I was on the data recovery section of this forum and I was just fascinated with it. All the people were so helpful. I ended up sending it off to someone with more tools than what I had available to me.

I want to become that person because they make a lot of money. Granted there's the initial investment which I'm willing to go for which is sorta the point I'm going after here. along with that initial investment is a huge investment of time in learning.

I'm semi-familiar with the software out there, getdataback, r-studio, active file recovery, so on and so fourth. I'm interested in getting into the hardware end of it. I've noticed 2 main things coming up in these forums quite a bit, the deepspar disk imager and the pc3000. I'm sure it would be ideal to have access to both. My question is just starting out, which one would be best to start with? I guess what I'm asking, which one would make me more money quicker so I could buy the other?

Thanks,
Dave

That's really not how it works.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

I agree DR is not a job to get into if all you think about is making a lot of money in this one. You will need to invest a lot more than you make to start off with. You need a lot more than just knowledge of software to make this one work. You need major knowledge of how a HDD works and each family is different. I think that maybe you should think twice on this field if all you are thinking of is making a lot of money here and buying more tools to have for you. Good luck with this idea on that.

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Iorana Haraharaini

Don't go about life shooting peoples dreams down. I started out life upside down with slime all over me and naked just like everyone else, but I've found out like Ralph Waldo Emerson says, “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.”

First off, you stated "You will need to invest a lot more than you make to start off with." that is the definition of an investment. I am a business man and an investment of time or money isn't a problem.

Currently I own a business fixing computers and I love it, especially when I figure out something new. I had a customer bring a computer in. First thing I do is make sure it posts, this doesn't even take a minute, right? If it posts, 99% of the time the rest is software and I have all that. Well, his computer took 10 minutes and it never finished posting. The text would come up one character a second if that. I've never seen this before and I didn't give them much hope at all but when I figured out what was causing it, I was so on top of the world. Who would have ever thought that a shorted out usb pin would cause that? being that the customer somehow jammed just one of the usb pins to where it kinked and shorted out, it caused the post screen to run so slow and windows not to boot. I figured this out by unplugging every unnecessary thing from the mobo and plugging in a different power supply and it worked fine. Plugging in one thing at a time till the problems arrival again to figure out the cause. A different method, but it worked.

The customer got their computer back shy the front 4 usb ports, paid me $50 and they were like 'he fixed my computer, thanks, here's your money'. However when I recover data, even simple projects like using data recovery software or just knowing where windows put their file, I get much more praise than just fixing a computer along with the money and that is what is motivating me to learn more. 'Do what you love and the money will follow.' And follow it does.

That being said, I only know the tip of the iceberg in data recovery, but that is the direction I am heading. With computer repair the tools are cheap and knowledge is free online but a computer is only worth so much to people, for less than $600, you can buy a new laptop. Here the main differences are the tools are expensive and the good information is a lot harder to find but what you recover for people is priceless. So I'm just trying to figure out which tools to buy first to get started. Investing and leaning aren't the problem for me. I would just like to know where to invest first.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – Les Brown

Philosophy and theory are good things only for people that have time in their hands and full belly - implementing an ACTUAL business is very different , today.

1) If you are basing your idea on what you read on forums and internet ,you're totally wrong. First,don't assume all the threads on forums are genuine. Second, you see only the tip of the iceberg : people that come to forums, again, if threads are genuine and not started by fake posters, are usually people who WON'T spend a dime, freeloaders and usually have simple or non-existent problem except their laziness (want pre-cooked solution). And remember BlackST's DR law n. 1 : value of customer data tend to zero when DR cost > 0.
1bis) Problem no. 2 : it's easy to make copy / paste. Internet is full of copies of the same (wrong) posts/threads/pages.
2) Are you planning a "grey-ish" or "black-ish" business or a regular one ? Assuming it will be regular, you have to invest 50'000 to 100'000 EUR /$ to get started, trained and set up everything (in about 1 year), then you still have to enter the market.
3) At this point, if you have a street shop, you get "n" case , on these you have some good and a lot of bad / not recoverable, mostly because of user attempts . This, if you have a no data no fee policy ,will kill your profit margin and you'll just loose time.
4) You'll soon discover that the info you need or the tool you need for "that urgent case" is... the one you don't have at the moment. Will you then come here and ask for help ? Hmmmmmmm.....
5) 90% of the case is physical, nowadays. No, TVS and simple circuit repair (assuming it's simple) don't count and it will kill profit margin too.
Logical problems are only 10% and the revenue they bring is so low that in many case , if you have other things to do, you earn more refusing them. Law of the "big figures".
6) Don't forget to consider fees for tooling TS and consumables, like filters for clean room equipment (ouch !!) and eventually certifications etc. etc. . Ah, I forgot TAXES.
7) Finally, if you want to enter profitable markets like enterprise and hi-end , you need PREMISES as prerequisite and have to build reputation and references otherwise you are still at the starting point.

P.S. Les Brown, R.W. Emerson and co. didn't do DR.

I currently do IT repair myself as well as board level repair. Basically removing video chips and replacing them.

I was considering data recovery. A basic level of course, things i could do without a clean room. That basically means very few issues. I guess i will just stick with data corruption versus recovery, i did take a forensics class but that only applies to working drives mainly.

Not so few issues in my opinion ... You can crop a beautiful niche market !

and by the time you invested in all the tools and spend 1-2 years learing the basics of Data Recovery, then the entire market may have switched to SSD.

If you want to make Big money in Data Recovery, then you are about 15 years too late

true dat

i am happy for the your members