Helium Drive head swap

[jtb1982]

Hi everyone

I want to ask if some one in the forum is doing head swap in hdd sealed with helium inside, recently i see a post in instagram from drive savers they are saying they do the necesary process to made a head swap and sealing again in a hdd with helium. I know HddSurgery sales tools to open but not tool to seal the hdd again. I am curious if a small to medium data recovery laboratory can do this kind of process and make it profitable?.

thanks very much to read and my best regards

[ddrecovery]

It's not so much making it profitable, its getting access to the hard drives firmware to make the necessary changes to the drive after a head swap. I think most of us here have done head swaps on helium drives as R&D. The actual process is not any different to a normal HDD (except for opening and filling with helium). But most modern drives need firmware adaptations as well. That is where the larger companies have a slight advantage as they can 'poach' techs/information from HDD manufacturers and get the inside scoop. There are smaller companies on this forum who have had success with accessing firmware, but I don't think any of them are prepared to offer it as a regular option for recovery. But someone may prove me wrong..... again...

[michael chiklis]

How do you fill those drives with helium?
The are some tools selled by some companies as 'hddsurgery' to do that?

[ddrecovery]

How do you fill those drives with helium?
The are some tools selled by some companies as 'hddsurgery' to do that?

No one sells them (yet) as there is no market for them, but an adaptation to a breather hole/vent can be used (as an example).

[jtb1982]

It's not so much making it profitable, its getting access to the hard drives firmware to make the necessary changes to the drive after a head swap. I think most of us here have done head swaps on helium drives as R&D. The actual process is not any different to a normal HDD (except for opening and filling with helium). But most modern drives need firmware adaptations as well. That is where the larger companies have a slight advantage as they can 'poach' techs/information from HDD manufacturers and get the inside scoop. There are smaller companies on this forum who have had success with accessing firmware, but I don't think any of them are prepared to offer it as a regular option for recovery. But someone may prove me wrong..... again...

Thanks very much to read and answer my quetion,I am very grateful

[DRUG]

We deal with mechanical issues on helium hard drives.

Total research cost was high, but since we are one of the very few who have access to the technology it is profitable once jobs start coming in.

We will be providing a end to end hardware solution for it in May 2023. (Finishing compliance testing)

[pepe]

I have some success with fw level access on CCB6 and CCB7 series of drives, but have not made many mechanical tests coz of lack of real demand. I am pretty sure they will start coming some day... I think the most critical issue is not the refilling of the internals.
Moreover, not all of these are He filled, those should be 'straightforward'.

[digisupport]

"some success with fw level access on CCB6 and CCB7 series" sounds promising.
Good news pepe