Ask HN(UK): Need data recovery on a disk – any recommendations or warnings?

2 points·ColinWright··7 comments

To add more details, I have a Maxtor 120 GB SuSE 8.2 drive that's been scrambled by a particularly nasty power cut (up, down, partial up, lather-rinse-repeat).

I'm about to write a blog post about backups, etc., but in the meantime I have a very real need for a data recovery service.

Any horror stories? Any glowing recommendations? Any experience at all?

http://www.ibas.se/ has a good reputation in Sweden. In looking for an English version of their site i discovered that they're now part of Kroll Ontrack, who, indeed, has a UK site: http://www.krollontrack.co.uk/

That said, I've no idea how good they are.

Thanks - they offer a 4 hour free evaluation, and quote 299 to 999 + VAT, which is significantly more than others. If I don't proceed, they charge to send me the disk back, which others don't. They are definitely at the top end of the price range. No evidence of whether the extra is worth it.

You commenting on cost made me remember a free tool that I've used on occasion: check out TestDisk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk).

It might help to point out the exact flaw. It's probably too much to hope that it still spins up but just has a broken partition table, right? ;-)

(I have, personally, reconstructed a disk that got newfs'ed by typo; the other disk crash I've witnessed ended in "well, turns out we didn't actually need that data". I have no recommendations for "proper" recovery firms; sorry.)

Sorry, I thought it was clear from saying "scrambled" rather than "fried." It does still spin up. However, reading from /dev/hdX doesn't work, it won't mount, and (obviously) doesn't boot. Not clear what's died, and now with a recovery service.

Best wishes!

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