I have been given system recovery software by WD, which I could use to (try) and recover my data. This yielded a lot of recovered files, but with a lost directory structure. I have now been offered (free) data recovery by a third party, has anyone had a similar offer and was the result a fully recovered hard drive?
I would be very careful about “third party” data recovery people. I’ve seen cases where these people have done more harm than good. The reason we have data recovery partners is because we know that they are legitimate, and they all have clean rooms. Also, if someone is advertising to you on the community, that is a violation of our usage guidelines and they will be banned.
I would be very careful about “third party” data recovery people. I’ve seen cases where these people have done more harm than good. The reason we have data recovery partners is because we know that they are legitimate, and they all have clean rooms. Also, if someone is advertising to you on the community, that is a violation of our usage guidelines and they will be banned.
Sorry, I guess that was not entirely clear. I mean I was offered recovery through WD.
The Kroll Ontrack did help in the disaster… Got the files back, most in random serial- numbered folders, and w help from Media Pro I could sort through hundreds of files at the time at least sorting them in Y/ M -folders. Some even had the secondary folder structure intact!
Mixed media folders like indesign projects and homepage folders were all sorted in file- extension folders and useless.
But i could save about 90% of my stuff, so thanks for all help !
Now I will reformat the WD and see if It works alright.
My drive currently seems to be on the way to Norway, will post here as soon as I know whether the result Kroll obtains is better than my personal result using their software.
Update 4. AKabas - Data Mechanix in LA did the recovery. I got a report from them today:
Percent of drive recovered: 95-98%
Approximate amount of data recovered: 790GB
Notes: Due to the unreadable areas on the drive some files may be damaged.
The recovered files have been backed up to your replacement drive provided by Western Digital. DataMechanix keeps all recovered data for 30 days after the day of shipment. After this date, your data will be destroyed. If you have any problems please contact us within the 30 day period. You will receive an e-mail directly from UPS website once your item has shipped with tracking information. The package will require a signature upon delivery.
I received a UPS shipment notification shortly after the e-mail from Data Mechanix. Delivery of the replacement drive with my recovered data is expected next Thursday. I’ll report back to the community on the condition of the recovered files.
After upgrading to Marvericks, my WD MY Book Studio II (Raid 1) worked fine for about a week. At that time, I did not have the WD software installed. Suddenly, one day, the Studio II was reset back to the default state and I lost all my data. Luckily, I had most of the data backup on other disks.
I thought that it might be because I did not install the WD software. So I downloaded the software from WD web sites and installed it. Reformatted the Studio II (Raid 1) and moved files back to it. It worked for more than two weeks. I was so happy and thought that the problem was resolved. Suddenly, today, the same thing happened again. So I would like to warn people that do not trust the WD Studio II (and possibly other WDs) in the Mavericks environment. Although it may appear to work fine after installation, there is a risk that it may fail one day. Wait untill WD and/or Apple solve this issue, do not attempt to do so. Since I need a RAID 1 drive urgently, I may buy a Lacie (though much more expensive) and forget about the Studio II (and possibly any WD extrenal drives from now on).
By the way, the WD hard disks themeselves seem to be OK when working in other external drive cases. I have a WD hard disk put into a Century external case and use it for Time Machine. It has been working fine all the time.
I have received the analysis results from WD’s partner. They are also unable to recover the directory tree and file names. Sure, they can recover the files but I could also do that using any piece of data recovery software myself. In terms of the data I had on the disks it feels like I had a house of cards and all I can get back is a boxed deck.
Assuming this will be true for the generic case, I sincerely hope for all of you that your data loss does not affect you or your business too much. I personally thought my data would be safe on a mirrored RAID set, and how this data got lost still seems surreal to me. The ironic part is that if I had bought a single drive external disk, I would have not installed the bundled WD software that caused this, and I probably would have run daily time machine backups because I know having data on one drive just isn’t safe.
That is indeed bad news. My drive is about to go to Kroll Ontrack. From what I heard in the forums so far I doubt that they will be able to recover the file directory. It will mean hundreds of thousands of files renamed and thrown together. It will be a nightmare for my photography and video business. I hope I am wrong.
I too used the culprit WD software just for the RAID setup. My RAID backup was also damaged right after the incident.
First, WD has to offer to do data recovery on your drive. That’s not part of their standard warranty. I suggest opening a case with them and also with Apple. You should expect a phone call from WD Tech Support to walk through some diagnostics. If they are satisfied that it is a problem relating to their drive and software, WD may offer you data recovery. I’d allow 3 weeks at that point.
I know there is a kind of professional tool which can help to recover lost data because of installation. This tool is pretty useful, and it is very easy-to-use, so you can have a try. Visit this website and you will get more detailed information about it. http://www.easeus.com//resource/recover-files-after-reinstalling-windows.htm
They called and didin’t say anything about recovery, They offered initally another external, but w/o FW800. I told them I wanted FW800, so they offered a FW800 portable. iwanted what I had, but didn’t feeel that was going to be happening.
Update 5. I received a replacement HD with the recovered files today from Data Mechanix in LA. The replacement HD was supplied by WD and was a 3 TB Mybook Studio with USB 2/3 interface only. It’s not an exact replacement for my old 3TB HD since the new one doesn’t include Firewire and there is no LCD display on the “spine”, but I can live with it.
The better news is that substantially all of my important files were apparently restored completely. They have file names and most appear intact and usable. I had an alternate boot partition that was corrupted and I didn’t even try to restore a time machine backup, but software installers, photos, videos, disk images, and the other most important data were largely recovered intact. For me, that was about 110,000 files spread over 320 GB. I expect that I’ll find some corrupt or missing files after awhile, but I am pleased with the recovery.
My next steps will be to reformat the drive for use as before.
This links to My Book Studio LX page and i don’t see any WD Software Uninstaller??? Can’t you guys get even simple stuff right… You are costing me hours of valuable time.
You can now download the WD Software Uninstaller. This utility will remove Mac WD SmartWare and WD Drive Manager software. You can find the uninstaller under any of the Mac Drive Downloads sections such as the My Book Studio below.
