As the hard disk churns...

So, we heard back from Gillware yesterday. They were unable to recover any files. They did, however, suggest that the drive might still be recoverable by OnTrack, and offered to put them in touch with me. OnTrack called within an hour and was very optimistic. Gillware offered to send the drive to OnTrack free of charge, and it arrived OVERNIGHT!!! OnTrack claims that they will have their analysis ($100 non-refundable fee if you are interested) complete in three business days. At that time, I can expect a list of what was recoverable and how much it will cost to get the data. It usually takes a day after that for them to ship the recovered files.

Gillware, if they had been successful, would have cost between $368 and $668. OnTrack will cost a total of $700 to $2100 if they succeed, just $100 if they don't. I should mention that we have the option of backing out after the estimate. They said that most cases like this fall into the $1200-$1700 range. So, we're not happy about having to spend money, but still hopeful that we might at least we'll have the option to contemplate the cost.

Will post again when we know what OnTrack can do.