Hi everyone.
Unfortunately I made a terrible mistake with my Western Digital My Book Studio 2TB External Hard Drive with Metal Enclosure.
It started doing a clicking sound and couldn't be recognised by the computer. Searching for answers and solutions, I ended up watching youtube videos with people doing repairs.. Now you can already imagine the rest of the story. I opened it and unfortunately I left my fingerprints on the platter. I didn't know that it was so dangerous.

I sent it to Sean from PCImage Data Recovery and he got back to me and said that the hard drive was unrecoverable.
Even though after cleaning the platter the situation seemed pretty good, he said that he used two donor drives for replacement heads and each time the new heads were destroyed almost instantly by the damaged media.

For a second opinion I sent it to Cheadle Data Recovery. John says that there are some signs of physical damage to the platter. He also spoke with Sean at PC Image and he agrees with him that further recovery attempts are very unlikely to prove successful.

Do you think it's really over? Do you think there might be somebody in the world that is a genius and works on impossible cases? Maybe somebody in parts of the world where this work is not as expensive as in the western countries and could spend many hours...

do you have any pictures of this drive.?

I’d be very interested if anyone could get something off this.

Should be noted that all four heads on the drive were totally mashed and mangled (original fault?) and am guessing that the drive has been run with these mangled heads in place.

After cleaning the top platter, it looked “OK” to the naked eye but using a bright LED light at the right angle I could see it was covered in tiny “dinks” and marks.

Two sets of heads (one with all 4 heads in place, and one with H3 removed) were tried and they were killed instantly, proven by putting back in donor. Microscopic particles were seen on the replacement sliders, but even after cleaning they would not work again in the donors.

Should also be mentioned that I believe it has also been to Fields before us.

Maybe someone can work some magic and get something off it, and I wish you all the best of luck.

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

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

Thank you Sean (pcimage) for your precious contribution.
I just wanted to ask you and all the other members here what they think of the method used by this guy from HDD Recovery Services. He put some glue with a glue gun in a specific part of the hard drive so that the new heads would not hit the scratches and get destroyed. Do you think it could work?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmCOTz0YVfA

No, at the moment it's not with me. It's with John at Cheadle Data Recovery.
Do you mean pictures of the platter?

@ pcimage
thank you for explaining exact situation. another youtube disaster.

@whatifwe

1. yes i mean platter pic.

2. can you explain what have you done really.

3. what jhon said?

4. driver model?

1. I don't have platter pictures and I guess it's better not to open it again when it will come back in my hands.
2. I didn't do much, opened it, and saw if I could move the head as shown in these youtube videos, but it didn't take me long to realise that I wasn't succeeding. But unfortunately I left plenty of fingerprints.
3. John said that he agrees with Sean (PCImage), that he will attempt a recovery but it's very unlikely to be successful.
4. The hard drive model? Western Digital My Book Studio 2TB External Hard Drive with Metal Enclosure.

Why these questions?
Do you think you can do something?

1. did you move heads across the platter ?

2. i asked hard drive model inside of the box. like wd20xxx - xxxxxx

3. if you like to pay shipping cost to srilanka(both way) and if you like to supply a donor hard i can try.

1. Now that I remember I also turned it on, after I unsuccessfully tried to move/fix the head. The head started moving fast and touched the platter, so that I guess is what might have caused the damage.

2. I don't know such information.

Have you had successful experiences in the past with impossible cases like mine?
What's the name of your company?

Yes, that would do it.

These YouTube assholes have a lot to answer for, posting such garbage and ruining people’s chances of getting their data back just to get “hits” on their account. Unfortunately people do tend to believe their lies when they’re in “panic mode” and desperate to get their data back.

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

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

Did you see the video? I don't think Erkin is exactly an idiot.

I think we've all tried this "technique" on some occasion, with greater or lesser success, although the loss of data would be important.

I don't mean that it would be a possible solution in this case. It would not be applicable if the damage is present on the entire surface.

@whatifwe

PM sent ( company name and info )

Firstly I don’t know who Erkin is, never heard of him or seen any of his videos until now. But yes, similar methods are employed here in different cases where we need to prevent the heads touching certain areas of the platter(s), but sadly would be of no use in this case.

Secondly, I wasn’t referring to his video. I was referring to the YouTube videos that the OP saw originally and messed up his drive.

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

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

@whatifwe
if you want you can send it to me.....I do mainly mechanical cases since 33 years.
We would diagnose it for free.
Spare parts we do have enough.
Price will be very fair.
Location is in Central Europe.
If it works we will both be happy...if not I tell you why and how severe the damage is...
I am not the guru but have much experience in how to handle it.
You can send me PM if you like.
best regards Freddy

whatifwe ,
If Sean From PCImage cannot do this its only less then 0.1% chance someone else can ,Stop wasting your time and money and close the case .For such cases ,Experiments on donors can be done to find out how a particular hdd responds to multiplatter alignment ,Then patient can be dismantled and Tried out ,This requires lots of experience and time and money ,General user cannot afford it

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

@Amarbir
As you wrote ...a lot of experience...is 33 years enough

@whatifwe

I can not send you an PM because it is not allowed for me because I am a newbie here with my 52 years
Here is the website for better trust => http://www.data-repairs.ch
best regards Freddy

Well,
You will not be able to do this if sean has rejected it ,Try it out i am confident

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

I thought a Clean Room was and is a must for such work.

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"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin revisited

I meant in regards to DIY.

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"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin revisited