I turned my computer on and waited, and waited, and waited. The blue screen stared me down, pinwheel spinning in the center, with no regard for my anticipation. Several minutes slowly passed by before I felt justified giving it a hard restart. Only this time, nothing happened. No "computer-blue" screen, no spinning wheel, just black. This little dance between my computer and I dragged on for a couple of long, boring, frustrating hours. Needless to say, it was hopeless. Off to the Mac doctors I would have to go.
Diagnosis: Your hard drive is dead. Oh, and your warranty expired last week.
Was this my computer's way of telling me he wasn't happy in this relationship? Do we need therapy or something? He couldn't have kicked the bucket under warranty? But all I could say was, OK, fine, but what about my precious data? (Here's me kicking myself over and over again for assuming my projects would be safe over the holiday being stored on my trusty little iMac.) I got a re-assuring "we'll do what we can to recover your data...but it will cost you" from the doctor. Fine.
A week later, I receive a phone call from the Doc. "I'm sorry to tell you, but we cannot retrieve any data off your hard drive. Don't worry, we won't charge you." That's all well and fine, but my data is still sitting helplessly inside that damaged pile of rubbish.
What do I do, Doc? What do I do?
He recommends some other data recovery service. Says they're the best doctors around with the best tools for the job, plus you'll get a discount. I package up the damaged drive, pop it in the mail, and cross my fingers.
One week later, on Christmas eve, my phone rings. The woman on the other end says "I have some good news..." Oh, Merry Christmas to me! They've found my data. She explains that the drive suffered a MASSIVE hardware malfunction. They had to rip the thing apart and work long hard hours, but they were able to recover 40,000 items and 25 GBs worth of stuff. The catch: The platter with the file structure had been damaged beyond repair. This just meant I would have to open each and every file to determine what it was. NO PROBLEM!
You may think that was it. I thank these guys, receive my data in the mail 2 days later and go on my merry way? Well, yes and no.
It turns out that the majority of the 25 GB were system icons that I didn't know existed and have no use for, not to mention all the miscellaneous manuals in 12,000 different languages. Most of my original Photoshop/InDesign/Illustrator files were lost or so damaged they could not be opened. I did get some output files back that were critical, but many of the files I was hoping would return in perfect condition, did not.
The moral of the story: BACK UP YOUR STUFF! All the time. Do NOT assume that any data will be safe at any time for any reason. Always have at least 2 probably 3 copies of your most critical files stored on separate devices.
Data Recovery Recommendation: Drive Savers. Although I didn't get everything back, I highly recommend these guys. They're professional, personable and fast. And they recovered data that, by all other accounts, was unrecoverable.
