In addition to producing a number of different types of storage devices, Iomega was also known for creating products such as the popular Zip and Jaz removable disks, REV cartridges, eGo and Prestige external hard drives, and the StorCenter Network Attached Storage (NAS) series of products that later became LenovoEMC. Irrespective of whether you are trying to recover an external hard drive, a network attached storage unit (such as the LenovoEMC/StorCenter), or removable media (Zip/Jaz/REV), if the product contained your files and is no longer functioning, then there is a very high likelihood that we will be able to recover them.
The method used to recover each type of device is slightly different, however the principles involved remain consistent. First one needs to read off the original device without making any changes to it. Second, one needs to build a duplicate version of your recovered data.
Iomega made products available in more different formats than most other major storage manufacturers. Many people will recall Iomega’s Zip and Jaz removable disks of the late 1990s as well as their later REV cartridges. Additionally, Iomega offered numerous external hard drives (eGo/Prestige/Home Media) as well as a full line of Network-Attached Storage (StorCenter) units that were later branded by LenovoEMC. As a result, some types of failures are unique to specific forms of hardware. Therefore it may help to consider each form separately.
The “Click of Death” was a notorious issue with Zip drives. The clicking, failing head can damage the disk. It may also spread the problem from disk to disk. We would advise against repeatedly putting a Zip or Jaz cartridge holding irreplaceable data in a questionable drive. Recovery of files from removable media is highly specialised depending upon the type of removable media and how well a good drive reads it. How well files recover will depend upon the condition of the cartridge and the drive used to read it. Our free diagnostics give an honest assessment of each item before you commit.
All Iomega external drives use a standard hard disk. As such, recovering files from these devices follows the same steps as a traditional drive. To send a bare external device, please remove the hard disk and ship only the drive, unless this is an Iomega encrypted model. Models that encrypt data do so at the bridge level within the external casing. Therefore, all components of the Iomega external drive (including casing) need to be shipped so we can decrypt in the original hardware. StorCenter and Home Media NAS units use RAID technology supported by a Linux operating system. The best way to handle recovery from these types of devices is to either send us the complete unit or send us the individual drives that make up the RAID array, so the array can be rebuilt offline. Individual drives should be sent labelled in the order of their respective bays. NAS/RAID recovery pricing begins at £500 +VAT; pricing for a single external drive starts at £300 +VAT.
Often, yes, but removable-media recovery is specialist and depends on the state of your cartridge and on having a known-good drive available to read it. The key here is to immediately stop using a clicking Zip drive: the “click of death” could cause even more damage to your disk. Please send it in and we’ll assess it honestly on our free diagnostic before you commit to anything.
Yes. An Iomega external is nothing but a standard hard drive inside a protective shell. Therefore this is standard recovery. Please remove the hard drive and send it to us versus sending the entire caddy. If however your Iomega is an encrypted model then please do send us the entire unit so we can access the encryption bridge contained in the enclosure. Regardless, all single drive recoveries are from £300 +VAT (after a free diagnostic).
We recommend you send us either the entire unit or the labelled drives with the bays marked in order. A StorCenter uses a Linux RAID based system and we reconstruct off-line using read-only copies of the disks, therefore we do not touch the originals. Do not allow it to re-initialise and/or rebuild to another disk before you ship. Our NAS recovery begins at £500 +VAT.
The StorCenter line continued under the LenovoEMC brand after Iomega, so later network drives may carry that name. Since both Iomega’s and LenovoEMC branded products run under the same Linux RAID based systems, however it was branded is irrelevant to our process of recovering your data.
The price to recover your data varies depending on whether you have one of the many different types of removable/external drives (i.e. from £300 +VAT), or if you are trying to recover data from a StorCenter or similar product (prices begin at £500 +VAT). Because of extreme variation in pricing for items like Zip/Jaz removable media, we cannot provide pricing until we complete the diagnostic portion of service, although you will still receive a free diagnostic and fixed price quote prior to commencing any service.
Tell us which Iomega device it is and what it’s doing (send the drive on its own for a bare external, or the whole unit for anything encrypted or a NAS), and you’ll receive a free diagnostic and a fixed quote prior to any work.