Computer repair ( HD recovery) in Raleigh? (Cary: prices, storage, safe)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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I had a HD fail on me recently, and there are some things on it that haven't been backed up recently, (I know, I know). I'd love to get these things off the drive, but it's just not worth what some places are charging with no guarantees. I've seen prices as high as $1500! Any recommendations besides Best Buy?
I had a HD fail on me recently, and there are some things on it that haven't been backed up recently, (I know, I know). I'd love to get these things off the drive, but it's just not worth what some places are charging with no guarantees. I've seen prices as high as $1500! Any recommendations besides Best Buy?
I have referred this guy to clients who's hard drive was not able to be restored by companies like Geek Squad and the such.
call Larry Fathery owner of Systech Systems at 919-414-4749 in Raleigh. Tell him Craig sent you.
Buy an enclosure to fit the size HD you have (laptop or desktop). They are around $30. Put the "bad" HD into the enclosure and plug it into a good computer's USB port. It will show up as an external drive under "My Computer". Drag & drop. 90% of the time that will get everything.
If that doesn't work there is a program I downloaded that did work when one completely died on me. I found an older version for free online. Basically you did the same thing, but when I opened up the HD it didn't show any files. I used this software to scan it (took a few hours) and it recovered most of the data. I can't remember the name of it now though, sorry, it was about 6 months ago. A web search will generate some, almost all you can download the "demo" version of them and scan. You just can't recover until you pay. All I did was search Google for the product name and an older version came up that worked fine...and was free.
Absolute Computers in Cary. They specialize in it and are good at it. I can't recommend them highly enough - very upfront and transparent about repair quotes and they ALWAYS give you a quote before commencing any work and all diagnostics are free.
It's been plugged into another PC but we haven't been able to access anything yet.
There's a chance something like Parted Magic or similar can fix the partition info, to allow you to access the files.
This won't help for now, but the link below shows how to use Sync Toy and Task Scheduler to set up automated back-ups. The good thing about Sync Toy is you can configure it to only back up changed files (so it runs quick) and you don't have to deal with Windows Restore to get the files back - it is just a copy of the files, not a big archive file.
We've tried freezing it. My backup files are on a separate HD that I keep for storing photos, music, etc. The usual tricks like restoring from the partition on the fried HD itself, won't work. It won't even boot up. Can't boot in safe mode, etc. None of the usual stuff works when it won't boot, at all. Attempts to find data while plugged into another PC have yet to yield and results.
I will lose SOME stuff....but finding a 3 month old backup helps save me a lot of money.
Gonna be more vigilant about backing up at least monthly from now on. I have backup software, but my problem is I don't keep my extra HD connected all the time. And any backup files on the dead HD, are useless.
Online backup. It's the way to go. You can back up to other hardware, but that can fail, too - and in the event of a fire, everything is lost.
We use CrashPlan. It backs up files to the cloud immediately, as soon as you add it or make a change to an existing file. It's $2 per month for up to 10GB, or $4 per month for unlimited storage. I take hundreds of pictures each month, so it's been a definite timesaver.
They have a free version, but it does not include cloud storage.
There are other free backup options out there, but this was the best for our needs.
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