K
kraaker
My wife's hard drive died over a month ago and she had crucial
information on it that wasn't backed-up properly (I know I know...) As
the lost of the data is not an option I looked into specialized data
recovery services to recover the data. After much deliberation, I
decided to go with a local company (I'm in Canada) as I prefered to
drop off the drive rather then ship it.
I feel I've been given the run-around and you can see below the latest
email I've received from them after I expressed my concerns. They have
already changed the heads but still haven't seemed to fix the problem.
I'm thinking of taking the drive back (in parts) and seeking help from
a more established data recovery experts but I'm afraid the drive will
be damaged beyond repair once I get it back and I'm sure another
recovery company will charge me a fortune if they can even recover the
data. Appreciate any advice you can provide Thanks!
Kraak
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Hello *****,
It's very difficult for us to explain anything to clients, as people
who are not in this business do not always know what may happen to the
hard drive and how difficult the process is. I will take my time now
and will try to explain and hopefully that will make things clear for
you.
I have no intention to mislead or misinform my clients. What we do is
critical not just for our clients, but for us as well. It's our
reputation and so far I had no single negative feedback from a single
client since the company was founded. When we get customer's data and
people tell us that they've got several years of pictures of their kids
- we take that personal and put ourselves in client's shoes. Data
recovery is a very complicated field and sometimes we go through a
nightmare to get the data even if it costs us more than we quote the
clients.
I have initially quoted you $1,2K including taxes. I however did not
mention about possible charge for parts. It was my honest mistake and I
bought parts at no additional cost to you. For the same work I would
charge clients a fee of way over $2500.
Anyways, here is the history (email extracts) of my updates:
1) Aug 18th
I kept my word and purchased parts for your drive without charging you
a week ago; however this drive needs more parts in order to do any
further recovery.
--- Parts were purchased. Right before shipping the drive to us, I was
told that some of the numbers were not matching, so I had to cancel the
order. I never buy parts that are approximate match as that can kill
the drive. I take my time and source the exact 100% match. Yes, it
takes longer, but that way I am more confident that what I do is
correct.
2) Aug 23rd
Just an update. I finally managed to find a donor drive. I'm buying two
of them just in case one wouldn't be fully compatible.
--- Yes, at this point I finally found the donor drive. Requested two,
just in case.
3) Aug 30th
We finally got the drive today. Took so long...
I'll be able to start working on it only on Friday, so I will let you
know the status as soon as I have any news.
--- Both drives arrived. One is a 100% match, the other one wasn't. So,
it was sent back. I ended up with one donor drive only.
4) Sept 1st
Everything looks fine; however the drive is still very slow. I have a
feeling that there is a thermal issue (cause of overheating) and the
disk platters are slowly loosing their magnetic properties.
--- Did a head replacement. Drive started to read well. After about
2-2.5 million sectors it started to slow down and started clicking
sometimes. That could be a thermal issue. As you can see from my email,
I said - "I have a feeling", meaning that I wasn't 100% sure. Serge, no
matter how experienced a person is, nobody lives inside of the hard
drive and nobody knows what exactly is happening there. All we can do
is _guess_ using our knowledge and experience. Thermal issue is a
number one cause of any hard drive failure, so by me stating that is
quite normal.
5) Sep 12th
No update yet. Got a donor drive, managed to read just a couple of
sectors and drive started to click again. We're trying to source
another parts drive. Will keep you updated.
---- I was still referring to the donor drive I mentioned on Sept 1st.
And as I said, the drive started clicking. I turned it off. Today
turned it on again and it started clicking on me, so I turned it off
and started looking for another donor drive. At that point, I sent you
an update email.
------------------------------------------
*****, as you can see, lots of things were going on and that is hidden
to clients. I can't afford to provide each client with such a
detailed feedback. I guess, there is not need either. It will make
people confused and angry, and we'll have to spend more time
explaining "why" and "who" than doing the actual work. I hope
you agree with me on that one.
Hard drive is a combination of electronics and mechanics. It fails. You
get the drive running, and the second later it start clicking just by
itself. Could be a firmware damage, electronics failed or mechanical
- heads crash. When you bring us drives, we check them out visually,
to make sure we don't turn them on if there is a head crash (to prevent
further damage). If all looks good, we proceed. If the drive is
reading, we start the process. While the process anything could happen.
The drive could actually die and be unrecoverable. It's not us who did
this. It's a hard drive. When you bring a drive to us (or to any other
place) you are bringing the drive that already has a problem, so you
can't really be surprised about my statement about your drive started
to click. The drive that comes to data recovery company has already
failed, so when do the recovery - we work with failed drives. These
drives are not stable and as I said, could die anytime. Once the drive
is accessible, we start making the image (#1 rule in data recovery).
After the image is done, we work with that image, so if we damage
something - we damage the image, not the client's drive.
*****, I don't want you to be suspicious. If you are not happy with us,
please come and collect your hard drive.
I don't always have to write such emails to my clients and prove my
work. Nobody knows how difficult the process it and what we go through
to get the data off the drive. If you are losing your confidence,
please let me know and I will have your hard drive ready for pick up. I
went through quite some difficulties locating donor drives for this
case while providing you with a low fee for this job.
Yes, it took so long to work with your drive, but it's not me who
delays the process. When you brought the drive to me, it was dead. I
spent quite some time and finally made it read, however it was reading
very slow. So, I dedicated a complete recovery system for you without
raising the cost. It's all hidden for you and no single client knows
all the hard work behind "data recovery". I could've told you that we
can't fix this drive, and at the same time I'd use that recovery system
for other clients and would make money. That's not my life style. When
I promise something - I do it. If I can't recover, at least I know I
did my best and I apologize.
I guess I explained enough. I will be out of town till Friday morning.
If you'd like to come and pick up the hard drive, please let me know.
Until then, I will postpone sourcing parts for your hard drive.
information on it that wasn't backed-up properly (I know I know...) As
the lost of the data is not an option I looked into specialized data
recovery services to recover the data. After much deliberation, I
decided to go with a local company (I'm in Canada) as I prefered to
drop off the drive rather then ship it.
I feel I've been given the run-around and you can see below the latest
email I've received from them after I expressed my concerns. They have
already changed the heads but still haven't seemed to fix the problem.
I'm thinking of taking the drive back (in parts) and seeking help from
a more established data recovery experts but I'm afraid the drive will
be damaged beyond repair once I get it back and I'm sure another
recovery company will charge me a fortune if they can even recover the
data. Appreciate any advice you can provide Thanks!
Kraak
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Hello *****,
It's very difficult for us to explain anything to clients, as people
who are not in this business do not always know what may happen to the
hard drive and how difficult the process is. I will take my time now
and will try to explain and hopefully that will make things clear for
you.
I have no intention to mislead or misinform my clients. What we do is
critical not just for our clients, but for us as well. It's our
reputation and so far I had no single negative feedback from a single
client since the company was founded. When we get customer's data and
people tell us that they've got several years of pictures of their kids
- we take that personal and put ourselves in client's shoes. Data
recovery is a very complicated field and sometimes we go through a
nightmare to get the data even if it costs us more than we quote the
clients.
I have initially quoted you $1,2K including taxes. I however did not
mention about possible charge for parts. It was my honest mistake and I
bought parts at no additional cost to you. For the same work I would
charge clients a fee of way over $2500.
Anyways, here is the history (email extracts) of my updates:
1) Aug 18th
I kept my word and purchased parts for your drive without charging you
a week ago; however this drive needs more parts in order to do any
further recovery.
--- Parts were purchased. Right before shipping the drive to us, I was
told that some of the numbers were not matching, so I had to cancel the
order. I never buy parts that are approximate match as that can kill
the drive. I take my time and source the exact 100% match. Yes, it
takes longer, but that way I am more confident that what I do is
correct.
2) Aug 23rd
Just an update. I finally managed to find a donor drive. I'm buying two
of them just in case one wouldn't be fully compatible.
--- Yes, at this point I finally found the donor drive. Requested two,
just in case.
3) Aug 30th
We finally got the drive today. Took so long...
I'll be able to start working on it only on Friday, so I will let you
know the status as soon as I have any news.
--- Both drives arrived. One is a 100% match, the other one wasn't. So,
it was sent back. I ended up with one donor drive only.
4) Sept 1st
Everything looks fine; however the drive is still very slow. I have a
feeling that there is a thermal issue (cause of overheating) and the
disk platters are slowly loosing their magnetic properties.
--- Did a head replacement. Drive started to read well. After about
2-2.5 million sectors it started to slow down and started clicking
sometimes. That could be a thermal issue. As you can see from my email,
I said - "I have a feeling", meaning that I wasn't 100% sure. Serge, no
matter how experienced a person is, nobody lives inside of the hard
drive and nobody knows what exactly is happening there. All we can do
is _guess_ using our knowledge and experience. Thermal issue is a
number one cause of any hard drive failure, so by me stating that is
quite normal.
5) Sep 12th
No update yet. Got a donor drive, managed to read just a couple of
sectors and drive started to click again. We're trying to source
another parts drive. Will keep you updated.
---- I was still referring to the donor drive I mentioned on Sept 1st.
And as I said, the drive started clicking. I turned it off. Today
turned it on again and it started clicking on me, so I turned it off
and started looking for another donor drive. At that point, I sent you
an update email.
------------------------------------------
*****, as you can see, lots of things were going on and that is hidden
to clients. I can't afford to provide each client with such a
detailed feedback. I guess, there is not need either. It will make
people confused and angry, and we'll have to spend more time
explaining "why" and "who" than doing the actual work. I hope
you agree with me on that one.
Hard drive is a combination of electronics and mechanics. It fails. You
get the drive running, and the second later it start clicking just by
itself. Could be a firmware damage, electronics failed or mechanical
- heads crash. When you bring us drives, we check them out visually,
to make sure we don't turn them on if there is a head crash (to prevent
further damage). If all looks good, we proceed. If the drive is
reading, we start the process. While the process anything could happen.
The drive could actually die and be unrecoverable. It's not us who did
this. It's a hard drive. When you bring a drive to us (or to any other
place) you are bringing the drive that already has a problem, so you
can't really be surprised about my statement about your drive started
to click. The drive that comes to data recovery company has already
failed, so when do the recovery - we work with failed drives. These
drives are not stable and as I said, could die anytime. Once the drive
is accessible, we start making the image (#1 rule in data recovery).
After the image is done, we work with that image, so if we damage
something - we damage the image, not the client's drive.
*****, I don't want you to be suspicious. If you are not happy with us,
please come and collect your hard drive.
I don't always have to write such emails to my clients and prove my
work. Nobody knows how difficult the process it and what we go through
to get the data off the drive. If you are losing your confidence,
please let me know and I will have your hard drive ready for pick up. I
went through quite some difficulties locating donor drives for this
case while providing you with a low fee for this job.
Yes, it took so long to work with your drive, but it's not me who
delays the process. When you brought the drive to me, it was dead. I
spent quite some time and finally made it read, however it was reading
very slow. So, I dedicated a complete recovery system for you without
raising the cost. It's all hidden for you and no single client knows
all the hard work behind "data recovery". I could've told you that we
can't fix this drive, and at the same time I'd use that recovery system
for other clients and would make money. That's not my life style. When
I promise something - I do it. If I can't recover, at least I know I
did my best and I apologize.
I guess I explained enough. I will be out of town till Friday morning.
If you'd like to come and pick up the hard drive, please let me know.
Until then, I will postpone sourcing parts for your hard drive.