Data recovery?

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
A colleague*, who works from home, had some kind of virus/malware.  He took his computer to some sketchy local guy to have it fixed, and is now being told that his hard drive is wiped clean - documents, photos, music all gone.  Of course, he had no backup.
 
I know there are data recovery services out there, but I don't know if my colleague is fucked beyond help (I suspect so), or which vendor might be worth giving a shot with getting the data back.
 
Any recommedations?
 
Thanks.
 
*not me, really.  It has been me before, but isn't this time.
 

AlNipper49

Huge Member
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 3, 2001
44,855
Mtigawi
OilCanShotTupac said:
A colleague*, who works from home, had some kind of virus/malware.  He took his computer to some sketchy local guy to have it fixed, and is now being told that his hard drive is wiped clean - documents, photos, music all gone.  Of course, he had no backup.
 
I know there are data recovery services out there, but I don't know if my colleague is fucked beyond help (I suspect so), or which vendor might be worth giving a shot with getting the data back.
 
Any recommedations?
 
Thanks.
 
*not me, really.  It has been me before, but isn't this time.
If it was the crypt locker virus then he's more or less fucked
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
I'm not clear whether the data was allegedly destroyed by the malware, or by the guys who tried to fix it.

Either way-is there a vendor who is good and trustworthy for the recovery?
 

crystalline

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 12, 2009
5,771
JP
TechFusion, the Boston firm that advertises on NPR, is good.  I know about one successful recovery and one failed one.
 

AlNipper49

Huge Member
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 3, 2001
44,855
Mtigawi
OilCanShotTupac said:
I'm not clear whether the data was allegedly destroyed by the malware, or by the guys who tried to fix it.

Either way-is there a vendor who is good and trustworthy for the recovery?
I would start with a good IT guy first. The data recovery can be prohibitively expensive . I'd say that 9 out of 10 drives that get sent out for recovery are physically damaged. Everything else can generally be recovered by whatever tools (Recuva is open source). Crypt Locker is the new virus due jour, its ransomware that encrypts all of the files rather than deletes them. Its everywhere right now.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
False alarm.  Sorry about that.  The colleague (not very techically literate) tells me that everything has been found, nothing lost.
 
Thanks.