Need a data recovery center.

[bigdogchris]

I have a user who has failed hard drive, ie ticking, grinding, knocking. It is a 2.5" Hitachi notebook drive. The drive is undetectable in any partition/disk/live disc scanning program I've used, even though it is visible in the bios.

I've come to the conclusion there is some type of internal component damaged and told this person it's going to cost a lot of money to have their data recovered but they are willing to pay.

So, what I'm looking for is a reputable data recovery center that has good prices. I'd prefer someone who will give a free estimate once they receive the drive. The local company I'm trying to get a hold of is not returning calls so I need someone in the US that can do this. I'd prefer something in Northwest or Detroit area.

Also, if you have any other idea's what I could try, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

[odditory]

Anyone with a clean room and people that know what they're doing is going to be a lot of money ($1000 and up). The symptoms you describe for that drive sound like just about the worst case scenario -- i.e. crashed heads and surface damage, and that requires a company with a library of components that they can swap in temporarily to get the data off the platters.

That said I just had a good experience with Drivesavers.com -- my friend's Western Digital 2Tb WD20EADS drive failed, no clicking but was not seen by BIOS anymore. $2300 later he got all of his data back. Took about 2 weeks from start to finish. They did do a free estimate, and sent a prepaid shipping box free for him to send his drive in to them. They actually came in much lower than their estimate- originally they'd quoted "up to $3700".

So it comes down to how valuable the data is to him in terms of dollars.