Author Topic: Todays Data Recovery Tip (Tip #3) (Read 3199 times)

DH Data Recovery · « **on:** July 31, 2012, 10:29:35 PM »

Never use a refurbished drive to store any important data, even if only for daily usage. Basically the refurbishing company mess around with bad drives to make them usable - for example they will take a 1tb drive that has 25% of the drive failed and they will then refurbish it as a 500gb drive. Always stay away from these drives. They are also way more difficult to recover since they don't use any standard parts they are generally made using any random parts put together - which makes recovery way more difficult

Yeki89 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 31, 2012, 10:54:27 PM »

wow! But why wont they make it back to a full 1 tb drive?

Name Changed · « **Reply #2 on:** July 31, 2012, 10:59:57 PM »

That would cost them more money, even if they could sell it for more... they would actually have to replace parts instead of reconfigure it as a 500GB which costs them pennies.

elikay · « **Reply #3 on:** July 31, 2012, 11:05:41 PM »

Quote from: yeki89 on July 31, 2012, 10:54:27 PM

wow! But why wont they make it back to a full 1 tb drive?

They mark off all the bad sectors as unusable and are left with 500 GB, IME if you have bad sectors it will only get worse.

Centurion · « **Reply #4 on:** July 31, 2012, 11:18:58 PM »

like a 4 door car they make it a 2 door.. you get the picture

DH Data Recovery · « **Reply #5 on:** July 31, 2012, 11:53:51 PM »

Exactly right. I've actually seen drives where they broke off part of a set of heads just to get it to skip one half of a platter. There's no one on top of them as long as it works when they test it they can mark it as refurbished.

elikay · « **Reply #6 on:** August 01, 2012, 12:14:08 AM »

A bit OT, what is the best (i.e cheapest) way to recover from a quick format, not overwritten.

DH Data Recovery · « **Reply #7 on:** August 01, 2012, 12:17:08 AM »

Free program called Recuva - sometimes works pretty well and def cheap:)

elikay · « **Reply #8 on:** August 01, 2012, 12:23:30 AM »

Quote from: DH Data Recovery on August 01, 2012, 12:17:08 AM

Free program called Recuva - sometimes works pretty well and def cheap:)

yup but then you don't get folder structure

DH Data Recovery · « **Reply #9 on:** August 01, 2012, 12:31:13 AM »

I believe they have an advanced option that can get back the structure. Or you can always spend a few $ and get runtime software get data back.

Dan · « **Reply #10 on:** August 01, 2012, 08:46:01 AM »

Best to recover a picture that you were forced to delete from your camera?

DH Data Recovery · « **Reply #11 on:** August 01, 2012, 09:02:27 AM »

well I have a special $1000 recovery and forensics program that I use just for photo recovery.

Dan · « **Reply #12 on:** August 01, 2012, 09:08:05 AM »

And for amateurs?

DH Data Recovery · « **Reply #13 on:** August 01, 2012, 09:17:55 AM »

recuva does a decent job, you also have get data back, and lexar has a program for image recovery which is pretty good

hocker · « **Reply #14 on:** August 01, 2012, 09:22:05 AM »

@ DH Data Recovery

My old laptop the backlight burnt out although it turns on the screen remains blank. My question is twofold:

1. Is it possible to fix it a reasonable price?
2. How can I recover all the data from the hard drive although the screen doesn't work?

Thanks for your assistance!

DH Data Recovery · « **Reply #15 on:** August 01, 2012, 09:25:06 AM »

are you attempting to replace the screen and recover the data or are you asking how much I would charge.

Name Changed · « **Reply #16 on:** August 01, 2012, 09:30:26 AM »

@Hocker

Laptop Displays could be repaired in the $100-$150 range
Data could be recovered off the hard drive by simply removing it, and connect to a different PC.

Speaking on the topic of refurb drives.
I once bought a Hard Drive on eBay (years ago) and basically it was a refub hard drive that was in an enclosure. The seller listed it as a new drive.
Basically about 2-3 days after I got it it stopped working, I DOA it, and exchanged it... The replacement stopped working after a few months.

I realized that it was a refub once the 2nd one stopped working, I opened the enclosure and contacted the HD Manufacturer, the were a weird name - I did a little research, and it was I think it was a company that refurbs Maxtor drives. no one to get a hold of either way.

Basically I learnt my lesson - not buy off brand hard drive. Period.

hocker · « **Reply #17 on:** August 01, 2012, 09:37:29 AM »

Quote from: Name Changed on August 01, 2012, 09:30:26 AM

@Hocker

Laptop Displays could be repaired in the $100-$150 range
Data could be recovered off the hard drive by simply removing it, and connect to a different PC.

Speaking on the topic of refurb drives.
I once bought a Hard Drive on eBay (years ago) and basically it was a refub hard drive that was in an enclosure. The seller listed it as a new drive.
Basically about 2-3 days after I got it it stopped working, I DOA it, and exchanged it... The replacement stopped working after a few months.

I realized that it was a refub once the 2nd one stopped working, I opened the enclosure and contacted the HD Manufacturer, the were a weird name - I did a little research, and it was I think it was a company that refurbs Maxtor drives. no one to get a hold of either way.

Basically I learnt my lesson - not buy off brand hard drive. Period.

I guess I would just want to copy all the data on to a portable hard drive. How would I connect the hard drive to another PC in order for me to copy everything?

No way to connect a another PC to the laptop and have the other PC pull everything off and put onto portable drive?

@DH I'm in Israel so I don't think you would be able to do it regardless.

DH Data Recovery · « **Reply #18 on:** August 01, 2012, 09:46:48 AM »

ok. So laptop drives are either sata or ide the easiest way in my opinion for a home user to transfer himself is to get a hrd drive enclosure for abt $10 and then just connect the drive and copy.

DH Data Recovery · « **Reply #19 on:** August 01, 2012, 10:01:32 AM »

you may need some help once you connect the drive - sometimes you have change permissions on the user directory. If you run into a folder that tells you access denied, lemme know and I will tell you how to proceed