[Cialug] Hard Drive Crashed

[Nathan Stien]

Hello all,

I have a 20GB laptop drive that has started knocking really loudly at
boot, and it's got valuable data on it.  Most likely a head has gone
bad.

I was wondering if anyone had a favorite data recovery service
company.  They have to be savvy enough to perform hardware surgery on
the drive.  Money is indeed an object, so low prices are good prices.

I googled around and have called some companies for price quotes,
including adrdatarecovery.com and acsdata.com.  I'm looking for advice
from people who have actually gone through this.  If there's an
Iowa-based company that does this, so much the better.

I doubt I have the testicular fortitude to attempt someting like this:
http://www.hackaday.com/2005/11/17/hard-drive-resurrection/

My biggest objection to the above method is that how would you align
the platters after you move them to the new drive enclosure?  It seems
more than slightly impossible.

Anyways, thanks in advance to anyone with some tips for me.

- Nathan

-- 
"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying
to find easier ways to do something." - Robert A. Heinlein