Hard drives with scratches

[mmingos]

Hello everybody,

from times to times they bring me drives with slight or several scratches on the platter surface.

I think, since this is a forum with serious proffessionals, somebody would solve my riddle.

For sure these kind of drive recovery is over my skill, though i have seen companies advertising they can recover those drives. I've tried sending them some, but finally they couldn't.

So here is a simple question to all the experts.

Are drives with Scratches recoverable by someone ?
And who might that one be ?
I've heard about delimeters technique, but never managed to achieve something out of it. Is someone skillful enough to handle such cases ?

I am sending you some photos to see what i mean scratches :

Attachments

Case 3 - 8

3-8.jpg (11.98 KiB) Viewed 6425 times

Case 3 - 5

3-5.jpg (5.57 KiB) Viewed 6425 times

Case 3 - 4

3-4.jpg (6.29 KiB) Viewed 6425 times

Case 2 - 4

2-4.jpg (7.1 KiB) Viewed 6425 times

Case 2 - 1

2-1.jpg (5.45 KiB) Viewed 6425 times

Case 1 - 5

1-5.jpg (8.71 KiB) Viewed 6425 times

Case 1 - 3

1-3.jpg (10.67 KiB) Viewed 6425 times

[dmarques]

Hi,

It's not a straightforward answer, because it depends a lot of where the ring is located and it's area.
In some cases, it is possible to recover with some scratches using some techniques. But of course it will not be a 100% recovery.

[mmingos]

Got data from case 2. just jumped initial sectors for imaging. All important data of client has been saved.
For Case 3 i have already sacrificed 2 heads and i stop.
For Case 1 one head has been sacrificed. I will go for another.

[dmarques]

In some cases you can still read something until heads will go into the ring area and die. So with 3 or 4 sets you might be able to get something out of it.
But other way is to avoid that platter or the damaged areas, and that way you won't ruin so many donors.