How to get into this field of work?

[pepe]

more than 50 successful head swaps

successful: here it means the drive is working after the swap and you can read data. The problem with this is that drives are often instable with donor MHA, which means they should not plugged into a windows environment, here is where tools come in...

[BremiX]

While you are experimenting, just buy some cheap drives from eBay and open them up. Its a great way to learn. Once you feel confident in working on drives (swapping heads etc), then you can invest in a cleanroom bench if you decide data recovery is for you. But bear in mind, you need to have done more than 50 successful head swaps before even attempt to work on a clients drives (in a cleanroom of course).

I do have donor drives. Today found around 20 which are clicking, buzzing or just plain dead. So I will post new topics of each drive I find interesting as I go through that pile of half dead donor drives. As I work in repair shop I do get donors very often. Plus found company who can supply me with more dead drives. I have set my goal to learn this craft

[BremiX]

more than 50 successful head swaps

successful: here it means the drive is working after the swap and you can read data. The problem with this is that drives are often instable with donor MHA, which means they should not plugged into a windows environment, here is where tools come in...

Which are those "tools" you speak of?
Need to get familiar with all abbreviations

[fzabkar]

@LarrySabo built his own DIY clean chamber and posted the construction details in this forum. Unfortunately all his photos have expired.

[BremiX]

@LarrySabo built his own DIY clean chamber and posted the construction details in this forum. Unfortunately all his photos have expired.

Will this work? http://tiny.cc/pfpdez

[LarrySabo]

I apologize for the expiration of the links to pictures and other references in my earlier posts. I have uploaded them to DropBox and shared them using this link.

[Arch Stanton]

@LarrySabo built his own DIY clean chamber and posted the construction details in this forum. Unfortunately all his photos have expired.

Will this work? http://tiny.cc/pfpdez

It's the 'stook' heads guy https://youtu.be/F5Y7BniaRXg

[northwind]

the 'stook' heads

[data-medics]

That's a good start, but honestly at this point in history a better question to ask might be; SHOULD you get into data recovery?

How long of a career do you expect to have? SSDs are going to all but ruin this industry in the next decade when they fully replace HDDs in new computers.

Agreed, however I think 5 years is maybe the best we can hope for as a viable data recovery business.

Nah, we got longer than that. I'm still regularly getting in sub-40Gb HDDs for recovery. Even if in 3-4yrs they totally stop making spinners, we've got at least another decade of existing HDDs showing up in good numbers. Maybe no new ST3000DM001 firestorms to come down the pike, but plenty of old spinners to keep failing for another decade at least. It's surprising how much of the world still runs on old computer equipment and that's not going to instantly change.

I'd bet that in around 10 years we'll start to really see a decline in the number of cases and it'll get more competitive. That's when I plan to retire from this game.

Last edited by data-medics on October 14th, 2019, 11:21, edited 1 time in total.

[data-medics]

@LarrySabo built his own DIY clean chamber and posted the construction details in this forum. Unfortunately all his photos have expired.

Will this work? http://tiny.cc/pfpdez

No, don't listen to anything this YouTube clown says. He's 100% clueless.

If you're not willing to spend money in this business, you're guaranteed to fail miserably.

[ddrecovery]

Nah, we got longer than that. I'm still regularly getting in sub-40Gb HDDs for recovery. Even if in 3-4yrs they totally stop making spinners, we've got at least another decade of existing HDDs showing up in good numbers. Maybe no new ST3000DM001 firestorms to come down the pike, but plenty of old spinners to keep failing for another decade at least. It's surprising how much of the world still runs on old computer equipment and that's not going to instantly change.

I'd bet that in around 10 years we'll start to really see a decline in the number of cases and it'll get more competitive. That's when I plan to retire from this game.

Perhaps. Getting drives in is one thing, having a viable business is another.

[data-medics]

When work starts to slow down, I'll sell you my business and you can have my customer base too.

A lot of the riff-raff will be the first companies to go, then others who are smart enough to get into something else before it becomes dog-eat-dog (me), and then there will be just a handful of companies left to fight over the remaining work for the following 20yrs.

[BremiX]

Thank you all for your responses. Tomorrow I will post my first training case

[ddrecovery]

When work starts to slow down, I'll sell you my business and you can have my customer base too.

A lot of the riff-raff will be the first companies to go, then others who are smart enough to get into something else before it becomes dog-eat-dog (me), and then there will be just a handful of companies left to fight over the remaining work for the following 20yrs.

I guess i am lucky, I am retiring in about 6 years, so should be just about right. You need to find another buyer

[Jidis]

No, don't listen to anything this YouTube clown says. He's 100% clueless.

Just to clarify something in LarrySabo's defense, fzabkar's quote is getting clumped together with the mention of that YouTube guy in a couple places. I don't guess any of those comments are supposed to be directed at Larry.

Take Care

[LarrySabo]

Thanks @Jidis. I didn't see it that way, but I guess if others didn't click the link and see the YouTube video, they might.

[ddrecovery]

Personally I think that link needs to be removed. It has no place here.