Yeah you guys are right but that's for the rich. At $200 USD monthly minimum wage I cant even afford the philippines data recovery service. $20 is for the consultation fee and depending on whats wrong, they told me, it would cost $500 to $1,500. They mostly serve big business.That's why its so expensive. For me to save that would take serveral months. I have already made peace with losing my files. I can get some music movies and software from my friends and family. Plus some of my important family movies and pictures are on facebook and youtube. So it doesnt feel so bad right now. And I guess I can use this as practice more than anything.

How did you guys learn how to switch the head stack assembly?
Can you give me any pointers?

hello,

I suggest you, to put your drive on safe place for a while.

I'm not shure, but I think, that you didn't mentioned, what kind of drive you have(manufacturer, model)

Then try to learn on drives from manufacturer, your drive is and read forum.
But in any case, you will need some money for HDD's and tools.

It could be someone on this forum from Philippines, who will solve your problem for reasonable price.
Write model of your drive

forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=24485

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• Remote RAID, NAS, SAN, VMware, DVR (CCTV), flash and tape recovery. Data recovery support.

I checked the link and that's the service I was talking about eariler. $20 is for the consultation fee and depending on whats wrong, they told me, it would cost $500 to $1,500. They mostly serve big business.That's why its so expensive. For me to save that would take serveral months. I have already made peace with losing my files. I can get some music movies and software from my friends and family. Plus some of my important family movies and pictures are on facebook and youtube. So it doesnt feel so bad right now. And I guess I can use this as practice more than anything.

How did you guys learn how to switch the head stack assembly?
Can you give me any pointers?

Training / Practice.

it is that simple.

Hello AJ12Gamer,

I Google with "philippines datarecovery" and there is more then one adatrecovery company in Philippines. Check them and ask on forum for references.

It would be good, to write down HDD data(brand, model,..). You just write about your good drive, not about faulty one.

For any physical work on drive, you need to put attention on more things, then just replace one or more parts.
For this you need tools and experience.

If you wish to learn something, try find two identical working drives. Check if they work OK, and then try.
First try with PCB swpa and check if everything Works ok. In this case, you Will need only torx screwdriver(one tool)
If you fail, then think about further steps.
For further steps, you Will need more tools then just torx, and also clean environment,..


Put your drive on a shelf, and research on Google about data recovery companys and their prices on Philippines.

I was told I didnt need to swap pcb. I already contacted a supplier and I give them all the details they needed and he concluded that I do not need a pcb. Tomin from hddzone told me that.

Can anyone give me step on how to do a head assembly replacement?

See the Manuals, Animations and Video Guides at the bottom of the page:
http://hddsurgery.com

Head Stack Replacement: Questions and Answers:
http://hddguru.com/articles/2006.02.17- ... ck-Q-and-A

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I'd try to get my hands on at least a few old hard drives, given your situation, to gain at least some good training. You'll mess things up when you do it for the first and second times. You'll sweat, and tremble. Said that, if your drive is still recognized, I'll give a try to dd_rescue first, or any other software capable of cloning and/or minimizing surface access while recovering.

thanks for the help man. I going to order a cheaper plastic one I found on alibaba.
and thank you so much for the link.


deftrue I already did dd_rescue and other software capable of cloning and/or minimizing surface access while recovering but to no avail.
that's why i feel that I might have a Head Stack Replacement.