Any affordable data recovery outlets out there?

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ripjack

65 posts

Master Geek

#13980 8-Jun-2007 16:34

I've got a 30GB mp3 player (Toshiba Gigabeat S30) that I also used to backup my photos when i was away from home. The player recently formated itself and it had some extremely important photos on it that I desperately need to get back. I was wondering if anyone knows of ANY trustworthy places that do data recovery at affordable prices? The photos only take up about 300MB of the 20GB used and I don't care much for the music, so I don't want to pay out of the nose for only 300 megs

I've tried running several data recovery software apps and none of them recognise the player, as Windows XP sees it as an MTP device (which severely limits what you can do with it).

If anybody can help I'd REALLY appreciate it.

barf

643 posts

Ultimate Geek

#74028 8-Jun-2007 17:38

Gigabeat S-models encrypt their bootloaders and possibly their hard disks too, but if you are near christchurch I could take a look. I've fixed a few F-series gigabeats already and have some experience doing data recovery. Just so you know, Microsoft stopped supporting the OS for the Gigabeat-S (Zune is their product now) so there are no firmware update available to fix the issue of it formatting itself when it gets plugged into another PC's Windows Media Player.

Sniffing the glue holding the Internet together

ripjack

65 posts

Master Geek

#74055 8-Jun-2007 23:47

Thanks for replying barf

Unfortunately I live up in Auckland so I can't drop it off. Since you know a bit on the subject of recovery, can you point me in the right direction in relation to other things I can try to salvage the photos.

I'm contemplating taking the thing apart and sticking it in one of these...

http://www.digitalintelligence.com/cart/html/1.8-Inch-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-ZIF-Connector.html

I may be wrong, but I THINK this may overcome the issue of the encrypted bootloader (seeing that I won't be booting from it)?

I've had the player for a couple of months and never had a problem with it. I didn't even know that random formats were a common problem among other S-series users. Its really unfortunate because I had a choice between the Gigabeat and the Zune and I chose the S30 because it looked better.

Rip