Question for hddgurus about head swap and platter swap!

[beto]

Hello hddgurus

My question its should be stop to show to the people " how to did a head exchange" or " platter exchange" why my question ? We had got some cases here unrecoverable because people even who said " we are a prof DR company" damaged the disk, because they think if the hdd its not answering ...

im know we dont show "The full procees" but they tried and tried on the client´s disks thats the worst

1.- Change pcb if no works
2.- Change heads if no works--> some times this people damage the MR sensors when they tried to "repair" heads lifting the " bad head" jajaj and damaged the coating too
3.- Change platters "one by one "--> bye alignment and centering, and of course the "fingers" over platters and a lot of dust


What we can do to stop this situation we had tried to put at our website "why dont do that " but still´s there are some people who doesnt know nothing and doesnt want to know nothing and they are only a people who " exchange parts " and think from this way i can do a DR

That people should be understand HDD are Piece of engineering!

Regards

Alberto

[BlackST]

Let them continue screwing up things : customers deserve exactly what they are willing to pay for. It's not OUR problem. It's that simple....

[pcimage]

Exactly. Bring it on!!!

[beto]

Right

Regards

[TerraNova]

I Agree

[Russwinters]

there are many people who think fixing computers and in that sense, hard drives is something trivial.

When i worked as a pc tech, doing easy virus removals and would charge ~60$ people would be outraged. They would leave only to come back a week later saying they bought norton or mcafee and it didnt fix the problem.

The same thing happens in data recovery with hard drives. People actually think it is some stupid easy job; when it is more complicated then auto mechanics, etc.

This is the world we live in.

[wiseleo]

I spent a few hours earlier today with vendors on the phone designing a platter swapping solution that would enable one to remove platters individually, do whatever they want with them, such as get rid of finger prints by bathing them in chemicals, check for scratches etc, and then realign them with nano-precision accuracy.

One "minor" problem... This will be a pretty expensive tool. It should solve the problem of whatever obstructions manufactures will come up with next by eliminating that requirement altogether.

[HDD Spaz]

you come up wit that tool and you can't remove the heads from a seagate. I look forward to this.

Just don't use the same manfacturuers and designers are Duncan otherwise hard drive's will be obsolete by the time it's finished.

[Odiferous]

you come up wit that tool and you can't remove the heads from a seagate. I look forward to this.

Just don't use the same manfacturuers and designers are Duncan otherwise hard drive's will be obsolete by the time it's finished.

Spaz,

I agree - this tool is taking a lot longer to complete than anticipated.

However, with respect, it will be a very, very serious piece of equipment with each unit costing thousands of GB pounds. 1000s of man-hours of high-level engineering expertise have gone into the research and development.

It's not a perspex mock-up - it works to such precise measurements that each unit will be shipped with a calibration certificate. Each component has had to be specially selected - different metal alloys, special frictionless bearings - it's complicated.

One of the major hurdles to overcome has been to ensure it will work with ANY drive on the market - plastic inserts, metal inserts - you name it. I'm not shipping anything that does not do what it says on the box.

To wiseleo - this system will also be adaptable to be used to clean platters - especially in flood- or fire-damaged drives.

The reason that nothing like this currently exists is purely down to the cost of the research, development and manufacturing costs. As well as a little lateral thinking.

Regards

Duncan

[HDD_MASTER]

This is all fine and well and I encourage and admire the research levels some people go to. I just think that sometimes if you don't need to do something in an expensive way don't.

I have used extremely in-expensive techniques for years now and I have a healthy success rate of over 80% for the past year. Granted this includes simple work but the major chunk is from physical work on drives.

A lot of "newbies" come around and think that the existence of such machines will inflate recovery prices to extortionate levels and turn to do the work themselves creating a vicious circle.

[hddguy]

Nothing can compare with pure skill and knowledge that a good DR engineer has.

Some things just allow room for almost skilled and knowledgable engineers to have a go

[HDD Spaz]

I can't see who are going to buy the highly expensive P.E.T.S considering every decent recovery company are able to perform platters swaps now. There are also a few commercial solutions which only cost a few hundred and not so commercial tools which only cost a few $.

Forgive me but I still doubt its existence and I can't see how it's cost effective as a commercial project.

[coffeebean]

Hi Duncan,

Firstly, I respect your efforts, maybe consider some other factors.

Success rate is more dependant on media condition that heads swap task (imho)

Over years I always bought perfect working drives and did heads swap - success very high.
Also, I mostly (getting lazy now) transfer donor heads back to original drive. to test.

So, I concluded that media condition is biggest factor to success and success after all is the goal.

So for my part examining heads with microscope is most important. Visual of heads tells a lot about mdia.

btw. I used to rotate platter while sliding head stack over surface (bad, bad) but even then
success rate was surprisingly high.

Using tool to lift heads off platter before sliding off does make difference - not much though.

So for me the ultimate tool would be one that scans all media surfaces before heads swap.

[HDD_MASTER]

To wiseleo - this system will also be adaptable to be used to clean platters - especially in flood- or fire-damaged drives.

The problem with fire damaged drives is not necesasarily solved by "cleaning" the platters. One of the biggest elements to mess up magnetic properties is heat, and the last time I checked fire produced a lot of this.

Cleaning will solve nothing

[HDD Spaz]

[/quote]


Cleaning will solve nothing[/quote]

This is wrong. Cleaning will make them look nice.

[HDD_MASTER]

I would recommend Cillit Bang. Even gets rid of bad sectors

[magneto]

To wiseleo - this system will also be adaptable to be used to clean platters - especially in flood- or fire-damaged drives.

The problem with fire damaged drives is not necesasarily solved by "cleaning" the platters. One of the biggest elements to mess up magnetic properties is heat, and the last time I checked fire produced a lot of this.

Cleaning will solve nothing

Anybody have any idea the heat level the media can withstand before data loss starts to occur? Ballparks are fine if anyone is willing to share.

[HDD Spaz]

I would say Over 500 degrees C

[magneto]

I would say Over 500 degrees C

You would say that's the threshold where data starts to be destroyed or it can withstand up to? Just clarifying because I asked the heat level it could withstand before data starts to be destroyed. Thanks in advance for sharing

[Steve]

I would say Over 500 degrees C

I would think it might be much lower.
Standard NiB Magnets have a maximum operating temp of
176 degrees F(80 C) and a max curie temp of 590 degrees F(310 C)

The max operating temp for drives is around 130 degrees F.

So if the magnets start degrading at 176 , I would think the
media would degrade before magnets.

And then of course there is also the warpage factor

Just my humble opinion