Data Recovery - Recommendations in London?

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GafferTape

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Morning,

My girlfriend’s Dell laptop has seemingly suffered a variation of the Blue Screen of Death this morning, and now the loading process on start-up only goes on for about 15-20seconds before restarting again.

Starting up through Safe Mode doesn’t help, as it lists a bunch of drivers and then stops within seconds.

So my question is can anyone recommend a data recovery person/company in London that can either come round this evening or tomorrow, or we could drive out if required. I’m not concerned about saving the laptop (it’s a two-year old Dell), but the data is important. Most recent back-up was a couple of weeks back, so would be nice to save the work done since.

Any help much appreciated.
 
Hi I have a device that allows me to read any HDD out of the computer that may work I.m in Northolt if that is any good to you for a try, I have just recovered doc's from a friends pc that had the Blue Screen of Death.
 
Ive got some software from Ontrack which i paid for & works fine.

You can either send me your drive & i can have a go for you or send you
a link & you can try yourself.

You will need another computer & some means of connecting your laptop
HD externally.
 
I have had similar problems in past - in most cases the Windows install is corrupted but the data on the HDD is fine so once you retrieve your data you can do a fresh install of windows .

Ive used a USB caddy for 2.5 inch Hard Drive - you simply remove the hard drive from the laptop ( can somtimes be as simple as removing one screw and a cover) and slot it into the caddy which when connected to the USB port acts as an external hard drive.

The hard drive can then be accessed as normal to retrieve the data you require. These caddys can picked picked up from most tech retailers eg Maplin for between £15-£25 -
 
h45 said:
in most cases the Windows install is corrupted but the data on the HDD is fine so once you retrieve your data you can do a fresh install of windows .
Click to expand...

That is very true (forgot to mention that).

My caddy cost me £8 form Ebay.

You just need to know whether its Ide or Sata.

IDE

SATA
 
Thanks for your suggestions.

What I'm concerned about is that it goes a few seconds into the Windows starting up screen, and then just restarts. I'm hoping that it's an install/driver fault, as I can hear the hard-drive spinning on the restart as normal.

I think I've got a caddy, but it may be for a 3.5" drive - will try to pop out to Maplin at lunchtime to pick up a smaller caddy.

My main worry is that the HDD contains 4years of Phd work - so I wouldn't want to do anything untoward with the drive. What would you consider be my safest option to get the data back - the caddy approach? I could probably remove the HDD without a problem, and there's probably a guide online somewhere anywhere.

Just wondering whether it's worth phoning up these PC Repair Companies and see what they've got to say for themselves, from looking at a few sites, it looks like they're targeted more at people who know very little about PCs..
 
You should be able to remove the HD quite easily by removing a cover &
either lifting it out or sliding it out as with most IBM's.

Plug the HD into an external caddy & your pc should show it as another
drive.

When you open the drive, all the files/folders & operating system will be
available.

What i have done in the past is create an new folder on the desktop of the
working machine & move the files that you need over.

When you are happy that you have moved everything you need, put it back
in your laptop & complete a full fresh install.
 
With regards to causing any further problems by using a caddy - I would say that it is unlikely as connecting the HDD to another PC would not alter any data held on the drive - its really just a first stage of checking if you can access the drive.

From my limited experience with PC Repair companies they will broadly follow the same procedure - before attempting a repair of the machine they will remove the HDD from the problem machine & connect it to another machine to access it/backup any data - so that would be the approach you would take with using a caddy.

That said however, if you are not certain on doing it yourself it might make sense to pay professional to do it but as its unlikely to cause any damage by trying it yourself it might work out a lot cheaper.
 
Thanks, it's a Fujitsu SATA drive, so will pick up a caddy and try this out this evening.
 
GafferTape said:
Thanks, it's a Fujitsu SATA drive, so will pick up a caddy and try this out this evening.
Click to expand...

Hi GafferTape- a caddy is the way to go here. Be careful when removing the hard drive- not to drop it etc (obviously :) ). Also be aware that it may offer the opinion to format the drive when you first plug it in- make sure you say no to that. Shout if you need any additional help.
 
Caddy worked like a charm - set up and connected in a couple of minutes. Best £25 I've ever spent. Now going to spend the weekend gradually moving things across to another laptop and then do a fresh install on the Dell.

Thanks all for your help - very much appreciated :) .
 
be careful you dont transfer the virus over from the hard drive on to the computer your using

as it could potentially do the same damage to the other computer

make sure you scan everything for viruses etc
 
overthere said:
be careful you dont transfer the virus over from the hard drive on to the computer your using

as it could potentially do the same damage to the other computer

make sure you scan everything for viruses etc
Click to expand...


Who mentioned virus?
 
well the computer crashing and not loading drivers could be the result of a virus
so its better to be safe then sorry
 
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