Replies

1. 
   forestgirl | Apr 25, 2006 07:39pm | #1

   Kim, I have a friend who's daughter spilled coffee on her laptop, which had 10's of thousands of $$'s worth of work in it.  They had that whole hard drive recovered for about the same cost you quoted.  The price they gave you seems ridiculous!!

   You being in NY, seems like there are probably quite a few local recovery businesses around.  I'd try a couple of things.....(1) pick up a Computer User or similar free computer publication and look for ads; (2) look in the Yellow Pages under computer repair; (3) check with any local colleges that have computer science programs.  Maybe there's a grad student who could do it for you.  Scary, but might work.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   

1. 
   Kim Carleton Graves | Apr 25, 2006 08:25pm | #2

   Hi FG, It looks like Hi-MD data is non-recoverable because it's "encrypted" by proprietary software. Reason enough not to use it for critical apps - IE voice recording. But given that's the feature that distinguishes Minidisc from simple playback devices, there doesn't seem any reason to buy a it over the standard MP3 player. Arg! Kim

2. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Apr 26, 2006 04:30am | #3

   Hi Kim,

   I too think $1,500 is rather exorbitant given that, as you indicated, the problem appears to be the end-of-file record or lack thereof.  Looking at the specs for the Sony MZ-RH910, it looks like the only Output from the device is speakers/headphones?  Input is USB thus allowing downloading FROM your PC?

   Most digital recording devices write what are sometimes called overhead records so the read portion of the device "knows what it's dealing with".  If those records are either missing or contain invalid data, then the device simplay can't read the recorded data because it doesn't know where to find it.  Not all recording devices record data in a contiguous "stream" as do computers.

   Forestgirl:  Since I can remember (over 37 years working on computers), hard disk drives are for all intents and purposes, "air tight".  I would be quite surprised if any coffee actually got into the drive.  More likely the coffee may have adversely affected the connections to the drive, or some other part(s) of the laptop, thus rendering the disk drive inaccessible (spell).

   I've recovered computer hard disk drives that someone accidentally formatted!  In days of old, what used to be called the CE (Customer Engineer) Track was always written when data was saved to the hard drives, in addition to the "user accessible) data.

   Wish I could be of more assistance,

    

    

   Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   Kidderville, NH

    

    

   Use whatever tool needed to Git 'r Done!

3. 
   Spalted | Apr 26, 2006 07:34am | #4

   Wow, I'd never thought minidisks were still used...I'm holding on to my beat up sony MZ-R30. Metal construction that would take a hammer blow, it's just a little walkman w/the record function. Mine has an optical out, does yours? maybe that may offer another avenue to explore. I have about 50-60 albums I recorded to minidisk about 10 years ago now and still listen to them, oddly enough, in the shop.