$80 a reasonable price to recover data from a CD????

1904 Views 11 Replies 10 Participants Last post by Ariell, Aug 21, 2007

Ariell

Discussion Starter · Aug 18, 2007

Hello

I need an opinion on this. I have a 2 CDs of digital photos that were burned for me while travelling in China. The burn was not done properly and so now I cannot open up the photos and the CD makes the computer run slow and/or crash. I can see the photo icons ok, but they just do not open properly. I tried to copy the images and reburn the CD but I got an error message. So I took the CDs to a computer repair place and they want to charge me $80 (for an hour's work) and are only able to recover about of the images. If I want them to do more "extensive" work, it will be another $80. I really would like to get my holiday photos, but the cost seems really exorbitant to me.

Does this seem like a resonable price? Is there something I can do with the CDs myself to recover the images and reburn the CDs?

I must admit that my mac is still packed away, so I am struggling away on the family's PC. But any suggestions at all are much appreciated.

Thank you.

Save

1 - 12 of 12 Posts

HowEver

· #2 · Aug 18, 2007

$80 for an hour's work is fair, but if the timing isn't crucial, you'll want to try finding various legitimately free recovery tools, using your Mac or other ones, first. It's worth putting some more effort into this first.

Save

macpablo

· #3 · Aug 18, 2007

http://www.joesoft.com/products/klix.php

Save

krs

· #4 · Aug 18, 2007

If you do a search on ehmac, there are also some free photo recovery programs that worked very well. I remember coming across one and posting the link, but that was quite a while back.
I think you need to unpack your Mac.

Save

madgunde

· #5 · Aug 20, 2007

$80/hour sounds VERY reasonable for that type of service, but something tells me for that rate, they aren't doing anything you couldn't do yourself without the right software.

Save

CanadaRAM

· #6 · Aug 20, 2007

Ariell said:
So I took the CDs to a computer repair place and they want to charge me $80 (for an hour's work)

Yes, that is the going rate, more or mess. Have you priced a plumber or an accountant recently?

If you send the CD out to a recovery service, they'll charge you $300 - $1000, but you would have the possibility of recovering more data than the local shop may be capable of.

I really would like to get my holiday photos, but the cost seems really exorbitant to me.

How many photos are there? Are they worth $1 each to you to get them back? It is all or nothing, you can't save money by just recovering the best ones.

Only you can decide how much your lost data is worth.

Save

guytoronto

· #7 · Aug 20, 2007

Like everyone else said, $80 for an hour of labour is very reasonable. It doesn't matter if they recover one photo or all of them. Most likely they are using generic software available to everyone. Most service departments do.

Freeware, and it works! - PhotoRec - CGSecurity

Save

Ariell

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 20, 2007

Thanks for all the input.

I'm going to try some photo recovery software myself -- thanks for the links macpablo and guytoronto

-- and see what that does and then if not, will take it in. I should have just done that to begin with.

I'd be happy to pay $80 (or even more) if all/almost all the images were recovered, but they only recovered about 70/200 images with a "preliminary scan". So I guess I thought that for the price they would be able to recover more than what I could on my own.

Save

nick24

· #9 · Aug 20, 2007

I needed to use a restore applications to get back my honeymoon pictures after the camera switched off due to lack power during a read-write. All the photos appeared to be lost, but fortunately, the software that I used not only found them, but it also found old pictures that I thought I had erased (cue description of data not really being erased, just removed the reference to where the data is located).
The software was PhotoRescue - PhotoRescue - data-recovery solution for digital photography. It has a feature that allows you to see what can be recovered before asking for payment - of a very modest $32.50.
I don't know if it reads a CD, but I suggest downloading it and using the preview feature to see if it works with a CD.
Don't be put off by the not overly great looking website - it works. For me, as least. It's on my PC and I'll soon put it on my Mac.

Check this too - Photography: Recovery for lost memory card photos - Lifehacker

Save

CubaMark

· #10 · Aug 20, 2007

Just to put out there a couple of the more obvious possibilities:

1/ Were the photos on a Camera digital storage card? Have you tried to recover them from the card (even if it has been written over, there may be a way with the recovery tools)

2/ With the CD: Try using Disk Utility to make a new Disk Image from the CD, and attempt to read the files from the resulting image. You never know...

Save

scootsandludes

· #11 · Aug 20, 2007

I'm with cubamark, couple years ago, I loaned my memory card to my sister to use because hers were too small. Unfortunately, my card messed up on her, and she lost all her photos. I reformatted the card and continued to use it without any problems. When I got home from vacation, and I backed up my files and deleted them, and use the free trial software that was included on the Sandisk card, and I was able to recover all but one photo.

If you haven't formated it a bunch of times, those images might still be there.

Save

Ariell

Discussion Starter · #12 · Aug 21, 2007

Thanks again for the advice. I hadn't thought of trying to get the images back off the memory card to be honest. I figured that once I deleted them and added more images to the card that I wouldn't be able to recover anything.

I tried the PhotoRescue software that you suggested nick24 and the klix s/w you suggested macpablo but neither work with the camera hooked up directly to the USB port. It wants a card reader which I don't have, so will have to see if I can borrow one. Also tried the PhotoRec that you suggested guytoronto, but it shows up as a creepy DOS program on a PC which I'd rather not mess with.

Scoots, so do you mean you were able to recover your sister's photos after you reformatted the card and continued to use the card?

Save

1 - 12 of 12 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month