There's a company call Excalibur in North Billerica. It'll be expensive. The faster you want the data, the more expensive it will be.
My vague recollection is that for a few hundred dollars ($200-$400) they'll do an evaluation within a week or so and tell you if there is any hope, and what it will cost to get data back if it's possible. They have a rush fee for two day turn around that can run has high as $4K. Things to try for the do-it-yourself-er*. 1 - Stop running scan disk. If it hasn't helped by now, it can only make things worse. 2 - Duplicate the data onto a known good drive. A professional disk duplicator is easiest, linux 'dd' works, there's probably a PC tool (ghost?) that can do it too. Perform all future data recovery attempts against the known good drive so that the original doesn't get any worse, and so that bad sectors on a failing disk don't add to your problem. Before trying to copy the disk put it in an airtight container (I use two ziplock bags) and chill the drive in the fridge for an hour or two. (some people use the freezer) This may temporarily improve the integrity of the bad drive for reading. Also, if you can keep the drive cool (without getting it wet) while duplicating that may help. 3 - It's possible the drive is good, but the controller board is bad. If you can find an IDENTICAL drive (same revision and date codes) you may be able to swap the controller boards between the two drives and read the data that way. 4 - Try Norton utilities on the good drive you created in step 2. I've seen one instance where Scandisk after norton helped even more. 5 - If you recover data put it somewhere else. The original drive and the copy may not have reliable directory informion, so you shouldn't use the second drive for day to day stuff until it's been reformated. I imagine there are other thoughts on this, but these are things that have worked for me. (But only about 30% of the time. Usually when a drive goes bad, nothing you can do makes it better.) * Or you, if you're inclined to help her out. This can be a dicey proposition, if you fail, you family may think you're not any good at what you do, if you succeed, everybody in your family may want you to come fix every stupid little PC problem they have. You might have an imaginary 'friend at work' take a look at it. Then the next time something goes wrong, you coworker could have moved out of state... :-) > A relative of sorts has seriously hosed her un-backed-up laptop. I think > it's a Windows 98 box. She's already had it to one data recovery place who > failed to recover the data, and she keeps trying to run scandisk and I > don't know what else on it. > > Can anyone recommend a reputable data recovery place or warn against any > not-so-reputable ones? I'm concerned at this point that she's just going to > get ripped off by an unscrupulous operator, but she has months of school > work on this box and she is determined to keep trying. > > My definition of an ethical place is one that will tell her to give up if > it is hopeless, without charging her in four figures. She's an unemployed > student and really can't afford this. > (she's in Newton/Needham area but planning to send the disk to NH, so > anywhere is OK) > > thanks > Betsy > > > --- > Send mail for the `bblisa' mailing list to `[EMAIL PROTECTED]'. > Mail administrative requests to `[EMAIL PROTECTED]'. --- Send mail for the `bblisa' mailing list to `[EMAIL PROTECTED]'. Mail administrative requests to `[EMAIL PROTECTED]'.
