After watching youtube videos, DR is not really that hard. You just need the expensive tools and a few weeks of training. It's not like computer programming where you need 4 years of college.

- Why not perform a platter exchange @ home for DIY?
People in the industry uses scotch tape and cheap 3D printed head tools and they work just fine.

After watching youtube videos, DR is not really that hard. You just need the expensive tools and a few weeks of training.

Scott Moulton will make you a data recovery expert in just 5 days.

VSC stands for Virtual Storage Console?

We need a Louis Rossmann or Jessa Jones in the data recovery world.

Hard drives: $100 for basic recovery, $200-$250 for serious damage, $400-$900+ for anything requiring lab level tools(clean room/PC3000/conversion/decryption).

SDcards/microSD cards: $100-$150 for basic, $250+ for any physical or logical damage

Cellphones: $300-$450 for drop or liquid damage. $400+ for any damage inflicted by inept repair technicians(long screw) that is above and beyond terrible.

SSDs: $300+

Rossman now offers data recovery.

I meant as someone who's willing to teach as Spildit explains it's not in one's best interest to do so, but Louis and Jessa show otherwise. Erkin teaches a little on the hardware side but nothing on the software side; his videos are short and doesn't go into details but I think he has no employees so has less time available, understandable.

Rossman has 11 employees (according to one of his videos), so I'm guessing that he doesn't necessarily do physical data recoveries himself. He may simply have hired the requisite expertise. AFAICT, the motivation for his videos stems from a deep hatred of Apple and its business practices, so I'm wondering whether he will need some other motivation before he puts data recovery on public display.

AFAICT, the motivation for his videos stems from a deep hatred of Apple and its business practices, so I'm wondering whether he will need some other motivation before he puts data recovery on public display.

Hello Gurus,

This topic is born to be for linking it in instead of 1000 and more useless words in almost any topic.

Dear readers of this board,

If the gurus sad, "you can't fix it, try to find a pro...", you should read this thread before do anything....

There is some sample about why not DIY:

- Why not perform a platter exchange @ home for DIY?

Because the platters are "aligned" in the factory.
This happened more ways, depends on the building methode.

If somebody want to do the transplant, needs to move the platters together, because some micron rotation or movement on any side will cut the data from the outside world.
The cylinders are tilted, screwed, the tracks can becomes eccentric and the head will never find these again...
This job can be done with expensive tools and A LOT of practice before trying the first important drive...

- Why not replace the headstack @ home for DIY?

Because depends on the hdd brand, the MHA (Magnetic Head Assembly) can be made of more brand's heads and preamp chip.
Additionally the factory often modify the parts, because does continous researching...
If you have missed the preamp type, you can burn out the new one, the smoke fall to the platters inside the closed HDA.
The burned preamp can damage the read channel in the pcb, or other parts like power supply, or DC-DC converters in the pcb.
If you missed the MHA structure, you can scratch the platters with the heads.
If you missed the head type/model, the mismatching BIAS value can damage the data during the PC reading or even if the drive try to access the SA without the engineer does any thing wrong....

The arms/springs wich holds the heads are really delicate and sensitive for any move.
The heads/preamp is extremely sensitive for ESD, so you need to work with it on ESD safe workplace.
You can't measure it with standard/usual tools, because only a simple digital multimeter can burn out the preamp's input fets...

Some of the models, have "aligned" heads as well, not only platters...
If you loosen up the top lid's screws you have ruined the alignment wich is micron precise.
Some models can use only the own heads or extremely sensitive for the differences, so finding the perfect donor is a challange for a pros too as well on some cases...

- Why not open the drive @ home for DIY?

Because the dust wich in the air much more bigger then the flying height of the head. (0.6-0.9 micron)
If only one piece of dust gets between the head and platter, then it will scratch the platter and free up more magnetic dust form the surface wich like to stuck to the heads and platters again to make more trouble...
Safely opening the drive can be done only on really clean environment, in an expensive cleanroom.

- Why not replace the PCB @ home DIY?

1. Because bad preamp can burn out the new pcb too, and can be burn out more smoke inside the HDA.
2. Because the PCB is programmed (calibrated) for preamp/heads assembly mix for perfect performance and for the SA location too.
If You modify these settings with replacing the PCB You can mess up your data or simple pump up the recovery price for a D.R. company...
3. Because the same model numbered chips can have different programs / configuration parameters / adaptive data inside!

- Why not try to fix the SA @ home DIY?

The SA have almost anything about this drive....
The Zone allocation tables, the Head maps/usages (model specific), the deffect logs and defective sectors list (translator)
servo calibration tables, and so on...
This is a heavily designed and "componed" driver program, this is like the "BIOS" of the hypertuned drive which You want to fix.
If the data is important inside, don't think to modify anything without you exactly and absolutely know what you are doing!
The SA have some factory routines as well wich was made for testing the drive, and can destroy the data.
If you mess up one critical module, the drive can be unrecoverable forever or the price is doubled or tripled!

- Why not try to image a bad sector drive [under windoze] DIY?

Simply because windows don't know how shoud behave an OS.....
Windows can't resist itself from making A LOT of modification on a bad drive!
I have exactly one bad sector drive (unnamed brand) wich _have not partition table_ at all, but the first error message on the windows startup is on this drive: "The windows can't write out the data form the cache, the data is lost....".
What data???

Another point of view:
If the drive have some bads, the user can't figure out the reason of these!
The read channel can be bad too, and when the drive reads from one side, the other head can demagnetize the another side....
If the head is weak, this can die soon, can crash too, and scratch up the surface in some seconds!
If the surface have a scratch (eg. caused by a shock in the past) the scratch can crash the head and here goes again the previous point...
If the surface is good, the heads can survive the forced reading, the drive tries to re-allocate the bad sectors.
This is on some modells can cause a G list overflow (SA corruption) and the drive stops to working unexpectedly.

- Why not ask the members of this forum when you only want DIY?

Because these people here wants to help for each others, and trust me, it is bad to see if an unskilled person can't read the right words and ruin his drive maybe forever instead of getting back his data in a cheap way....
This is a technical forum, not a DIY for alughing on each other's faults....

Best Regards,
Janos Haar

http://recovery.netcenter.hu