Looking for Recommendations for Computer Repair in Houston

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mark460

New Member
Are there any good computer repair businesses in Houston you would recommend? I'm looking to get someone to look at an external hard drive I'm having problems with. (I know I should have backed up my files, LOL) I did a lot of online searching and read reviews and many places have complaints. I'm just looking for somebody that won't jerk me around and do honest work. Thanks
 
What issue are you having with it? Have you tried actually taking the drive out of the case and hooking it up directly to the computer?
 
Yeah took it out of the case, etc, tried recovery software, etc. Its not clicking. I'm just not a "computer guy". I just want take it somewhere without getting jerked around.
 
Usually a computer repair place won't be able to do anything if you are unable to access the drive. You will have to send it to a professional data recovery company and have them do it, however, this will cost in the hundreds of dollars. Does the drive even spin up? What is the drive actually doing?
 
Drive does spin up. Since its not clicking and drive does spin up, I was thinking a data recovery business could retrieve the data. I was concerned about some of these places charging a flat rate whether the job is "easy" or whether it takes a full blown disassembling and moving the disk to another drive.

Oh, I thinking that also maybe a shop could use a linux operation system to access this drive. would I need a data recovery specialist for this?
 
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When you attach the drive to a computer, does the system recognize the drive? If not, then your only choice is to send the drive to a recovery center where they have the special "clean" room in order to repair or switch the platters into a new casing. A regular computer repair place can't do this.

Is the data on the drive that important to spend the few hundred dollars?
 
mark460 said:
Oh, I thinking that also maybe a shop could use a linux operation system to access this drive. would I need a data recovery specialist for this?
Click to expand...

I have done this before all you need is a bootable Linux OS. Any live CD will work. If you open up the hard drive while booted from the live CD there is a chance that you can get the information off that way.
 
I have done this before all you need is a bootable Linux OS. Any live CD will work. If you open up the hard drive while booted from the live CD there is a chance that you can get the information off that way.
Click to expand...

Sound good, if I could find somebody to do this. I don't have Linux and I wouldn't know what to do if I did.
 
I can help you through the process. It is not very hard but it will take a bit of time. If you want to rescue the data this would be a good thing to try before you spend any money.
 
When you attach the drive to a computer, does the system recognize the drive? If not, then your only choice is to send the drive to a recovery center where they have the special "clean" room in order to repair or switch the platters into a new casing. A regular computer repair place can't do this.
Click to expand...

No the computer doesn't recognize the drive, but this doesn't necessary mean they would have to switch the platter into another casing, right?

Is the data on the drive that important to spend the few hundred dollars?
Click to expand...

Yes, I have family pictures that can't be replaced. I was afraid it could be way over a thousand to get this done.
 
I can help you through the process. It is not very hard but it will take a bit of time. If you want to rescue the data this would be a good thing to try before you spend any money.
Click to expand...

What would I need in order to do this?
 
A working computer to get the Linux Live CD working
A blank CD
A separate storage drive/flash drive/CD or DVD to transfer the files to (if this works)


I'll get a how to posted up in a few minutes.
 
Download the ISO for this Linux version.

This link will start the download:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/10.04.3/ubuntu-10.04.3-desktop-i386.iso

Once the download finished take the ISO and burn the contents to a CD. That will make the bootable Linux Live CD.

EDIT: you can use this software to burn the ISO if you do not have a program to do so already
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

Take the live CD and put it in the DC//DVD drive. Power on the pc. There will be a menu. There will be an option that will say something like Try Ubuntu. This will boot Ubuntu without making any changes to the Hard Drive.

Once the Operating System is booted you can access the Hard Drive from there. I can give you a bit more help when you get there.

EDIT: a bit more information on accessing the drive.

In Ubuntu there is a top menu that has Applications Places and System. Places will have all of your files and folders in it. A bit down the list there should be a drive that is labeled with a bunch of letters and numbers. Mine is something like 0082E6AF82EE6A7. That is your hard drive

Since the drive is not being recognized by windows you may need to boot the Live CD a few times to get it mounted correctly. I think I tried 3 or 4 times before I got it when I did recovery for a friend.

If the drive mounts correctly and you can access the data on the drive you should be able to get to your files and transfer them off. (this all depends on the drive cooperating with you)

In order to get to your files you need to go through your folders and find the folders that hold your files. I have a windows 7 system that I access so for me I can get to the folders by going through (hard drive)/Users/My User name (yours will be different). The "/" between the different files indicate different folders that I went into to get to the next folder.

*NOTE* The path that I used to get into my files were for my Windows 7 system. Windows Vista and XP may have a different path that you will need to use but the concept will still be the same.

Once you access your folder that is labeled with your user name you should see your documents, music, pictures, desktop, downloads folders along with a lot of others that are of no importance to you for data recovery. When you go into the folders (like Documents) all of your files will be there for you to take to another location. Just copy and paste to the new drive. :D

The transfer may take a while being that the drive is barely working if at all.

If the drive no longer reads or un mounts itself it may be a good idea to give it a break and let it cool for a while. While I was doing this every day or so I had to turn it off for a night and get it remounted in the morning.

I hope this works! It would be great to see all of the data get rescued. Good Luck and as always, if your have any questions I will be more than happy to explain any of the steps in better detail.
 
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I really appreciate you willing to help. Let me get my act together and get an extra drive, etc. and I'll get back to you. thanks
 
No problem. Happy to help. I'll be checking back in on the thread to see if you have any problems or need more information on going further in the process.

I added a bit more to the instructions if that helps. I was a bit low on time when I wrote it the first time.
 
Ok, I have an extra external drive, I downloaded the iso file and copied it to a CD, but after looking again what you wrote, looks like I need to use the second link to burn it contents of the iso. All I did was copy the iso file, so I assume that is not what I was supposed to do.

Thanks
 
most burning programs should have an option to burn an iso or disc image.

choose the file you downloaded and the program will create the bootable linux disc
 
I've been so busy with other stuff. I finally burned a disk and my computer can boot on it. I get the prompt: (initramfs). Is this where I should be? What would be the process for trying to access the drive now? I reallly appreciate the help.

Thanks
Mark
 
Ok, something is wrong because I didn't get anything like the screenshots in that link. Here is the message I got:

screen2.jpg


Any ideas?
 
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