Hard Drive Dead - Data Recovery??

[A]

Hi,
My external hard drive started to make a bit of a vibrating noise a few
weeks ago, and instead of taking action, I ignored it...now I am getting a
message whenever I plug it into the usb port as follows:-

"The File or Directory is corrupt and unreadable"

I have a lot of stuff on there I would like to get back. Are there any good
applications out there that can do any sort of data recovery or is it a case
of sending it off somewhere?? If sending it away is the only option, does
anyone have any recommendations on who to use (with costs??) I am in the
UK - Midlands.
Is this something that any local pc shop can do, or is it specialised
work...??

Help!!

cheers
A.

 

[chad]

Hi Albert,

I can't advise a UK recovery recovery company but I can advise that
you unplug your disk until you find one. Just running it in a damaged
state can cause irretrievable track damage resulting in permanent data
loss.

In answer to your question about whether recovery can be done by a
local PC shop: no way! This sort of thing required a dust-free clean
room and specialists.

Many data recovery companies really gouge since they know they've got
you in a bad spot. The best price I've found in the US is from
Nationwide Data Recovery in Miami. They charge $100-$500 with no charge
if data is not recovered. I know that doesn't help you much in the UK
but you might use that as a price point to try to match.

If your data is not critical, you might try one of two things: 1) the
freezer trick. Many people seem to be able to get data back by throwing
the drive in a ziplock bag, putting it in the freezer overnight and
then, in the morning, plug it in and copy off the data before it warms
up. NOTE: I've never done this myself and I cannot see why it would
work.

The other thing you might try is simple data mining with data recovery
software. Here are a few freeware data recovery tools which you can
try:

http://free-backup.info/data-recovery-software.htm

Again, don't mess around with your drive if your data is critical!

Good luck!
Chad