i took the distance learning course from Moulton, it was good, i mean i went from not knowing to understanding, to begin starting out, i didn't even have the concept of sector cloning, firmware modules or anything of the like, now i know the main ideas, .. i think the most important thing is "Know when to stop"
if you got bad sectors at the beginning of the data portion of the drive. you understand what needs to be done, & pointed in a direction of where to begin.. I'm not saying i was taught everything but i know. that before you run all these data carving tools on a drive that is clicking is ........................."get the drive to stop clicking" one of my 1sta data recovery advice i gave to somebody was ... get the drive off the USB adaptor & get the drive to spin, then try your software tools. you have to have basic drive knowledge. its not a "I never seen the inside a computer much less know what a Data Storage Device looks like, this will tell me everything course".. you got to have your common sense to things.. if you got the money & the desire to learn then go for it. other wise. save your cash & keep researching till you can't learn any more.

what ever it takes to get the sectors you want. & yes its a pain in the ass to get your data when all you had to do was make a copy of it some place else.

I purchase the long distance training from Scott and I would not trade it for anything in the world.
you just do not get two hard drives. There is alot of info and it was good that I can look over the info when ever I needed too.

I guess you can ask Scott for answer on your question - saegate-80gb-swaped-heads-t18661.html

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

Sarcasm aside, does Scott provide any support afterwards?

Does the course material require any prerequisite knowledge other than proficiency with a PC?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

well, its helps. to have prior knowledge, since doing PC repair since the early 90s. i already had known about 512 sectors & MBRs. partition tables and all the good stuff that came with the MS-DOS operating system. i knew about MFM drives & early ide. also the concept of firmware on devices. i knew what raids where. the course just solidified the concepts i knew about, it has a lot of details that would take a while to explain. other points of interest when it came to hard drive mechanics, is the explanation of PCBs Motors, platters, HDA & how the power up routines work. also the concept of Image the dive before preforming the Logical portions of it. & which options y have, like DD , Media Tools Pro, then the DDI which is great by the way. also the ending part of the course deals with an explanation of Solid States & the internal Routines that it goes through, like LBA to PBA the chs translation , clean rooms are also covered & Hard Drive History. the book he sells is more like a companion to the course, you reference it back & forth. you get in tools is the HPE & a USB Adapter a static mat & about 6 3.5s & a 2.5 for dissasambly. a 500gig drive full of freeware tools that you can use & it comes with some license software to your name.. its pretty complete. i mostly used the Videos of one class & the Audio of another in the car. i do e-mail Scott on some hard questions but due to his schedule some times it took some time to get the answers, but i always got a reply. i also like listening to the Pod casts.... & i pretty much use logical sense to figure out the other stuff I'm doing, also ..not to rely on just one tool... if you have to, you build the tools if needed, i found that i could use the Seagate Terminal commands to Soft Reset a slow drive & media tools to copy sectors... in the end my friend got his data back from a drive he had held on 2 for about a year with my help.
i hope that explains some of your questions. like i mentioned it helps to understand somethings when you take it.

I`m not trying to convince anybody I'm just trying to explain what i got out of it. firmware modules are still out of my league with out any real firmware tools. but at least i know that they exist on platters & Firmware chips. oh yeah also about ATA specs & commands, & how the mother board has ATA chipset levels . INDX UNC ABRT AMNF & other explanations not just "oh S.M.A.R.T says its bad, all data lost sorry" i guess a good thing i learned was know when to stop & consult a professional. also why Data Recovery Companies charge what they charge.. this is a pain in the ass not a walk in the park. so many things can go wrong when trying to keep a drive running long enough to get the data off.

the Freezer thing should not be the 1st thing to try.

DrFaustus,

Thanks very much for taking the time to explain.

Out of curiosity, I had previously purchased Scott's "Data Recovery Class Color Version" book in PDF format:

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=70992

ISTM that most of his material is oriented toward logical recovery rather than hard drive repair.

BTW, I'm still trying to understand why the PDF copy of the B&W hardback version is listed at almost double the price of the B&W paperback version. Perhaps Scott could explain.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Injecting another dose of Sarcasm in a forum full of Sarcasm and socratic irony....> Perhaps Scott offers a course on "Trying to understand why the PDF copy of the B&W hardback version is listed at almost double the price of the B&W paperback version" ? He could cut you a deal as you already purchased one of his e-books. After 5 days of distance learning you will fully undertsnad his logic.



BTW, I'm still trying to understand why the PDF copy of the B&W hardback version is listed at almost double the price of the B&W paperback version. Perhaps Scott could explain.[/quote]

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

I got Scotts coloring book just out of curiosity a couple years ago. For the $11.25 it’s priced about right for what you get. For the amount of free stuff you can get on the Internet and here on hddguru it wasn't worth it. I should have spent that money on hard drive spray.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

I always suspected that if you purchased the hardback download, you got a message from Scott advising you that you were too stupid to take up data recovery.

That said, I'm wondering if anybody has purchased same and is now offering data recovery services to unsuspecting clients.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I may have this book... Does the front cover look like this?

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

I would better order a copy of Kamasutra : won't help recovering a single bit of data but can eventually deliver hours of fun to everyone and a lot of always useful physical exercise. Plus : no clean room required, just bed room and save the monthly gym fee

Unfortunately, I'm sure the answer to this question is yes

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

Come on guys, he was trying to get information on what is SUPPOSED to be a PROFESSIONAL forum. Instead, all he got was ridiculed for asking a question. Why not offer actual advice on where people new to this can actually learn something. Or are you insecure and afraid we will take your business?

You don't feel that the OP's original question, that of peoples' opinion of myharddrivedied.com training, has been answered?

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

I hope I didn't come across as ridiculing the course material. In fact, for someone embarking on a data recovery career, it is evident that Scott's course provides a good starting point. I can't understand how he can claim that it makes you an expert, though.

In my case, Scott's book of slides wasn't of much practical use. However, it does introduce all the major concepts that are hopefully discussed in much more detail in the actual course.

My approach would be to buy the book and research all the major topics on my own. Do as much as you can with the information and freeware available on the Internet. Once you have amassed some background knowledge, then use the course to fill in the blanks.

BTW, I would supplement the course material with some basic electronics, eg how to use a multimeter, how to recognise components, how to solder/desolder. In fact this very forum is sorely in need of a "Basic Electronics for Data Recovery Dummies" thread. Perhaps I'll write one ...

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

what everyone is trying to say is that you can not become a data recovery pro

just doing this course one time

its takes a lot longer to learn in this type of business

data recovery is getting a lot harder to do these days

because they want to control everything the companys who make the drive



Data Recovery Expert Certification

After passing the certification exam with a 70 or better, you will also be sent a high quality sealed certification for framing. If you fail the certification exam, you can retake the exam for $50.





Or are you insecure and afraid we will take your business?[/quote]


in a way yes people will not admit this to you because your be taking business away from them.
its turning into a cut throat business
where there competition now

everyone who does the course think im a data recovery professional now

maybe a basic recovery person but not a pro


but it takes many years to master this type of business

plus you need to purchase high end gear to help you in the recovery


scott has given a lot of trade secrets out that the data recovery industry do not wanted people to know about
because they want the business for themself and to keep it secret.

people will hide and not tell you the truth

but in a way this person knows what he is talking about.

if he was that really crap he would be out of business now

but answer this

why are all well known data recovery company's going to this guy

allso if you never been to his Learning Classes you will not understand


a lot of miss information out there.

All that one could hope to achieve in a 5 day . . . or 10 day . . . or 30 day course is to provide a very general "survey" of the principles of data recovery. The real danger is that some graduates, not understanding what they don't know, are going to hang out their shingle as a data recovery operation and put people's valuable intellectual property at risk.

"Real" data recovery requires the use of expensive and mostly proprietary gear. On piece of non-proprietary equipment, a disk drive analyzer, costs upwards of $40K. The manual that goes with it is a foot thick. Even the manual that comes with the PC3000 -- while a very good reference -- is practically unusable until someone is well-versed and practiced in the things that are NOT in the manual.

There are competent companies that offer week-long training on just the PC3000. None of them -- nor the students taking the course -- would consider that successful completion made anyone an "expert." It's just a start!

Data recovery is a multi-disciplinary field. You need to be competent in areas such as PC operation and configuration; software and file structures; surface-mount techniques; digital troubleshooting & repair -- just to name some of the skills required. How can anyone acquire these skills in a short interval?

The situation really calls for some type of industry-wide quality-control and certification. Doctors have board certification. Lawyers have to pass the bar exam. Accountants, insurance experts, real-estate agents, etc. all have standards that they must pass. Why not data recovery? Would you trust your legal problems to someone who got their training on-line only? Surely, not if you knew . . .

Unfortunately, the public has NO IDEA of the quality of the service offered by one company over the other, and no way to compare. Incompetent practitioners can do a lot of damage to all concerned.

It is a shame that so many people who visit this forum think it is simply that it is a matter of the bigger children not willing to share their candy with the little ones. Most have no idea whatsover.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

I can understand why the big kids wouldn't want to share their iPods or iPhones with the little ones, but candy is something else altogether. And therein lies the problem with this forum, namely that even trivial scraps of information are treated like precious trade secrets by many of the professional members.

In fact, on the one hand you have people sarcastically deriding Scott Moulton's "secrets", yet if you ask them for the same information, they will withhold it as if it had the most precious commercial value.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Fzabkar,

Apparently you missed the entire point and took my metaphor out of context.

Scott's "secrets" as you call them are readily available on the internet for anyone to Google.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Beside the clever disguises ( ) and the social engineering attempts returned to sender/s , it's just matter of agreement on what are "secrets" and what is only a collection of elsewhere available info. The merit is that the info is collected and dispensed in a certain way at a certain price and there's nothing bad on it.

In my opinion , when in a course I will see as argument "uploading FW on non-working Seagate without PC3000 or other commercial / proprietary stuff" or "unique commands for accessing WD firmware" or "structure of ROM" or... or... - this will be a course that teach something really useful for REAL data recovery that - if I already didn't know - I could consider. But it's me.

Otherwise, sad to say, all you need for a real commercial point of view to do something "visible" , relatively safe and immediate , is a Deepspar DI or even a Data Compass HW tool if your DR horizons are limited to pre-failure drives that need to be cloned for further SW analysis / recover. At least you keep the HW.