Follow-up to post on dead hard drive in wife's PB: DriveSavers

[St. Bernard]

Follow-up to this post: http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/318677

After having no luck with freezing the drive for 16 hours, I thought that I'd send an email to DriveSavers. I've always been curious just how much this cost and thought I'd post their response for the curious:
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Thank you for inquiring about data recovery with DriveSavers.

With over 20 years of professional data recovery experience, we have successfully handled hundreds of thousands of data loss situations. We understand the importance of your data, and will make every effort to recover your lost files within the turnaround time that meets your specific needs.

Our worldwide reputation as the most trusted and respected company in the industry is founded upon our commitment to provide fast, accurate data recovery and outstanding customer service.

Visit DriveSavers at http://www.drivesavers.com for more company information.

SERVICE OPTIONS AND PRICING
Our pricing is based on the drive capacity, the operating system and turnaround time. The final cost is based on the complexity of the recovery and the final recovery results.
The data recovery estimate for the 40GB hard drive you described is:

* Standard Service (1-2 business days): $900-3900
$200 attempt fee if the data is unrecoverable

* Economy Service (5-7 business days): $500-2700
$200 attempt fee if the data is unrecoverable

* Priority Service (24 hrs. / 7 days a week): $1800-8900
$800 attempt fee if the data is unrecoverable
Please Note: DriveSavers will never exceed the amount quoted.

[MacArtist]

That's a pretty wide range in their pricing.

[jimbrady]

Sure is a wide gulf between $500 and $2700--I wonder what factors determine the eventual total.

$200 attempt fee seems reasonable, I guess.

Makes you wanna build a clean room and buy some tiny tools.

[mhale62]

Please forgive me if I've missed this earlier in the thread but I have resurrected two drives by *heating* them at 200 degrees fahrenheit for an hour (I used a regular kitchen oven), then letting them cool to ambient temp. They both ran long enough to recover all the data. YMMV

[davester]

I'd guess it represents the range from "drive motor burnout" to "survived the inferno of a crashing exploding jetliner".

[Dick Moore]

I second the suggestion to gently heat the drive and bring it back to room temp. I recommend 175° F if your oven will hold that temp -- many won't go below 200 but some will. Worked once for me a few years ago, before I heard about the freezing trick, which I haven't had occasion to try.

[jdc]

just haggle with drive savers, or try someone else - i think i used a company called lazuraus?

they told me the same thing, i haggled them down to 1/4 what they quoted

[MacMagus]

I've had good experiences with DriveSavers.

A company that I used to work for had to send tapes to them regularly (never let artists or administrators handle their own backup tapes). They were always very polite and professional and they usually got the material back to us within 3-4 days.

They can be cheaper if you go through a vendor or repair place with a previous arrangement with them. I think Tekserve in NYC can get discounts.

A client recently got his data back from a dead 160GB drive on a new drive and with a set of DVD's for a mere $3300 dollars with a 48 hour turnaround. All but some inconsequential files were fully recovered. The DS rep kept up a personable rapport, they offered a lot of different options at different price points without fostering confusion and they updated the client on their status regularly.

Money well-spent in this case.

[vision63]

Will someone please think of the children.

How difficult would it be to re-create the project?

[davester]

[quote MacMagus]Money well-spent in this case.
Actually, it's all money stupidly spent. Every single person perusing his thread should have his/her data and his/her clients' data backed up and not be in need of the service. I'm sure there is a killing to be made in data backup services, because ever place of work I've been, with the exception of work I do at at a national laboratory with a huge IT staff, has an imbecilic or nonexistent backup strategy.