Data Recovery

My hard disc drive has died on my Apple Mac.

I have everything backed up apart from my photos...was going to do it when I had time and space!!!

So entirely my fault but have lost 1000s of photos.

Apple said to try a Data Recovery company but could give no recommendations.

Has anyone had any success with data recovery? If so who did they use?

Kate

I fear it all depends on what has gone wrong. If the fault is with the hard drive then it coud be very expensive. If it is the Mac itself then the drive might be readable in another computer as anned suggests. If you have a local small computer shop/repairer I would ask them.

The fault on mine was the hard drive, the bloke used his computer connected to my computer complete with my bad hard disc still in my own computer, then he was able to transfer the picture and document files from my computer to his computer.
I couldn't even load windows on my computer because of the hard drive fault, but the drive still had all my files virtually intact, it was just the problem of accessing them without being able to run the program files.
I'm not all that good with computers so some of the above may be a bit muddled.

Kate, I hope you'll find a solution.

I have been thinking about this. What is the best/recommended way to archive photos? Save on discs or external hard drive?

Hi Kate

I realise we are drifting off topic - but I have used a PC but using a Mac now and I find the Time Machine backup is the best backup manager I ever used.

If you have a PC, keep your system and your personal files separate. Invest in Retrospect Backup or similar scheduling backup software like PC's 'Backup'. Purchase an external hard drive which is large enough to hold all your files and use it solely to backup. Having an external hard drive will help minimise the risk if your computer dies. It also means you could potential keep it to avoid everything getting stolen.

Personal I wouldn't use discs. At currently 4GB, why bother. 500GB external hards drives are available and reasonably cheap at £50. Look for a USB2 type for maximum connectivity. 1000GB [1TB] and 2000GB [2GB] are also available.

It might be worth googling 'Data Recovery specialist'. Dont use PC World - you may as well buy some Data Recovery software and try doing it yourself. From what I can technically remember from my experience of this, is that hopefully it's a tree structure error. All the data of OK but not accessible. When a drive doesn't spin that's the big issue.

Expectations with Data Recovery
Do not expect your files if 'recoverable' to be in any order. Recovered files are literally that - recovered. Sometimes if you're lucky there is a folder structure but in most cases after hours of your progress bar ticking away, you get 1000s of serialised filenames (Rec000098.jpg, Rec000099.jpg) to sift through. Not a pleasant experience. I can only describe it to be like walking around the burnt out remains of a cherished home. Finding pieces of familar memories and feeling sick that you never installed a fire alarm. My data recovery experience was more emotional than technical, sorry.

Good luck with it.
Neil