Data Recovery companies, UK - Any recommendations?

Hi everyone,
Again sorry if this topic has already been covered...
The HDD in my MacBook died a couple of weeks ago (since replaced with reinstalled Leopard - all fine now) - it was ticking at startup, and the file folder with the question mark ( ? ) on it upon boot. This just happened randomly one day, and the screen froze with the 'you must restart your computer' prompt. Then the white screen of death!
Took it to the local genius bar. The guy basically said it's had it and you need a new HDD - so did this. However, I did not back up much of the old hard drive and so, I wondered if anyone could recommend any good data recovery companies in the UK that may be able to retrieve the data? I'm hoping it won't cost more than around £200! The guy at the genius bar said these recovery co.s charge around £1 per gb. I had about 70gb of data on it (I know, lesson learnt about backing up, believe me!)
Thanks folks - any pointers would be great.

Can't help you with evaluating these companies as I've never had to use them. But, as you probably realize by now, the prices are not out of line.
I found some positive reviews for DriveSavers and I'm sure if you search for reviews for the others you'll find one or two at least.
I also found a photoshop blog that claimed it was a reseller of DriveSavers services and offered a coupon:
Receive An Exclusive 10% Discount
We have become an Authorized DriveSavers reseller, which means we can offer special discounts. Simply mention Discount Code DS1-32-30 and you'll instantly receive a 10% Discount on your invoiced recovery fee. You'll also be eligible for DriveSavers' exclusive No Attempt Fee – if data is not recoverable, there is no charge. DriveSavers will evaluate your unique situation, decide what course of action to take, and help relieve panic and stress that is common in data loss crises.
G4 933 mhz Quicksilver Mac OS X (10.4.8) Wacom Intuos 2 tablet; Epson 2400 Photo; HP Deskjet 6840; LaCie 80gb D2 FWDV

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Good Hard Drive Data Recovery Companies?

My Powerbook G4 Seagate 100gb hard drive recently crashed. I am a little desperate. I have been calling many different ones and not sure which to choose from.
Any suggestions or recommendations or experience? This is a really confusing and frustrating process. I'm afraid to send it to a bad place and risk losing the data, but also worried about spending a couple thousand dollars when I don't need to.
I was told that based on the sound of the hard drive that the heads crashed and that the head is broken. It hasn't been opened or anything. When I heard the sound, it sounded like a very faint clicking, almost inaudible. No software will work cause my hard drive is not recognized by anything, even in target mode.
I have contacted DriveSavers (very, very expensive), Lazarus Data Recovery, DTI Data, OnTrack Data, and looked at many, many website pages.
DTI DATA offered NO DATA, NO CHARGE, plus free evaluation and a fixed price, they seemed reasonable and confident on the phone anyway. For a head crash recovery, they said $1195.
DriveSavers was very expensive. $225 attempt fee and said they would cap the price at $2000. They have clearly an amazing reputation and it seems like they could recover it. But they were a little weird, like used car salesmen telling me I had to hurry and decide because the price was only good for 7 business days. But, I haven't seen any posts saying they didn't recover anything.
Lazarus was very, very nice and friendly and I liked them a lot, very nice and patient with me, explaining everything. Spoke to the technician. Much less expensive. $225 if they need to take it to the clean room. They said they would first try to clone the drive and avoid the clean room to save me money, but it sounds like they will need to go to the clean room. Their upper price range was about $600-$800. Much more affordable, but after scanning the web, I saw some people thought they were fantastic, miracle workers, others were not so enthusiastic.
OnTrack had a $100 evaluation fee and a range of $400-$2400, but said most likely $1600. I couldn't ask details because the person on the line wasn't a technician.
Anyone know who to go to? Or others? Help!
powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Can't help you with evaluating these companies as I've never had to use them. But, as you probably realize by now, the prices are not out of line.
I found some positive reviews for DriveSavers and I'm sure if you search for reviews for the others you'll find one or two at least.
I also found a photoshop blog that claimed it was a reseller of DriveSavers services and offered a coupon:
Receive An Exclusive 10% Discount
We have become an Authorized DriveSavers reseller, which means we can offer special discounts. Simply mention Discount Code DS1-32-30 and you'll instantly receive a 10% Discount on your invoiced recovery fee. You'll also be eligible for DriveSavers' exclusive No Attempt Fee – if data is not recoverable, there is no charge. DriveSavers will evaluate your unique situation, decide what course of action to take, and help relieve panic and stress that is common in data loss crises.
G4 933 mhz Quicksilver Mac OS X (10.4.8) Wacom Intuos 2 tablet; Epson 2400 Photo; HP Deskjet 6840; LaCie 80gb D2 FWDV

Recommend UK based data recovery specialist please?

Hi all,
My friend accidentally dropped his iBook and his hard drive no longer works. I've replaced the hard drive, but he has valuable data on the old hard drive, and he hasn't backed it up, and I was unable to recover the data myself. So he wants to send it to a data recovery specialist - can anyone recommend one in the UK that can recover data off an HFS+ formatted hard drive? He'd like a company that's reasonably priced, but aren't cowboys. If you've done business with them, how much did it cost?
Thanks very much for your time in advance!
Regards - Piers

I was recommended Datarecoverycorp (see their website)but they were bad news. Very costly and IMO a bit shady. When I visited they were OK but they kept themselves secret and were controlled from Florida.
I dealt with a Birmingham firm called Microforce, 0121440440 in Moseley. They had had trouble with DRC and were using someone else. But in the end, I just gave up.
But if you are stuck, try Amit at Microforce. He was honest.
Malc

Data Recovery After Hard Drive Failure!

Ok, basically, I've got a 2 1/2 year old iBook G4 with a bombed hard drive, and unfortunately, the last time I backed up was around 3 months ago. Here's what happened right before the crash: some applications like Widgets and Safari were acting fluky, and it wouldn't let me open Word documents, so I restarted, because I thought it might have something to do with the fact that i had downloaded the new version of itunes not that long ago and hadn't restarted since. well, when i restarted, the gray screen with the wheel and the apple symbol went on for a really long time, and then the blue screen came up with the cursor, but nothing else happened, and the blue screen just stayed there. as far as i know, the hard drive wasn't making any unusual noises, just the usual occasional soft sounds that my hard drive has always made (there are usual sounds, right?) a piece of information that might be useful is that the hard drive was almost full (it only had about 5 GB left, which i understand is how much you should leave) could this have caused the failure maybe? anyway, i tried using the hard drive as a target and tried getting another computer to recognize it and pull the files off, but that didn't work. so, i brought it into the apple store, and they got it to boot up but using some external hard drive, i think. they tried disk utility, but that didn't see my hard drive. then the tried disk warrior, and that saw it and repaired it or something, but then it couldn't get the drive to mount. so, i'm assuming that because disk warrior didn't work and couldn't get it to mount, then other software like data rescue, etc... won't either. like all computer users, i've got some REALLY REALLY important data on there, and all the data recovery places i've gotten quotes from are pretty pricey. if the drive doesn't require physical data recovery, only non-physical, as i hope, the cheapest is still $350. even so, the person on the phone there didn't seem to know nearly as much as the people at the more pricier places. so, are there any other options besides expensive data recovery? i read something about using dd - a unix thing, but i don't know the first thing about it (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050302225659382) so i'm not sure i want to risk messing it up even more. and, if worse comes to worst, then i'll use a data recovery place... but can anyone tell me if they've used any of the data recovery companies below, and which ones are good?
(first three do evaluation for free, and then you decide if you want to continue based on more accurate price idea)
MacintoshDataRecovery.com
$500 non physical
$1100-1600 physical
Heroic Efforts
http://www.heroicdata.com/data_recovery
$350 non physical
ships to another (very expensive) place if physical
ACS Data Recovery
http://www.acsdata.com/index.htm
$600-700 non physical
DriveSavers.com
(recommended by Apple, probably the best, but the most steep, too)
could cost anywhere from $500-$2700 and $200 evaluation fee even if data is unrecoverable
Since this is our fourth hard drive failure in four different iBooks in 2 1/2 years, i am starting to become seriously disillusioned about the quality of the hardware Apple uses...not that i would ever get a dell or anything, but still....
THANK YOU in advance for any tips you might be able to offer, and also for reading this extremely long post!
katie
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I have read good reports concerning Data Rescue although I have not used it myself.
Once you get your data back, focus on a regular (even daily) backup routine, because as you know only so well, the question is not if a drive will fail, it's when.
My condolences, by the way.

Data recovery from corrupt boot partition

The boot partition on my MacBook running 10.7.6 has a corrupt volume structure and will not mount, much less boot. The recovery partition boots but really doesn't let me do anything. Disk Utility can't repair nor even complete verification. I have lots of images which I need to recover, so am looking for a utility which might help.
Everything was apparently ok until the failure and the drive hardware checked out ok, so I'm hopeful my files are recoverable. A week or so ago I optimized the volume with TechTool Pro and the directory with DiskWarrior, and last night attempted to sync 1Password on my iPad with 1Password for Mac. This did no t work, probably because of my unfamiliarity with the procedure, but seemed to do no damage. When I ran TTPro last night from its eDrive partition it reported a volume structure problem on the partition which I started to fix with the program but then cancelled the analysis and decided to use disk utility instead. Disk utility also reported a problem but stopped the verification with the instruction to do a repair which it again could not complete. When I rebooted the system partition would again not boot but this time I got grey screen with a message that the debugger had loaded and <panic>. A message box said power down and restart, but that only repeats the process.
I'm thinking of attempting to install a system on an external boot drive and accessing the corrupt partition with a data recovery utility. Any insights, ideas or shared experiences appreciated. Thanks in advance for any desperately needed help.

The safest thing to do here is to install a new disk in the system and do a clean install of OS X. From there, you can put your corrupted volume in an external USB enclosure and mount the file system to try and recover as much data as you can.
It's likely obvious now, but it's REALLY worth investing in a large-capacity external storage or Time Capsure to use with Time Machine. Backups are essential. Hardware always eventually dies. We all need an effective strategy to deal with that.
A long time ago, I was backing my Linux system up to 4mm DAT. When the inevitable HDD crash came, I thought I was ready. Unfortunately, I hadn't tested recovery from tape and I ended up losing everything. Which is to say, until you know you can restore, you don't even have a backup. I lost thousands upon thousands of photos of my kids growing up.
BTW, if it is essential that you recover as much as possible, consider taking the disk to a data recovery service. Be warned: It's expensive.

Best data recovery software for Mac Os X 10.10

I need to recover data that was deleted on a WD external HDD. I am using a mac mini with Os X 10.10.
I would like to use a reliable and safe data recovery product.
Any suggestions?

The file was fragmented. To fully recover a file it needs to be continuous on the hard drive. If the file was fragmented it was broken into pieces across the hard drive. The recovery program can't know this so would each piece as a different file as it no longer has a map to go off of.
There will probably be many files with a random letter/number combo for a name. Within these may be the missing parts of the video. While there may be some advanced forensic techniques to reconstitute the files. I think that would go beyond some forum advice to needing years of advanced training in data recovery.
You can try Nucleus Kernel Macintosh. It is by far the most thorough and robust data recovery I have used but requires Windows to run even though it recovers Mac volumes.
For OS X native try Stellar Phoenix. I didn't find it as good but it is definitely the best I know of for Os X 10.10.
I would not bother with Data Rescue or Disk Warrior. They will not do a deep scan of the hard drive. They also won't do a scan if the partition table was lost and won't try to plow through disk errors.
Also $70 to $100 for data recovery software is very cheap compared to professional.
Edit: I also hope you are recovering files to a different drive than that external you wiped and that you have not been adding any files to it. Otherwise that data will be mangled fast.

Data Recovery software recommendations?

I want to try to recover any or all of data lost on my iMac in Fire Vault. Would you recommend Data Recovery II, Disk Warrior, Stellar Phoenix, or something else? Pros, Cons?
Thanks!

When I took my iMac to the Apple Genius he said there was a large chunk of data that was something other than the usual OS, software apps, etc. He thought it was the Lost Data but wasn't sure if it was just bits and pieces of the Fire Vault encrypted contents mashed together.
I have a Post Archive and Install folder containing a Previous System Folder. Within it is Previous System 1. I snooped around but found little to nothing in any file marked Start Up or User. Nothing on the Hard Drive either.
In my search, I noticed that there were no dates on any Folder or File between July 7, 2009 and August 17, 2009. Apparently, 07/07/09 is when something terrible happened and I couldn't log on to my iMac. (August 17th is the date I brought it in to the Apple Genius and he was able to open things up.)
As I searched I looked at anything with the date 07/07/09 and noticed 2 files sitting outside the Extensions folder within the "Previous System" Library folder: 1) Extensions.kextcache (340 KB Document) and 2) Extensions.mkext (8.6 MB Document).
I tried to open the 8.6 MB doc and got a "can't open/go to Recommended Applications" window. I chose Text Edit and the doc opened revealing a bunch of code or something which I can't decipher. I'm not sure if anyone could decipher it. I then cringed thinking that I may never be able to get back to the original (non-TextEdit) version of the file. Also worried that I may have messed up an important Extension file.
I checked my current System folder and the same two files are sitting outside the Extensions folder in the System Library. Unfortunately, that same 8.6 MB doc has also been changed to a TextEdit doc. I'm not sure how that happened since I only opened the doc I found in the "Previous System" folder in TextEdit. I thought the "Previous" folder was totally separate from my current System folder.
My questions:
What is a "Extensions.mkext" file? Is there an application that can open it?
Can I revert the Extensions.mkext (8.6 MB Document) back to it's original state?
Have a total messed up my computer again by changing the .mkext file to a TextEdit file?
8.6 MB seems to be quite a large chunk of something--might it be significant?
Would reading the TextEdit version reveal any important clues and who might be able to read it?
If I wrote down everything that has the date 07/07/09 on it would it reveal clues as to what happened and whether I could find the Lost data?
I'm afraid to do the Disk Utility procedure you described...not sure what would happen or if it might change whatever data might still be in there into something totally undecipherable.
Help!
Thanks for all of the time and thought you've put into my issue! I really appreciate it!
G

Disk Warrior didn't work for data recovery. Any suggestions? After recovery, what's the best SSD for 13"MBPro?

My hard drive decided to quit after only 22 months! Some files were backed up but my current photo albums were not. That's all I really need, I don't care about all the other junk. I've tried booting from the Disk Warrior cd, which Apple Genuis Bar suggested since they don't do data recovery. Fortunately, I got the cd from my brother or I would've paid $99 and it didn't help at all.
So it there another way I can do this myself or should I just bring it to Fry's for $149?
Another question would be, after I recover the files, I'd like to upgrade my MacBook Pro 13 to a Solid State drive. I know I need a 2.5" SATA, but which brand/size is good for a $200-$300 budget?
Thanks for your time.

Thank you Sig for the information. Unfortunately, I ended up leaving my computer at Frys for Data Recovery. They have the best guarantee around since they can refund $115 of $149 if they couldn't retrieve any data. This was better than other services of $125/hr whether they could or could not get any data recovered. I didn't want to spend $99 and DataRescue couldn't even run.
I meant Disk Warrior was recommended by Apple Genius Bar to access my hard drive that crashed. They said it could "fix" it or at least power up so I can then retrieve my data. It couldn't find the hard drive. It just looped for 5-10minutes, which stated that if this was the case, the hard drive could not be "fixed" or accessed..replacement is needed.
Now I'm in the market for hard drive or solid state hd.

My computer somehow restarted then deleted all my progress from Word documents. Is there any way to get these documents back without purchase of a data recovery software?

Recently when I open my Mac the screen stays black until I press the start button a few times. Usually at this point it's in sleep mode. This time, however, the computer restarted completely, losing any word documents that I had left open prior. Is there any way I can recover these files without a purchase of a data recovery software? I've tried looking in the 'recent' tab, but it didn't save anything I have done in the last week, and finals are this coming week. Please help!

If the system just Restarted on it's own, Shut down while you were working on something then started back up all those changes, edits, you had done in that app, document, are gone.

Any recommendations for a recovery software for my lost photos on my external drive?

Would like recommendations for a reputable recovery software for my lost photos from my external drive that I used with my MacBook Pro.

General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

I just used stellar phoenix mac data recovery and it seemed to work but now my files won't open. Even though they are "jpeg, mov" files the error message is could not be opened. The movie's file format isn't recognized. " Any help or are they corrupted

I just used stellar phoenix mac data recovery and it seemed to work but now my files won't open. Even though they are "jpeg, mov" files, the error message is "could not be opened". The movie's file format isn't recognized. " Any help or are they corrupted?

Sounds to me like the file is probably corrupt. If you had hard drive corruption or damage, that could easily result in recovered files not being fully intact. If you were trying to recover accidentally deleted files, it's possible they might have been partially overwritten before recovering. There are never any guarantees with file recovery.
Without more information on the circumstances that led you to try recovery, it's hard to give advice on what to try from here. You could always try another file recovery tool, like Data Rescue 3. Just be sure you're taking appropriate precautions when doing recovery. See Recovering deleted files.

While browsing the cube data Excel the circle pointer starts to spin and the excel go into a not-responding state,any recommendations to improve performance in excel?

hi,
while browsing the cube data Excel the circle pointer starts to spin and the excel go into a not-responding state,any recommendations to improve performance in excel?
I have 20 measures and 8 dimensions.
while filtering data by using dimensions in excel it is taking so much time.
Ex:
I browsed 15 measures in excel and filtered data based on time(quarter wise) and other dimesion product. It is taking long time to get data.
Can you please help on this issue.
Regards,
Samba

Hi Samba,
What're the versions of your Office Excel and SQL Server Analysis Services? It will be helpful if you can share the detail computer resource information to us while encountered this issue.
In addition, we don't know your cube structure and the underlying relationships. But you can take a look at the following articles to troubleshoot the performance issue:
Improving Excel's Cube Performance:
http://richardlees.blogspot.com/2010/04/improving-excels-cube-performance.html
Excel Against a SSAS Cube Slow: Performance Improvement Tips:
http://www.msbicentral.com/Blogs/tabid/131/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/136/Excel-Against-a-SSAS-Cube-Slow-Performance-Improvement-Tips.aspx
Regards,
Elvis Long
TechNet Community Support

Recommend a data recovery company?

Would anyone recommend a data recovery company you have used to retrieve information from a Mac hard drive? In the USA is fine -- as long as they will accept it and return it by mail. European recs would be fine too, as I'm in Germany.
The hard drive in my new MacBook, bought in December, failed. The nearest certified Mac repair shop could not recover the data. I'm going to try Gravis in Bonn, but have a bad feeling... I think I need a company with real expertise in recovering data.
What a huge disappointment my MacBook is... and the service plan is no help, since Mac requires the broken hard drive to be returned to them in 48 hours or I have to buy the new one -- and as I'm desperate for the data, I have no choice but to give Apple yet more money.

AMarieB, I'm sorry but no computer company (none that I know of anyway) covers data recovery. It is unfortunately standard. Data Recovery is expensive (as you know now) and it doesn't always work. I highly recommend that you keep a current or fairly current backup of your data. I cannot stress this enough. If you have leopard, time machine is built-in and will automate your backup for you in conjunction with an external hard drive. If you don't, there are programs (some are free, some aren't) that will do the same thing as time machine and will take some of the hassle out of backups. If this should happen again in the future (to this machine or another), it will be a lot less stressful for you, not to mention cheaper.
JamieNY, I'm glad to hear that you now have a backup solution, just make sure that you keep it up to date, especially if you are working on a project. Most people tend to forget to make sure that they have backups of projects (unless you have your backup set to backup every day or so).
I only mention this kind of thing because I see it all the time and I know what a pain it is. It's a lot easier to have a backup strategy beforehand than it is to try to recover data, especially if it's something really important like a dissertation or project that's due the next day (Murphy's law, right?). I wish all of you the best of luck.

Any Tech Geeks out there ever done a DIY data recovery from a trashed drive

Hi,
I have a iMac G5 that went belly up about three weeks ago. The problem was undoubtedly the hard drive, which was totally missing even when I used third party recovery programs like Diskwarrior and Data Recovery. I pulled the drive and replaced it. BUT, now I am desperate to get things off the dead drive. I DID back up, but my delightful 2 year old "ate" my back up disks and they are beyond repair.
sigh
I simply don't have $300 to pay for professional data recovery and the missing data has sentimental value, but not much beyond that. I can't justify a price tag of $300 for old pictures and word documents.
Anyone ever done a DIY data recovery and can share the details with me??
I suspect the drive is physically damaged because it makes the ugliest noises when you try to power it up.
Tricia

You can purchase data recovery software such as Data Rescue II or File Salvage ( VersionTracker or MacUpdate ) and attempt to recover the files.
In order for recovery software to work the drive must be physically accessible and connected to your computer. Because you've removed it you would need an external enclosure for the drive (Firewire or USB.) However, if the drive is non-functional (won't run) then recovery software will not help.

Data recovery from a disk that is unmounted

Here is my problem:
disk utility had indicated that I had a couple of bad blocks in my start up disk and recommended that it be replaced. Since I already had a second internal hard drive with plenty of room on it, I simply installed OS 10.4 on the second hard drive and designated it as the startup drive.
Then I ran maintenance on the problem drive. After spending an hour or more grinding through every sector it appeared that the drive would pass master. However for some reason it hung up, stopped making progress and disabled my computer, i.e., I could move the cursor but could not click anything or select anything. Finally my only choice was to manually shut down and restart. Restart seemed to work fine except the disk on which I was performing maintenance did not show up on the desktop.
Finally I was able to locate it using disk utility and discovered that the mount point was missing and it was not mounted. Of course this is what I should have expected since techtool pro unmounts a drive while it performs maintenance and when I had to interrupt, it did not remount.
I spent three days trying to find a way to remount it, including downloading MountMe. Strangely when I ran MountMe it recognized the drive and gave me a successful remount message, but the drive was not actually remounted according to disk utility.
I have moved the drive to a different G-4 with no more success.
my greatest problem -- I had used Backup from .Mac but apparently was not careful enough about where the backup file was located. Generally I download to my desktop and then if I want to save a download I move it to an appropriate location. Unwisely I had done the same with backup which means of course that when the old startup drive crashed it took my desktop files with it.
Included among those backups were all of my financial records (Quicken) for the year. Three checking accounts, all of my credit card accounts, all of my business accounts, etc. I am talking about days of contacting credit card companies and banks for replacement of records for the year and, worse yet, they don't have the details in their files regarding the accounts to be charged nor do they have any info about inter account transfer, etc., etc., etc.
So, I am looking for a reasonably priced service provider to copy my defective hard drive for me. I don't think there is any problem with the data on the drive, I just can't get it remounted.
Maybe someone knows how to work around the mount point problem????
My main desktop computer is a G-4 quicksilver with dual 800, OS 10.4.3 and 1.4 GB of memory.
thanks,
John Cleek

Whenever someone reports issues with their drive my first question is always, "Do you hear any unusual noises coming from the computer?"
What I'm listening for is anything like grinding, scraping, what we always call 'ping-ponging' or other unusual clicking noises that would indicate a mechanical problem inside the drive. If you don't hear anything unusual then the problem is more likely to be corrupt volume information or a broken hard drive controller board.
If you hear noises then my recommendation is to stop trying to get anything off the drive because any more attempts would do yet more damage.
The only data recovery company I've used is www.drivesavers.com. I've called them multiple times to get quotes and their reps always seems to actualy have an idea what they're talking about. It is very expensive to use a service such as theirs but sometimes it is the only option available.

Data Recovery companies, UK - Any recommendations?

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