Ex-GF stole PC had them wiped ... advice?

[jaylucs]

So basically a discgruntled now ex gf of mine decided to jack my s**t before she left me and drop them at a local tech place to complete data wipe. An HP elitebook 5600 and my custom built engineer/game desktop (notebook Win7 ult x32, Desktop wn7 home prem x64)

 

1) The police and the company she took them to refuse to work with me, since we lived together its "common property" and therefore a civil matter, even though I have all documents and recipts of parts, warranties, serial numbers etc.. they wont throw her in jail.

 

2) They really made me pay $183 to get my own god dam hardware back fo work i didnt EVER authorize, and didnt make a backup (like %99 sure its SoP at all places to backup eveything in the event its stolen and store it for 30 days). I even notified them within 10 hours of the arrival. To top it off "Nicole Gibson" used on the workorder <--- REDFLAG ANYONE?

 

3) They quoted me $2000 each disk (3 total - 1 for monthly automated backups and 1 for each system) to recover my data... LOL?

 

Problem: So i finally got my hardware back and im trying to research the absolute best and safest way to go about this without jeapordizing the integrity of the drives in I have to sue her (which im going to either way, just means more money in my pocket)

 

Right now im using TestDisk to analyze the drive for any information that may exist about previous files. No volume information is avaialble and I assume I will also have to use TestDisk to create a seeable mountpoint for Recuva to do its thing?

 

I had literally about $900 in recent investments and well over a year of R&D to launch my own website, which was supposed to go live 3 days from now. (now probably never) But, I still want to save all my files and crap I cant really ask a small claims court to place a value on. Lets face it, if i developed this kind of thing for a corporation... in 1 year id earn roughly $60,000 ad thats a quite modest figure in California.

 

 

So please, advice... I have never even thought of doing such a diabolically evil thing to someone.

 

Thanks,

Jay

Edited June 11, 2013 by Augeas

[Guest Keatah]

You need to ask the tech shop what method they used. What program. And you're going to want to hire out an expert in forensics to handle this.

 

I suspect this will go way above "standard" recovery costs. So much that you'll question recovery as a viable solution. It may be best to move on and recreate everything.

 

ADDED NOTE:

3 years ago to the season. I had advised someone in a domestic violence case how to handle electronic data and security. The key point here was a tertiary off-site backup. The guy wanted to trash her business and did something similar. Ran an Acronis or DBAN wipe or something. He got both in-house computers the on-site backups and the cloud backups.

 

The knight in shining armor was the off-site backup she mailed monthly to a relative. The business suffered a minor delay while the data was en-route, but it rolled on just fine.

[jaylucs]

1 drive is really the bread and butter of both. They said $2000 and up (max 4000) but that things like this typically go between 14-1800. I cant rememeber exactly the name of the program but I do remember them saying its a GSA (federal government schedule authorized) method the rewrites each sector 2+ times.

 

a) GSA methods vary greatly depending on classification of media (unclassified to top secret).

 

bulls**t goes a long way in the industry, $2000 from a smuck whining abou his childs photos would help a newly started company.

 

So I really cant say for sure, they werent honest with me from the start and anything they said cant really be trusted without validation.

 

To be honest I cant drop 2 grand with the chance I wont get it back exactly how it left. Sure I can sue for the cost of it, but 5,000 is the limit on small claims in this state. The delay of the launch, lost revenue and dividends - its well over 5k.

[Guest Keatah]

1) The police and the company she took them to refuse to work with me, since we lived together its "common property" and therefore a civil matter, even though I have all documents and recipts of parts, warranties, serial numbers etc.. they wont throw her in jail.

 

2) They really made me pay $183 to get my own god dam hardware back fo work i didnt EVER authorize, and didnt make a backup (like %99 sure its SoP at all places to backup eveything in the event its stolen and store it for 30 days). I even notified them within 10 hours of the arrival. To top it off "Nicole Gibson" used on the workorder <--- REDFLAG ANYONE?

 

3) They quoted me $2000 each disk (3 total - 1 for monthly automated backups and 1 for each system) to recover my data... LOL?

 

1- Sounds like a civil matter to me.

 

2- Not all shops do backups. I agree it is a good thing. But it is what it is. Red flag?? Not everybody is culturally versed and current with news or can spot bogus email addresses. Myself included.

 

3- Who's they? What service? $2,000 per disk is dirt cheap for a forensic recovery. I'd expect once the company tears into the job it will be $5k per disk, *IF* it is possible. That's why it's important to know the method used to wipe the disk? Was it a simple quick format or secure-erase or multi-pass 0,1,random?

 

Wish I had better news.

[jaylucs]

1- Sounds like a civil matter to me.

 

You're absoluely right, it is a civil matter for the physical property. The intellectual property is what is the kicker (no way in hell a massage therapist could ever develop; does not have the authority to take away without asking my civil right to make money and pursue happiness). Some of the stuff on there was 10 years older than our relationship.

 

There is no value since it isnt replacable. You know people who do this type of thing to a former employer go to prison for a long time? In my personal opionion she shouldve been arrested on the spot for grand theft.

[Winapp2.ini]

To be honest, extreme data recovery (true wipes, damaged discs, etc) costs a minimum of $1600 for just the procedure. The hardware needs to be shipped to a special facility where the forensics can be done. I would say go ahead and sue her for the damages incurred then have the data restored. IANAL though

[Guest Keatah]

Law is still in the dark ages when it comes to IP and technology. Just a general observation. I know more about tech, disks, recovery, and backup ops than I do about law.

 

Sometimes a data recovery firm will quote a high price to discourage you from hiring them out because they know in advance it is beyond their capabilities.

 

A reputable DR firm will examine your disks and quote you ahead of time, for a small diagnostic fee of maybe $50 per disk. Then if you decide to recover, you pay the fee and you get the data.

 

Multi-pass wipe is going to be a difficult case. And to be honest the price you're being given is low.

 

INDUSTRY SECRET: Sometimes they do the recovery during the diagnostic. And just wait for your ok. Then like magic, 1 day later it's all done! If you say no. They just delete the data and call it a day.

[Nergal]

Please everyone let's lay off the personal and ad hominem slant of this thread, as the other person is not here to refute. Bring it back to the topic of can Recuva do this or (under consideration of the value of the data destroyed) need he go to a professional (forensic, clean room) recovery.

 

To be honest the prices they are mentioning above may just be baselines. You need to sober-headedly (i.e. not mad at her, or what she did, horrible though it was) weigh the cost here for something that may well fail and still cost a sum with the importance of the data. If the only copy of your long lost millionaire uncle is on that drive and he's left you everything, then it's pretty important and a small loss given the huge gain; if it's some pictures from that killer holiday you took 13 years ago, then weigh that emotional need and your financial status.

[Guest Keatah]

Recuva is a glorified undelete program. It cannot recover data from a multi-pass disk wipe. Professional services are required at $2000 (or more) per disk. Playing with utilities and trying to reinstate structures yourself will only lessen the chance of recovery.

 

totally unnecessary remark removed by moderator

[jaylucs]

So whats this mea exactly? I dont see anything here from 2013....

[Guest Keatah]

Seems to be part of the OneKeyRestore disc creation utility. Included on Lenovo systems. This or something very similar.

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad-S-series-Netbooks/How-to-Create-Factory-Disc-with-One-Key-Recovery-7-0/ta-p/548861

 

Seems the place that did the data wiping may have done a partition wipe and not a full disk wipe. Probably didn't get the HPA. Since this is obviously on the disk they didn't get everything. Maybe they didn't do a correct wipe? Or maybe they left this for future usage?