Data recovery in time for the holidays: Jessica’s sentimental favorites back from her Western Digital 250 GB SATA HDD

Jessica’s laptop was like a family trunk used to be: full of favorite old photos and memories.

In the place of snap-open latches, stringed envelopes and lidded boxes, there were perfectly smooth platters, a circuitry board, a motor and read/write heads.

And when the read/write heads suffered severe damage, it was as if all the contents were gone, all at once. All that remained was the locked up trunk of a useless laptop computer.

Her data sat that way for a long time, but Jessica, a recent University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill honors graduate who, among her other accomplishments, publishes her own excellent web site, did not give up hope that there would be some way to recover it.

“For so long — a little over two years, in fact — I thought this was impossible,” she writes. “I tried everything, looked up self-help techniques, called companies all over the nation, and had my heart broken repeatedly. I was told there was no hope. So when Gillware sent me a list of all of the thoughts, memories, and priceless recollections I thought I’d lost forever, I was instantly reduced to tears. I can’t thank you enough for your time, patience, and ceaseless efforts.”

Jessica got all her data back after her read/write heads were replaced and an image was made of her hard drive’s contents.

In a tweet, she wrote that: “Since receiving my harddrive from @gwdatarecovery 3 hours ago, I’ve done nothing but laugh and cry while sorting through these memories.”