It kills me to see a drive come in like this. If only we had first kick at the can. Now I cannot even guess what the original problem was...I don't even know if the platters are in the right order. (I suppose I could check and see if there are prints on other surfaces, but that really doesn't matter too much at this point.)

Notice where the filter is located between the heads and the platters:

Gotta like the nice curve on the cover, which was pushing down on the platters when it arrived:

I guess it is safe to say that it was opened in an unclean environment:


For those of you who recommend DIY, if you cannot afford it. It is always best to get the free assessment first...'cause there isn't any going back after this.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

I like the filter at their position!
Never seen this before!

If you need help to recover this drive, i think i can help.

Janos

I have seen more and more these days. Sometimes it pissses me off badly i doubled the price.

I got a WD 80GB drive in yesterday....in a ziplock bag.....the platters loose.....and a mangled cover that looked like they used a crow bar to open it with. I told them it would be $500 for me to just open the ziplock back.

gtd4242 hahaha good one

I never recommend that the end user open his drive. My advice is aimed at problems which have non-invasive DIY solutions. Having said that, I wonder if the result would have been any different if the owner had seen a Scott Moulton video.

In any case, if you are holding up this woeful example as a reason why DIY should not be attempted, then I can show you an embarassing case of a drive that came back a lot worse after a "free assessment" by a national DR company. In that case it was a WD drive where the TVS diodes had been replaced with wire links. Furthermore, since the diagnosis involved some technobabble about HDA problems that presumably required a peek under the cover, I'm expecting that the free assessment probably introduced a major head stack alignment problem.

BTW, can you tell us if the owner had removed the TVS diodes? :D

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

To me , anyway, seems still recoverable, but 100percent data is no longer possible. And at an high price.

Janos, I'm pretty sure I can handle the job...I'm just not so sure that the client can handle the price.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Janos, I'm pretty sure I can handle the job...I'm just not so sure that the client can handle the price.[/quote]

He he, so true

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Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

You are right!

i had 2 better ones this week., sadly i didnt take any photos, first hitachi 2.5 inch came in with 1 screw holding the lid in place,
loose platters and the heads sitting in the drive off the ramp as the ramp also had the scre removed and was floating in the drive.

2nd drive was a samsung 2.5 inch which the attache dnote read,drive was clicking, opened hd, applied oil to wiper arm and spindle motor, spins ok wiper reads a few times then turns off

it would be really nice if people didnt touch what they dont understand and play with other peoples data.
good laugh none the less