Ok I’ll get straight to the point.
We normally do PC repairs and don’t really know anything about hard drives other than the right ones to choose etc .
So when this came in with two scratches on the platter, I started searching the net for advice.
Is there anybody out there willing to have a go at recovering this for me? Ideally we need the whole drive imaging minus the scratched areas of course......
The customer told me it was dropped while running. He took the lid off and on seeing the scratches, decided to bring it to me. He’s a good customer of ours so I said I’d get some advice for him.
My concern is where you will get the parts from. Searching this forum I see somebody has already tried to obtain this same model of drive without success. Is there a shortage of spares?
He is cagey on the budget. He just said that I was to get some prices and let him know.
WD2500AAJS-41RYA0 250GB

There is always a chance to recover big chunk of data from such drive.
How much dust is on that white filter in top-right conner of that drive?

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www.datarecoveryne.com

Where is the service area located on this drive?

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

well looks like big problems, with that head crash could be dust inside HDA, from a MR Sensor crashed wich could be dirty all platters, check dust, inside, if has , wich surely has and would be magnetic dust, could be unrecoverable unfortunely ,

Regards

Inside the filter probably

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

Now that is funny!

Hi

I pulled the filter at the time and it's clean so far as I can tell. Looking around the forum I see drives that have very deep scratches on them. The scratches on this are not very deep. In fact the inner mark was quite difficult to photograph as it was so fine.

I don't know anything about SA apart from it being either on the outside or inside. I can't imagine the SA uses much room on the disc surface and given that the drive was running at the time, maybe this area escaped damage?

For me: drive opened - alignmemt needed - scratches - other intervention needed : it is in the 2500$ range. And no guarantee to recover everything.

So out of interest how close does the donor headstack have to be? I'm thinking you need an exact match but then I also read that some WD heads are interchangeable provided the firmware and capacity matches. Any truth in this?

It's out of interest COMPLETELY because of problems in head alignment. Open the cover and you are completely screwed.
If you want to give a good service to your customer, tell him that you will care about his problem and send it to a pro. Then you re-sell the service with your legitimate markup for interest and contacting and so on. You have nothing to do.
A common error of repair shops that don't have and cannot afford the proper gear to offer DR services directly : they try to do everything by themselves, assuming some other people can give free advice. This is ABSOLUTELY NOT this case, sorry (conflict of interests apart). Everyhting else will put the data at risk.

NO NO NO Please don't start that. This is my brain, I'll decide what I am interested in and I won't have you dictating what I can and cannot ask. I've made it quite clear in my fist message that the customer opened the drive BEFORE sending it to me. I have not touched the drive specifically because I don't know what I am doing, please don't suggest otherwise

This forum and the internet in general is supposed to be a source of information. I have no intention of fixing the drive myself but I do want, and have a right to know how you "self styled gurus" go about repairing them if I'm going to entrust the drive with one of you.

You are contradicting yourself; You say that by removing the cover you are completely screwed. However it is obvious that you will need to remove the cover in order to replace the heads. What you are effectively saying then is that you are incapable of performing a head swap. That’s probably not something you want to say too loudly when offering advice.

Also please don't patronise me or insult my intelligence by telling me how to look after the customer. I'm asking you about the drive here not customer service and I am already well aware of how to add mark-up to the final price.

Ah, ok. Then:
This forum is not a call center. You don't know how to do but still want to know how do gurus could fix it. And get revenue. Hands off my stuff!
Well, you sell goods and services? So we. We can't talk? Ok. We don't owe you nothing. As you said, internet is a source. Google knows all the answers. P.s. Of course you have to open the lid to change heads, the trouble is to put the pieces together and in working order. Me and all the gurus know how. If you want to get trained - not for free - get the equipment and drop a line. 'bye.
P.p.s. : sticky post- Forum rules : the key : don't shit where you eat (not my words)

And after all pretending and affirmations, after you have decided we are not able to do a head swap, should we accept any work from you? Or shall we thank for having the pleasure of talking with you? A real turnoff. Of course we all work for a living, but DIGNITY still exist...

BlackST,

You remind me of a kid I used to play with. He'd show me all of his cool toys, but he wouldn't let me touch them!


Cheers,

Jon

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Jon, it's quite different. A line must be drawn.

I'm just teasing . . . .

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

In the hands of a Pro and from what can be seen in the photo, and forgetting the posibility of more media damage on the unseen sides of the platter, what are the percentage chances of a successful recovery?
Also if there really is more unseen damage how might that affect the chances of a successful recovery in percentage terms?

Problem 1: Hard disk opened by customer under unknown conditions.
Problem 2: Top platter is badly scored.
Problem 3: Photographer is not wearing gloves, so further contamination will have occurred during photo session.

If your customer needs this data then give this to someone that knows what they are doing.

BlackST is correct. We will help you, but will will not disclose proprietry information or procedures.
There are places where you can go on courses, but what is needed here takes years of training and experience to accomplish without breaking into a sweat.

I'll add Problem 4) proper gear is needed. Expensive gear. Even if the expensive gear could be bought, training needed. After all this, maybe the data is still unrecoverable because of the heavy damage. For me is a closed case, every reputable DR company will charge almost the double regular fee because the drive was already opened and in unknown conditions. Of course there are still the "no recovery no fee" companies with more or less trustable, glossy websites and lots of testimonials good luck.
My roadmap would have been : 1) acceptance with no (ZERO) guarantee of getting the data back 2) Deep analysis , optical and electrical inspection and charge the diagnose fee 3) If the chances of recovery are still low, close the case. If not, 4) discuss what data is relevant and what not, and make a custom quotation. Maybe more head sets are to be used , then everything is accordingly to. But this is not the case.

Wow we have a serious attitude here be cool jumbojones