What do you think?

I have checked, there is no screw under the lid!

Janos

At least they are Torx, on the old Quantums and Maxtors (I mean Really old) they had four cross head screws holding the lid on.

you mean under the sticker?
I noticed it too on GLA drives
Maybe they have their own way to check opened drive or maybe they don't care anymore
I'll try to ask Hitachi guy maybe he knows

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

[quote="Doomer
Maybe they have their own way to check opened drive or maybe they don't care anymore
I'll try to ask Hitachi guy maybe he knows[/quote]
These days, they probably check the platter for finger prints..

Yes, i mean the sticker, just missed the word, sorry.
The opening is important for as as well, not only the manufacturer!
How do we knowing anymore the drive was opened, or not?

Janos

I guess inspecting the platters would be a good start.

Also, the strength of the suction created by the vacuum appears to me as if it does not hold the same strength as the original. I am not sure if is due to the lid not being aligned properly when closing again or if's because of the rubber.

there is no vacuum in a drive

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

right thats probably just the strength of the rubber seal being sticky... which is certainly noticeable if it has been opened before or not.

I don't think hitachi would be able to deny you a RMA because "the lid wasn't hard enough to peel off so we think you opened it before" though.

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

it will stick back after a while especially if you let a drive work and heat up

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

Maybe they don't want to deny RMA because drive has been opened?

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

If somebody ask me, i think, this is only a mess when the sticker was designed, but anyway, it is really strange, and interesting.

There is no vacum in the drive, and the seal checking is clearly not enough for testing the opening.
The only problem for me is when one drive arrives for dr.
If the drive was opened, usually, i will ask the customer for a little preliminary price, caused by possible artifical problems...
But in this way, what can i do?

If i start the drive without opening, this is too high risk.
If i open the drive in all cases, and check, this is not a free task in my lab, and possibly the customer wont pay this after a bad news...
But this is unfair for paying all the cases on this family when arrives...

Janos

Yes doomer, there is no real vacuum I am aware of this, I was just refering to the force that makes the lid stick(strong rubber resembling the pressure of a vaccum). Sorry, I should have fraised it differently.

This makes sence, but If someone or some company opens the drive for DR and can't fix the problem. They send the drive back to the customer who will send the drive to another company. I don't think that they will continue to run the drive unessesary after determining that they can not fix the problem. I understand that this is not a bullet proof test, it was just a observation.

Janos, I guess you will have to get creative with pricing

I call it "liquid vacuum"

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Dmitry

Liquid Schwartz and then you got something

Almost all drives we get have some sticker covering the "heads-screw", in most cases the sticker covers this one. As soon as this sticker is not there, we check the screws under a magnifying glass for traces/scratches and we look at the side between the cover and the casing if we can see any damages to the rubber sealing. These marks (certainly combined) make clear that the drive has previously been opened. This means in our company that we go for an internal check in our cleanroom to see if there are any damages.

We had it several times a customer (or other recover "expert") attemted to open the drive by jamming a screwdriver or another sharp tool between cover and casing and in this way make some nice scratches on the platter. Our customers get a nice report out of these jobs, including pictures and explanation why they have been fools not to come to us first.

This external check is combined with smelling for burned chips (not always visibly burned), and after that the multimeter comes and the rest of the diagnosis-process. My advise: As soon as you even slightly suspect that a drive might have been opened, go for an internal check. Nothing is lost, just a little time. But it saves you a lot of troubles in the rest of the DR-process.

Good Luck!
Erik Sollie
www.recuperacion-disco-duro.com

Harddisk recovery in Peru and location is Netherlands

Dobre

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Murphy was an optimist

Datarecovery in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany
Datarecoverytools http://www.drtools.eu

I'm not suggesting this is the case now, but I've always wondered how many data recovery "gurus", if any, are actually just middlemen for the real data recovery houses?

sorry, haven't updated my account info. I'm originally from Holland, now working in Lima, Peru for a DR company that just started up. Been doing DR for almost 4 years now.