www.deadharddrive.com

[rakko]

I just found out about the site http://www.300dollardatarecovery.com/ and wondered if anyone here had used it. He claims to be able to fix about 90% of failures for a flat rate of $300. If he can't fix it, he'll recommend a clean-room place, and you don't pay him anything.

There's a review page at http://www.datarecoveryservicereviews.com/company/brian-cometas-300-data-recovery-mac-repair-10 where everyone's given him 5 stars. I'm a little skeptical though.

[harddrivespecialist]

Yeah, and all reviews are posted on a same date and same time.

Other links on that page are dead, which is strange.
_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

[fzabkar]

FWIW, there is a person who posts to hddguru.com using the name "bcometa".

The last post I remember seeing was one in which he asked for a replacement board when the job looked like it just needed a little soldering. If this is the same person, then I'd say he is strictly in the "logical recovery" category.

That said, most logical data recoveries can be handled by the end user with the help of data recovery software, much of which is freeware. If you choose this approach, then it would be advisable to clone your drive and then work on the clone.

[300ddr]

I just found this post on Google and signed up for this forum to respond. I know it's too late now to be helpful for the OP, but maybe someone else would like to know that $300 Data Recovery is completely real, legit, and not some fly-by-night data recovery scam (which the "clean room" guys would have you think)!

--

All our reviews are written by actual customers. We've accumulated over 300 "5-star" online reviews in the past 6 years. The link mentioned below ("http://www.datarecoveryservicereviews.com/"), which is dead now, seems to have been some kind of "review farm" site that just takes reviews from other sites around the internet and has nothing to do with $300 Data Recovery.

If you are interested in reading real reviews from our clients, you can find them on:

Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/300-data-recovery-and-elitemactechs-studio-city

Google: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=8954601407657390747&q=brian+cometa&hl=en&sll=34.145503,-118.371159&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&ie=UTF8&ll=34.150117,-118.380175&spn=0,0&z=16

Yahoo: http://local.yahoo.com/info-46152608-brian-cometa-s-apple-services-300-data-recovery-north-hollywood

BBB: http://www.la.bbb.org/businessreport.aspx?companyid=100059601

Trustlink: http://www.trustlink.org/Reviews/300-Data-Recovery-and-EliteMacTechs-205974462

And more (just google $300 Data Recovery).

--

Our success rate is around 75% (not 90%) for all drives we receive, including dropped drives (of which about 70% need a clean room to recover from) and drives that even clean rooms can't recover from (i.e., drive's with platters that have major scratches).

--

We go way beyond "Logical Recoveries," fixing "clicking" drives, "dead" drives, drives with firmware problems, etc. I call what we do "hardware-based data recovery" and you can see a more detailed description of what that entails on our Data Recovery Myths page here: http://www.300dollardatarecovery.com/myths.html#if_the_hard_drive_does_not_mount_on_desktop_or_appear_in_bios_or_disk_utility_the_hard_drive_is_physically_broken.

To see the tools we use for data recovery, check out: http://www.300dollardatarecovery.com/tools.html. And see the process we use when recovering all hard drive's we receive here: http://www.300dollardatarecovery.com/ourprocess.html. As you'll see, we only use "software" for recovery after using "hardware" tools first (to repair and then clone the drive before attempting any logical recovery).

To see the kinds of problems we can fix and the types of drives we work on, please see: http://www.300dollardatarecovery.com/pc_mac_raids.html

--

If anyone else has any questions or concerns about $300 Data Recovery, please leave a note here (or contact us from our website) and we'll get back to you ASAP.

Thank you,
Brian Cometa
Owner @ $300 Data Recovery

[Gillware]

They are in an embarrassing little office next to a mini mart in a strip mall and they also repair computers (or try to at least) and claim that clean rooms are a scam (because they don't have one.) They have been pretending to be a data recovery company for about a year or so.

About all those great comments created in the same day. It's easy to make up good comments because getting a gmail or yahoo account is super easy.
A+ at the bbb is easy when you just opened your doors. Give those clowns some time. Mark my words, that little UN-certified computer repair place next to "Natcho's Tacos" will soon vanish. They look embarrassing.

[300ddr]

Hello competitor (10/29 update: we now know from posts below that this is in fact "Sarkis K" - the only client who left us a bad review, since we could not recover his data)!

I'm glad you find $300 Data Recovery so insignificant that you are searching the web for our name to spam lies. Good luck!

In response to your comments:

-We don't say all clean rooms are scams - just most. Most charge 5-10x the value of the services they offer. We DAILY recover hard drives from clients who were quoted $1500+ and were told their drive "must be recovered in a clean room." We safely recover the data for $300.

-We've been doing data recovery using professional data recovery hardware tools since 2009.

-We have zero fake reviews. Just check Yelp, Google, BBB, all the review sites we are on. Check out our twitter mentions. None of our reviews are all on the same date or written by the same person. And, we get new reviews weekly by clients who are so thankful they found an honest data recovery business that they feel obligated to spread the word. There is no need for us to write fake reviews when our clients go to the trouble to write really good real ones.

-We've been BBB members since 2007, you can see this on the BBB website, it's not something we just made up.

-We are much more interested in saving our clients serious money than we are concerned about our location. If that means we work out of an easily-accessible shopping center, and not some obscure business center, so be it.

--
Note to any potential clients: lately these "mystery spammers" have been trying to steal our Google Business pages, leave us fake negative reviews, and discredit us on forums like this.

Don't been fooled -- these are clean room companies running around SCARED that we are REVOLUTIONIZING the way this industry works. Their businesses ARE being affected by our low rates and instead of understanding this and offering fair and honest prices, they try to discredit us. Luckily, their discrediting only gets people more interested in our services, so keep it up fellas and help spread the word.

Mark my words, we will still be here and thriving 5, 10, 15 years in the future, with more clients ecstatic they found an honest alternative to the seedy, sleazy, reprehensible clean room data recovery industry.
--

*Here's a look at our "embarrassing" shopping center located in Studio City, CA at the busy intersection of Ventura Blvd & Tujunga Ave:
[/img]

[bpalv4784]

I don't know if I'd be flashing those pictures. It does not look very much like a "Lab" . Plus they claim that clean rooms are scams. I don't know what it takes to get the data out of one of those things but I find it hard to believe everyone in the data recovery business made the clean room up to scam people.

I can't imagine they have too much success recovering data. But then what other options do you have. Everyone else wants thousands.

It's a Lose - Lose situation.

[300ddr]

Hi bpalv4784 (10/29 update: we now know from posts below that this is in fact "Sarkis K" - the only client who left us a bad review, since we could not recover his data),
Thanks for joining the conversation!

[bpalv4784]

LOL!! A lab is like a church. It looks tacky in a shopping mall.

Your workstations are not impressive. 4 computers with boxes on top with what seems like people's drives inside. Is that "Defrag" on the screens?

I think you just troll Adwords and Adsense advertising for the easy recoveries with some BS story about how clean rooms are a scam. I would imagine your recovery rate is 1 in 20. People who did not try it in a USB first.

I cant afford the other guys so I'm just going to hang on to it until I have the money. These guys don't seem like pros.

Below is a review I found about them.
--
Sarkis K.
October 04, 2012

I took my hard drive to another place where they could perform data recovery. However it was expensive. Then I found these guys claiming they could do the same thing for $300. Worst mistake I ever made! I took it to them for repairs. Not only did they fail at recovering any data they made the drive worse than it was. They caused the hard drive to get scratches on the plate thus making the data unrecoverable. I took it back to the expensive guys and they couldn't repair it anymore. They said that someone had forced the drive to work which caused scratches on the plate. And what was funny was first they claimed they could recover 50% of the data for sure then reduced it to 25% then nothing! I lost $100 on the down payment i gave them to make repairs. Bunch of liars. They also lied about having a clean room. I asked them so you guys have a clean room the girl said yes it's in the back and then they send me email saying you need to take your hard drive to a recovery place with a lab. After my review on Yelp, the owner start to sent me harassing emails and trying to call me a liar. I am not misleading anyone. They ruined the hard drive. I have documentation proving that the drive was ruined by your lack of knowledge in data recovery. And the gentlemen that was with me is a witness that your receptionist said you guys have a cleanroom in the back.

Scammers! Avoid these guys if your data is valuable! All reviews are fake!

[300ddr]

Those drives in the boxes are our drives. We use them to clone our client's bad drives (and this photo is old, we now have double this amount of drives). The "computers" are in fact DeepSpar Disk Imagers rigs. The same exact high-end professional data recovery imagers that clean room's use. You can find more information about DeepSpar on their website: www.deepspar.com

We have two 1-star reviews and over 300 5-star reviews. Of the bad reviews, one is the one you found, the other is written by probably the same competitor who wrote on this page with the nickname "Gillware" -- since we haven't had anyone named "Pat" with a failed recovery since June and our last negative review from someone named "Pat" was written on the same day Gillware wrote on this forum.

Again, our customer satisfaction rate is 99%. That said, given your hesitations, in this case we absolutely recommend you save up a few thousand dollars and try a clean room instead. We wish you the best of luck!

[bpalv4784]

Check out this video of "300 dollar data recovery".
Who would ever risk sending these guys anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxgq8fSmACE

He claims that he exposes others but he's the only one exposed.

I almost sent these guys my drive. Thank God For The Internet and this forum. Like Monkeys!

[300ddr]

HAHA! Well, at least now it's clear from your YouTube user name these messages have all been from the same person: "Sarkis K" (our only client who left us a bad review because we could not recover his data).

[bpalv4784]

I'm not Sarkis K. There is no doubt that person was dissatisfied with your service because I see the name on some of the complaints and the video, but I'm not that person. The video makes you guys look like fools. It's hilarious.

I don't know what would motivate you to make a video that makes you look so unprofessional. It looks like you on the video.

I called your competitor at gillware.com and they said they could take care of me for $350 and even sent me pictures of their clean room. Brian Gill told me they have heard many complaints about your company and to beware of getting ripped off. Now gillware is a data recovery company! I'm sending it tomorrow.

Once again, thank goodness for this forum.

[kendal]

[sarkisToo]

I happen to know for a fact that bpalv4784 and Gillware are competitors who are envious of the success and almost unanimous positive reviews for "300 dollar data recovery". Why would anyone complain about a company that offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee? -- except, of course, a competitor.