When your disk arrives at the DriveFish headquarters, your order is scanned into our secured database (you’ll get an email letting you know we received it) and then assigned to an engineer. Then begins a process that is designed to make sure the integrity of your data is not compromised.

The notes you made about you disk are read and interpreted to help us understand whether the issue is logical or physical. If the issue is probably logical, your disk is immediately cloned to a hard drive we know is in perfect working order. This ensures that when we get to work trying to put your file system back in order, that we don’t aggravate any latent physical or hardware issues with the disk you sent in. Many recovery companies don’t bother doing this because it does take a long time and just adds another step to the recovery process. Anyone that you deal with should be able to promise you that this step will occur and that they know how to do it properly. Cloning is a must. The next time you power on the disk could be its last to work properly!

If the issue seems to be physical or hardware based (from reading your comments about the disk), we will do a disk inspection before spinning the drive up in an attempt to clone it. We will check the circuit boards, the power supply the internals (read/write heads, spindle, head actuator) and the platters – all in a clean room environment. One key thing we are looking for is a head crash. Not only will we check the surface of the platters for damage but will check the pillows (filters) under a microscope for any indication of magnetic coating on the filter. If we see any indication of a head crash – the process stops there and the disk is carefully put back together so we can advise you to go with an advanced recovery. We will never jeopardize your chances of recovery by trying to resolve a head crash here at DriveFish. That is not a job for us but rather our partner DriveSavers.  Read more here about why this is important.

If there is no indication of a head crash we will solve the electronics or motor problem(s) if present, put the disk back together and attempt to clone the drive. The point is we never will just sit there powering your drive up and down trying to get it to mount. It is very important to take powering a malfunctioning drive very seriously – and at DriveFish we do just that! This ensures that regardless of whether we collect a fee, you can count on us to ensure your best chance of recovery.

advanced recovery, Drivesavers, Hardware, head crash

It happens more often than you might think.  A poor soul send their disk to a “world class recovery specialist that has been in business over 300 years” and gets taken for all they can afford. It works like this: Promises are made to recover the data for a low price, the disk is delivered to the promise making party, the price is raised – many times based on the emotional state of the customer, the customer ends up paying a ridiculous amount for recovery.

Please don’t fall victim to this! Be sure you have a clear view of all prices and markups before doing business. Be sure you ask the right questions. We have seen “estimates” for single volume disks without massive hardware issues totaling over $9500. Luckilly, that customer opted out and sent the drive to us. If you want to be taken care of without the hassle, give us a call.

Hardware, price, recovery

When shipping a hard drive you should remember 3 things:

• Use a box! A box  is very important and will prevent further damage to your hard drive if there is any physical damage and even damage when there was none to begin with. Don’t use a padded envelope and please don’t just wrap it in brown paper and put stamps on it (even though we had a succesful recovery on that one -whew!).

• Use an air carrier like UPS or Fedex with a tracking number and insurance. We do not recommend the United StatesPostal Service (Post Office).

• Antistatic! The hard drive should be either placed in an antistatic bag or simply wrapped in paper. If you can find antistatic foam peanuts those are best but if you wrap the drive well bubble wrap will do. Don’t use regular foam peanuts – you’ve probably had them stick to your pants or dress before. Static = Bad!

If you follow these simple recommendations you will ensure  that your hard drive will arrive to us safe and secure!

Hard Drives, shipping

Not neccesarily. If your disk is clicking that generally indicates that you have a problem with the read/write heads attempting to scan the surface of the platter. If you hear a clicking, grinding or other odd noice from your disk we suggest you shut it down immediately and send it in. If it is in fact a head crash, you may need advanced recovery.

It could also just be a problem with the electronics, motor, actuator arm or any number of problems. You best bet is to pack it carefully and send to us so we can give you the best chance of recovery. Don’t give up hope – if we recover your data you pay a $199 flat fee!

advanced recovery, clicking, head crash

A “head crash” is a term that describes what happens when the read/write heads of a hard drive touch the spinning platter causing damage to the magnetic coating that contains the data.

A hard drive is somewhat like a record player in that there are spinning platters (records) that are read by read/write heads on an actuator arm (the tone arm and needle). Instead of the r/w heads actually touching the platter though, it hovers just above it reading the data magnetically. Sometimes it’s a small bump or jarring of the disk, sometimes it’s a small piece of dirt or other particulate on the disk surface. Whatever the cause, if the read/write heads touch and chip or scratch the magnetic coating of the spinning platter(s), that is a head crash!

A head crash has to be handled carefully as once it happens and some coating has been scratched off the platter(s), the problem become worse very quickly. You have to catch it quick before all of your data is literally scratched off. A common disk speed is 7200 RPM – that’s almost 75  mph! A head crash occurring at that speed can be catastrophic.

Be smart. If you hear clicking, clunking, grinding or any other odd noises you could possibly have a head crash. We suggest you pack it up and send it to a company that you know will give you the best chance of recovery.

clicking, head crash, noise

A Live CD is a bootable operating system that resides on a compact disk or DVD and loads into RAM instead of from a hard drive. This can be very handy especially for data recovery when the disk you are having problems with was your operating system disk.

Generally most of our favorite Live CDs are flavors of Linux. This is great because with Linux you have an array of great free pieces of software that can be used to aid in your recovery. Try Knoppix or nUbuntu to get started! Simply download the .iso and burn the image to disk. Then drop it in your CD/DVD drive, set the machine to boot from CD and turn on the power! This frees your hard drives to allow complete access!

Data Recovery, Hard Drives, Linux

When we started looking for a partner for advanced recoveries (major hardware failures and head crashes), there were only 2 real companies to pick from. Kroll Ontrack and Drivesavers.  Any of the other companies that claim to do high level advanced recoveries are in the shadow of these 2 companies. Both are very capable. There are 3 main reasons why we chose Drivesavers and continue to do business with them.

Drivesavers main focus is data recovery:

Ontrack has a law forensics department as well as many others. While this is cool and interesting, Drivesavers on the other hand do data recovery and data recovery only. They have been in business since 1985 and have always been a leader in advanced recovery. We like the idea of a company built from the ground up with one focus – helping people recover data.

Drivesavers will waive the assessment fee for DriveFish customers:

Ontrack charges $100 to just look at the disk, even if they are unable to recover anything from it. This was very important to us and is a really good faith effort on Drivesavers part to do business with our clients. People come to us for assurance that they will get the job done for the most reasonable fee. Drivesavers helps us achieve that goal.

Drivesavers has amazing customer service:

Not that Kroll doesn’t have good service, but Drivesavers stands out heads above the rest. The are incredibly friendly, helpful and easy to work with. Thats the way we do business and we expect our partners to do the same.

We have been happy with the relationship for a long time now and know that our customers appreciate the partnership and the advantages it offers them.

Data Recovery, Drivesavers, fee

At least once a week, we receive a submission that had previously been sent to another recovery company – generally because of false promises and lowball quotes. The following are some of the most insane stories we have received from clients who attempted to do business with less than reputable companies. We have tons of these and it truly was tough picking our “favorites”. We will withold the company names but hope that you will choose very carefully when picking a data recovery partner to work with!

We received a disk from a teacher in Texas who had been told by another firm they could do the recovery for $199. Because the company was in Dallas the teacher tried in good faith to do business locally. When they received his disk he waited over a week for a call claiming that the recovery was more advanced that previously thought. He told them he had received a firm price of $199 and couldn’t afford more than that. When he asked them to send the disk back, they claimed there was a $100 “fee” for diagnosing the drive. Their diagnosis was that the “motor had failed” and that they would need around $700 for parts PLUS the $199 he was quoted. When he refused to pay the “fee” that he was never told about they tried to KEEP his hard drive as ransom! It took threats to the “owner” of the company and 2 certified letters to get the disk back – and only then after agreeing to split the fee and pay them $50. When we received the disk it was covered in stickers with this companies logo on it and a big red X written in permanent marker on the case. Expecting to have to replace the motor, the disk was disasembled and prepared for a motor swap. We found that the motor was working perfectly! The disk was put back together, cloned and within a few hours We completed a full recovery.

A nice girl who was in class at the University of Colorado at Boulder sent us a submission previously sent to another company who lowballed the price and tried to raise it to $2200 once she sent it in. While they gave her no problems when she opted out, when she received the disk she claimed there were DENTS in the case that werent there before. She called us in a panic: “Can they do that?” We of course arent sure they DID but wow – to think they might have tried to damage the disk before sending it back! There were significant hardware issues with the drive but we managed to set her up with all of her lost files – including one key research paper!

Another customer sent us a disk with an email that had us laughing for days. It was a copy of the “diagnosis” from her initial choice of recovery companies. We hear technical double-speak all the time. Companies will use it to confuse the customer and make them think the issue is severely technical and over their heads. This reduces the likelihood that the customer will ask questions or want answers. This techno-jabber however, took the cake:

“…unstable causation unit allowing intermittent access, furthermore causing read errors/logical problems, affecting file system structures within the static loader, etc.  We need to manually rebuild the seeker corridor and decompile corrupted file-system components, adjust file pointers by at least 10 degrees and mount the recovered volume(s) before retrieving data.”

Naturally they tried to raise the price and she opted out. When we received the drive, there were no real issues and we completed a full recovery for her. There definitely wasn’t any trouble with the “static loader” !

We have had a few customers whos disks were LOST. Literally. One account stands out because of how flagrant the negligence was. A computer tech sent a clients disk in to a fly by night company he found on the web with an air carrier and tracking number. The disk was delivered and he even received an email from the company confirming this. After a week or so he wrote in asking about the progress and got no response. It took him another week to finally get a response saying they had “misplaced” his disk and were looking for it. He finally got fed up and demanded answers. They claimed that it had never been delivered. When confromted with the tracking number they said it must have accidentally been thrown away. Finally the guy got a call from ANOTHER recovery company claiming they had his disk, had managed a partial recovery and wanted a credit card number as payment. His disk had been outsourced without his knowledge and he was kept totally in the dark! He was more fortunate than some others whos disks were never found. After he paid the company who called him, he received a bill a few days later for over twice the price from the company who lost his disk! When he had need for another recovery, he called us with this story. We promised him he would never have the same problem with us and he has been a great customer ever since.

Be careful who you do business with!

Data Recovery, fee, Hardware, price

After heavy consideration DriveFish is proud to announce its choice for our recommended online backup solution. Mozy! We looked at all of the heavy players in the industry and Mozy stood heads above the rest. Their software is easy to use, works with Mac and PC, they have great customer support and best of all, they allow you to use 2 gigabytes of backup for FREE. No credit cards, no trial period. Free. We like that. If you need more space or need to backup exchange mail or the like, they have great prices – starting at just 50 cents per gigabyte!

Take it from us – the external hard drive you are backing up on now is just as likely to fail as your system drives. Even RAID isnt fail proof. The only 100% sure method of backing up is doing it remotely with a reputable company like Mozy who keeps your data encrypted and mirrored. Restoring data if lost is a snap! Simply click the Mozy logo below to get signed up – its quick, easy, inexpensive and solid. You can thank us later!

Mozy Remote Backup is good for the Soul.

backup, Mozy, Restoring, solution

Ask yourself these key questions when shopping:

Do they have transparent pricing?
Pricing should be completely transparent to the customer. What this means is that before ever sending the disk in, the customer should be fully aware of any costs associated with the recovery. Many firms will try things like giving an “estimate” or saying “in most cases”. With just a few details, they should be able to tell you the same thing we can: “This is how much it is going to cost.” In our case – this fee is always $199.

Do they answer the phone?
Or even have a phone number? You should be able to communicate fully with the company you choose in your choice of formats. If you like to write long handwritten letters, they should write you back. If you like to talk on the phone, they should answer! We can be reached easily at 866-DRIVEFISH (866-374-8334).

Do they outsource? If so with who? Is this transparent to the customer?
This is very important. We have heard of disks being LOST because of rampant outsourcing. If the company you choose plans to outsource, you need to be kept fully in the loop and confirm each and every decision made about the movements of your data.

What if you don’t have the money? Will they offer advice on trying the recovery yourself?
Most of the “other guys” think we are absolutely nuts for doing this. You should never do business with a company who wont answer any question you may have or won’t offer advice if you want to move forward on your own. Information is free. We don’t make money by knowing these things. We make money by doing these things, better than anyone else.

desicion, Information, shopping