Would you like FREE data recovery?
The infamous Seagate 7200.11 firmware fault has been explained to death on the internet, including how you might DIY the recovery. For those who are not familiar, it relates to a fault in the firmware which causes the drive to be “Busy”, and consequently it cannot be detected in the BIOS. The data is completely inaccessible. To recover the data it is necessary to send commands via the terminal input on the printed circuit board.
We still receive the 7200.11 Barracuda with the SD15 firmware or other which require recovery. In the last few years, we have received plenty and recovered them all. On a number of occasions potential customers have phoned through demanding a discount to the normal prices to recover data from this type of drive, as they consider the fault a simple one, and they “could” do it them self. I remember one IT support worker asking me to only alter the firmware and hand the drive back. That is, for us not to disk image the drive afterwards, extract the data, then check the data for errors, and provide a file listing; as this is our full data recovery process. I asked him what he would do if the HDD we handed back had errors on it. He had his answer – he had special software which could do a “low-level copy.” I asked him whether he had access to a disk imager like DeepSpar, Data Extractor, Atola Insight or Data Compass, the answer was of course ‘No’. As such, his software is unlikely to get him very far if the media is degraded.
Data Recovery Scams
Unfortunately, matters are not helped, by such advertisements as set out by a UK based data recovery company offering free data recovery on Seagate 7200.11 drives with the firmware fault. Here is an extract from their terms and conditions:
“Free Data Recovery is only available to hard drive’s affected by the firmware fault which causes the hard drive to be detected as LBA 0. The FREE data recovery is only available to hard drives from the DiamondMax 22, Barracuda 7200.11, Barracuda ES.2 SATA range.
A free evaluation will be performed to determine the failure, if the problem is not the standard corrupt firmware failure then normal recovery costs will apply. If the hard drive has additional faults then other charges may be incurred.“
Something for nothing eh? When in life do you ever get some thing for nothing from a company which (quite reasonably) aims to make a profit? What do you think the chances are this data recovery company will find a secondary, or alternative fault with your hard disk drive, and allow them to charge the full rate? Quite likely I’d say.
Performing data recovery in a professional and considerate manner, takes training, specialist equipment and an upfront attitude to the realistic cost to the customer. Our prices are transparent. You can phone on 0161 408 4857 and get a very good idea of the cost of recovery based on your description of the fault. Even better visit our premises and have a whilst-you-wait diagnostic test performed on your failed device, at which point a fixed price quotation will be generated.