So I've exhausted my skill level and budget at attempting to recover data from my hard drive. My original post is here. I'm now considering sending the drive to a professional data recovery person or company.

I originally bought this drive as a MD MyBook directly from Western Digital, but it's out of the warranty period. I started at Western Digital recovery referral page

I contacted OnTrack and spoke to one of their reps. The person I spoke to was just a customer service rep, taking down information. They didn't know if OnTrack has the equipment to open up drives and read directly from the platters, or swap head readers. My questions to the forum are:

1. Do you know of any companies or freelancers that do have experience/equipment my drive probably needs
2. What do you think of OnTrack's quote

OnTrack Quote March 15, 2026:
20.00 USD for diagnosis and return of my data
-- charged only if
------ I decide not to purchase recovery
------ or they decide recovery is not possible

1,125.00 USD for recovery action
-- based on size 4TB of drive, not amount of data I want to recover
-- based on medium: an external conventional HDD, Western Digital
-- not based on damage or recovery measures needed, i.e. not low fee for easy fix, high fee for hard fix
-- no change to recovery action fee possible due to recovered data size
-- time to complete 7-14 days, can do faster with higher fee

Sliding scale for recovery data size
-- changes for amount of data I want to recover
-- 1 TB drive: $100
-- 2 TB drive: $110
-- 4 TB drive: $170

They pay for FedEx shipping with tracking for me to send my drive to them, but no insurance on the package. I can pay for insurance if I want.

Very interesting pricing scale...
I don't have anything else to say.

You mean like this?

https://www.shutterstock.com/shutterstock/photos/1951750303/display_1500/stock-photo-concept-of-data-recovery-engineer-is-recovering-data-from-failed-hard-disk-driver-hdd-disk-1951750303.jpg

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Try here..... A big listing of pro labs who should be able to help....

https://www.datarecoveryprofessionals.o ... er-listing

I can't speak for any of the companies personally, but have had advice from a few and I do it for a living too.

Recovering data "directly from the platters" is an Internet myth that just won't die. There is no such magic.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Two addages come to find, don't put all eggs in one basket, and don't assume hard disks are invincible.

7-zip is fast and it can make ZIP files, TAR files or the 7z format. Tar files can be opening in Windows 11 but its galacial.

_________________
Orico DS500C3-US-BK 5-disk 3.5" SATA, iTGZ 4x M.2 2280 Thunderbolt enclosure NVMe/SATA, etc. etc.

So when I say "read directly from platters" I'm asking is there a way to swap read/write head and actuator arm? I thought this was possible in a clean room. Instead of using a donor pcb, taking an entire donor hard drive opening it and my patient drive in a clean room swapping the head and actuator and then using the patient "lid" back on the hard drive and donor pcb. I've read so many forums and blogs over the last 6 months it's all a blur. I even read some peer-reviewed articles I have access to through work. I thought I did see a use case of something like this, but maybe it was just a fever dream.

https://globaldra.com/

Choose from here...

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

I looked through your thread - the reason the drive isn't booting is damaged sliders (I haven't seen anyone clearly point this out).
WD SMR drives won't boot with a damaged head block.

The nature of the damage suggests physical damage, not a glass of water...
Unless the head damage occurred AFTER you interfered.

You write that the MCU (1) is heating up - to what temperature?

@chrispitt76: "2. What do you think of OnTrack's quote?"
No company will give you an accurate quote over the phone, especially after what you did to the drive.

_________________
Data recovery Poland (RAID, HDD, SSD) - https://hex-serwis.pl