First...thank you...to all you geeks. I'm a newbie when it comes to data recovery...that said...my hard drive crashed on my 5 year old laptop. I'm going to try my very first recovery. I already have some pics of my project and I'll post them later...if this site even has that function.
I just wanted to see if I can do a head or platter swap with making the tools out of $hit I find in my garbage can. So far I've turned my bathroom into a clean room, opened the drive, discovered there were two platters, I had head stiction, took pictures and closed it back up.
Next is waiting for my donor drive to show up from ebay. I also bought a new one to either part out or use for my main drive for the laptop.

read along and be entertained...


hangdiver

Wooohooo!!!

If it is stiction, you might not need a donor drive. If you are working in the bathroom (not recommended), make sure no moisture gets in the drive.

As I'm sure that the shipping of the donor is more than $1.99, you are already over budget with buying a donor drive.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

I'm thinking this was intended to get funny responses. At least I hope that's what it is...

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

Hangdiver, we've seen these posts before. Guy performs data recovery on top of a toilet lid and against all odds recovers 100% of their data. The story is getting old and not very entertaining.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Oups just learned we can't do DR on toilet lid,

Toilet lid + no knowledge / tools --> Combo for a crapy work ...

Good Luck to gain 100% recovered

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Récupération de Données

Hey, you are on the right place. After you do the crap, you can flush it down the toillete

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http://www.pclab.com.pt facebook.com/PCLAB.A.T
ACELab partner

I'm sure you guys have heard it all...that being said thanks for the wishes of good luck and tips. I've got some good tips from a friend who does data recovery for a living. I could actually send it to him but what fun would that be?
Unfortunately he will be in my neighborhood in the next week due to a sudden death in his family last night.

RIP B.R.

He gave me some real good advice, told me that drive was the 2nd easiest drive to swap heads on and wished me luck.

I already have toothpicks, old cereal box, rubber bands, and drinking straws in my arsenal...I'll add the sledge hammer later...

And yes I already have more than $1.99 into the project...if you add the $500.00 for the new laptop I'm writing this on...way over!

Lesson learned...BACK UP MY S$IT!

yes I see the debris on the platter...

hangdiver

Get a shower with this hdd and take some new pictures its remember us how Fool you think about Data Recovery.

I'm in no hurry to destroy my data...in fact I'm waiting for my friend to show up for a...funeral...long story...anyway...I'm going to discuss my project with him over a few tequila shots...but here's a shot of my prototype table...this is where my garbage gets twsted, I mean tested...

way over budget...

hangdiver

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"man's got to know his limitations"
Harry Calahan

I just love these MacGyver solutions.

Here is a video demonstration by a SalvationData trainer:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/cvo59 ... k_head.zip

Note that the procedure would normally be done in a cleanroom, and the person would be wearing gloves.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I had a conversation with my good friend who owns a respectable data recovery business...he told me his secret to get the heads off the platter. I won't share it here because I don't want to put you guys and gals out of a job. He said it has worked 100% of the times he's done it over the last 20 years.

He will be in my neighborhood in the next few weeks and I'm in no hurry so I will get a hands on demo. Tequila shots afterwards...he also told me the many myths about hard drives are just that myths...but they are still very delicate pieces of mechanical engineering...but we new that.

I'll be back to let you guru's know how it turns out. In the mean time I have engineered a simple means of swapping multiple platters yet to be tried but I will try it by taking them off and putting them back on after I get my data off of them. Till then...Happy New Years!

hangdiver

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"man's got to know his limitations"
Harry Calahan

Lol ,
I Could Not Help My Laugh And The Tears i had due to laughing after a long long time And For a Long Long time BTW haa haaa

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Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

If only confidence was the major factor in the recovery..

Any jackass with a torx driver (AKA - YOU) can get the heads un-stuck. Getting the drive to actually work again and retrieve the data, is another story. I'm 99% sure that after you've finished destroying any chance of a successful data recovery you'll be too big a coward to actually come back on this form and admit your failure. Thus perpetuating the long line of idiots who take bad advice about data recovery and screw themselves.

Have fun!

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

The avocados are a nice touch. Lemme guess, they are used to lubricate the heads and free them up 100% of the time right? HAH!

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company