So my external hard drive AND my back up external hard drive (both over 6 years old) gave up at the same time this weekend. After digging around on the internet, talking to work's IT team and researching on yelp I gave a couple of external hard drive retrieval companies a call.

I choose to go with Hard Drive 911 Data Recovery as they were the most professional, answered all my questions - and they mentioned the clean room. Yes they knew it was important when opening these things up to be using a clean room. I filled out their form, and called for a pickup. While I had John on the phone I asked him about how I should modify my backup system and he spent time with me going through what he would suggest doing (two external hard drives, differing brands, backing up once a week - the sensible stuff). I asked if I should include the power supply to the drive I was having fixed for the pick up. John said yes as they have a thorough step wise testing procedure, and this was the first thing they looked at. Which made me realize that having checked different cables, PCs etc. I had not tested the external hard drive with another power supply. And that was it. I called John back and told him they now appeared to work. He continued to give me sound advice (back them up immediately, do not turn them off etc.). I learnt my lesson. Hopefully there will not be an next time. But if there is - I will definitely use them again .

So in summary - no I did not have to use them - but

• very good customer service
• straight fwd pricing - with an upfront diagnostic fee that is netted off against any future work required
• they manage expectations well - ie. we cannot tell you exactly how much this will cost, until we have run the diagnostics - but generally it is in this range
• honest and patient

Jasper D, San Francisco, CA, January 10, 2011