Hi Everyone,
I just thought I’d write a quick post about a data repair service which really messed me about, to help anyone else with a broken hard drive or computer avoid the misery…
The company in question are based in North Finchley, and go by several different names- with several websites leading back to the same service. I have copied and pasted their contact details below, but would advise checking that the company you are dealing with are not based in North Finchley, as it’s almost certainly the same one.
I dropped a WD Passport 3tb hard drive on the floor- it must have fallen about 1 metre onto a lino floor. Neither the power cable nor the firewire cable were attached. I immediately took the drive to the Data Recovery Lab whose details are below. They said they would look at the drive and get back to me. The same day, I received a quote for £550 + VAT, with a long analysis detailing extensive mechanical and electrical faults in the drive. I thought it was very expensive, and rang to check with them that the price was accurate. They confirmed that it was, and told me I wouldn’t find a cheaper quote elsewhere. Still, I asked around, and true enough, most places were quoting a similar price. However, about two hours after my first phone call, the Data Recovery Lab rang me back to say that they were able to see a list of my files. They read the list out, and sure enough, every single file that had been on the drive was there. They asked me whether there were any particularly important files for recovery, and I told them two in particular. They said this was good as they were “on a less damaged part of the hard drive” and they could bring the price down by £200. I didn’t think this sounded kosher, seeing as they had originally quoted so much more, and had only offered to bring the price down when they thought I might go elsewhere, plus they were able to read me my file names, which I hadn’t told them before. I told them I was taking the hard drive back, and immediately went to collect it.
I then took the drive to a registered IT engineer who merely had a look at the internal drive, without opening this up, as he would have needed a certified clean room. He tried to power up the drive, but found that it wouldn’t power up. He was very surprised, considering that it had only been dropped when it wasn’t plugged in. He put me in touch with another data repair specialist who had good reviews and sounded trustworthy. I sent the drive with a brand new 3TB hard drive via UPS to the second data repair service, who soon came back to me to let me know that the PCB had had its NVRAM chip removed, and the seal to the motor spindle cover plate retaining screw had also been punctured, although it did not look like the cover plate was removed to inspect the platters / HSA. The Data Recovery Lab denied all responsibility, refusing to even talk to the technician at the other repairs service.
Throughout their customer service was appalling- I would call them and they would suddenly take another call in the middle of our conversation- and when I pulled them up on this I was shouted at.
In summary, based on specialist advice, it looks as though all that was ever wrong with the drive was a blown TVS so in theory the drive only needed a PCB repair. This means that not only was I misquoted originally for a repair which would have been more expensive than necessary, but that either through spite or incompetence, this company have damaged my hard drive, making the data unrecoverable, and refused to cooperate subsequently to help me retrieve my data. They even had the cheek to say that if I took the drive back to them they could recover the data.
Please share this story with as many people as you can so that others can avoid being duped and inconvenienced by the same lamentable service.
Stella
T1: 0333 5 777 120
T2: 0207 516 1077
Emergency 24/7: 075 380 7 1627
Web: datarecoverylab.co.uk | datarecovery.uk.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/harddriverecovery/
Google+: Google Plus Profile II
YouTube Channel: Data Recovery Lab Youtube Channel
Open: Mon-Fri 9am-6:30pm
Address: 24-26 Arcadia Ave, Finchley Central (Off Regents Park Road), London N3 2JU
