Mechanical Hard Drive Recovery Help

[doomdragon6]

Hi guys. I've done a lot of researching and whatever, but I figured I'd ask you more knowledgeable fellows if you have any suggestions or anything like that.

I have a hard drive where the PCB Board and the Pre-Amplifier Chip are fried. (I accidentally plugged a SATA-to-USB transfer cable in backwards. Very expensive mistake.)

From looking around, the absolute best estimate I'm getting is about $500-$600, with one absolute quote going to $780 to recover data.

This is not a price I would like to pay or would even be able to pay anytime soon, so I am just wondering if there are any other options you guys might know about, or... literally anything. A friend who can get a discount. Etc.

I talked with a $300 flat rate repair place, which got me hopeful, but they said they would be unable to repair the preamp chip.

I pretty well know the answer to this question, but figured I'd throw it out there.

Thanks guys.

 

[GasBandit]

Sorry man. The $500+ range is what I hear to be standard for such things. This is why backups are so important.

 

[PatrThom]

By the way, "the PCB swap" entails finding another model of the exact same brand and model of hard drive with the exact same drive firmware (this is important). That means either searching around for another drive OR purchasing just the PCB from a company which specializes in such things. Otherwise, you are talking about sending it to a dedicated data recovery facility. The chances of recovery from doing so are actually pretty good, but the prices can potentially go higher than $2000, and then you have to decide if the data are worth that much to you. Many places offer "referral discounts" if you are referred from Apple/Best Buy/DriveMfrOrOtherMajorRetailer, but even then we're probably only talking 20% or so, max.

--Patrick

 

[doomdragon6]

Well, I found a place that would do the PCB swap for a flat $60. Unfortunately, their diagnostic found that the preamp was fried as well, which is where it becomes an expensive delicate procedure.

Sigh, oh well. I back up my data, but this is for a friend. At least the data IS there if she ever saves up enough to save it.