Seagate with screws that connect PCB to the heads broken off while the stud is inside and you cant install new screws to it..
Used a clamp to do the same job.



People destroy hdds in India royally.

watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn-FX1uMQPw
--

Little Indian tricks from the journal "HDD and Life"

My question would be, how did they get broken off in the first place?

Some moron forget which way you tighten/loosen screws?

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

Sadly, it’s not only in India that people destroy drives “royally”

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

I am the third person looking at the drive. It looks like drive owner took the drive to a small local tech shop (computer hardware repair shop may be).
The guy was possibly having notion that by cleaning the corrosion on the contact points, he will be able to read data. The drive was DRD DSC post power up....how ever the moment you try to ID it, it went to ready with busy situation....So he thought as the drive is detecting in bios, his attempt to clean the corrosive points will suffice.....Looks like he did not have a correct screw driver and he used some thing obnoxious that damaged the screwdrivers grip to the screws(even that of a matching one later)....it would have been very late by the time he arranged for a correct screw driver as the grip would have been very minimal .....so I think he possibly drilled the top out....the pcb got released but to his surprise he would not have been able to attach it back successfully post the clean up as the screw studs were still inside without their heads to practically unscrew and install new screw.

This drive then went to another data recovery expert (local friend-second person) who was running out of ideas to connect this some how and asked my advice.....
He suggested that we drill it out completely but I was unsure of the contamination that may go on platter or any error that can screw things up further.....Luckily I have some background with carpentry and designing a 3 axis CNC...so the idea of clampe just kicked in at the right time......Post the attachment using clamp, we cleared the ready with busy problem and the other local data recovery friend who is sitting on the right chair and holding the drive left off to image it on his PC3k
Did this as a friendly favour...no money charged

--

To be successful one needs to study hard and get the balance in the LIFE...That's how you pull out a rabbit from the hat


--

Ok, I get it that someone destroys one screw with the wrong screwdriver. But 2 screws in the same way? "It didn't worked for that screw, but lets't try again!" ?

that's one way people think, out of curiosity and haste they damage.


Another way is, you go to a data recovery company or a local shop or whatever....they say around 300USD for a recovery....You say no to them. But in the meanwhile your data has been analyzed in the following way
1)Lot of xls pdf files with tally etc as software's, they inspect the money transactions in them and then quote. If they find anything related to tax filing etc which is impending in a month or so and transactions are too many to be re-created,the recovery person charges even more...


Ok now you may not have transaction and money data but just family photos. They will see how many family members, did they travel abroad. Say if 4 members then each will shell out a ticket of 2500USD ticket one side....4 members and to and fro would be just 20000USD on tickets. Plus living, stay and which eye wear the man/woman are wearing, the shoes etc.....if they look rich, recovery rate is set even higher...

So there is a good chance that the person intentionally damaged the vital screws. However for such a villager type idea which solved the case, the guy who got the drive to me didnt even pay me a penny out of good will or gesture...

SAD at times our culture is when it comes to saying a THANKYOU or giving some money so that I can chill with my girlfriend atleast ?

So yea, it can be an intentional damage.
--

We've had some drives that came in with a case of "round-head" screw. In one of those cases we took a dremel to it and managed to unscrew it with a flat-head driver. Sometimes you need to be creative in this job.

Ps. It was the bottom screw for the head assembly, so no damage to the PCB or the HDD insides.

_________________
Will recover data for food

very cool