Well, that was a total nightmare. I have no idea what could have been so wrong with my hard drive that the technician could not have transferred information to the new one. He said it kept stopping and to continue to attempt it could jeopardize ever getting my information back.

Hence, I was forced to resort to a “data recovery” business. And let me tell ya- this is scary. First of all, there are a ton of scams and hoaxes. None of them seem any different than the other. I came across a news story about how you will send them your hard drive and then they hold it for ransom until you pay exorbitant amounts of money upwards of $2,000.

A quick search combining any of the company’s names and the word “scam” and you’ll get a laundry list of complaints and possibly lawsuits. Some of these places have even been known to keep your hard drive, steal personal information and never return it.

So, I went with one that was quoted in a news article. The news interviewed them as reputable technicians who were commenting on the scam artists. I had to go with them because I had to pick somebody- and I hoped the news would have at least researched these folks before I sent off my hard drive.

Turns out they were legitimate. They recovered my data on a machine. It took them only a few hours- yet I paid $600. It all comes down to “how valuable is this information to you?” “How much do you want to see your children’s pictures again or the last picture known of your father before he died?”

I got the hard drive back- not nearly as quickly as they boasted. They boasted one day turn arounds. It took them a week to even get to mine. Then 3 hours to fix. Then another week to wait for me to send them an external hard drive and to ship it out. All together- a little under three weeks.  They were nonchalant on the phone about my entire work order- and obviously wanted me to know this wasn’t a big priority.

But in the end- I did get those photos back. I did get my documents back. I am back in business.

However, two days after they shipping my hard drive? Mysteriously, someone with all my banking information started charging all sorts of tech equipment to me and I’ve had to register fraud complaints with my bank. Coincidentally they are in the same state as the repair place.

I called the repair place- they were very concerned- but felt it could not possibly be anyone who worked for them.

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