the platters, which would suggest something like a broken connection, or fried analog electronics... not something that can be fixed without surgery. :2 cents:

Threads like that always motivate me to make backups

"3-7K to recover data"

they are asking too much, had similar experience in our country

first service asked for 1.5k usd and they told me they were able only to recover 30 percent of datas. it took them two weeks just to make simply statement about further solution.
second service asked for 700usd and they recovered 98 percent. it lasted one day to make statement about futher solution.

I'm having the same problem .. on Monday my HDD stopped working and they told me they can't recover the data damn .. today I'm wating my new HDDs - 2x 1TB RAID 1 ..

Good luck bud ..

why dont people use backups? seriously? you base your company on data you dont even want to spend money securing?

If you cant afford a real backup solution, at least get something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817332013

that is too much

RAID will keep you chugging along if a drive fails, but it's not a backup solution.

If a virus payload triggers and wipes out a few hundred sectors then both the drives in your array will be FUBAR.

I take that back, well part of it. There sure is a lot of ghetto ass companies now hooking HDDs up to old PCs running fucking windows to recover data(bad idea). With ghetto ass clean rooms, what a fucking joke. Shit I should open up one of these companies, I can do just as good as most of these clowns are and charge around 1k a pop.