Does anyone know a good guide about rebuilding hard disks? How to change heads, platters, etc. What are the possible solutions to get data and so on. I'm looking for a good manual for techies but have found nothing at all.

Because there is none freely available...

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

I don't want it for free I would happily buy it if I found one.

Why do you not try and work out a deal with Pepe he is in your area. You might get him to accept you come and work for him for free and learn from him and pay for your training so that you can write your own book that you are looking for. Other than this you will never find one. You will need to get about 200 HDD's and start to tear them apart one by one. Then take your notes and learn from your mistakes in doing this work. That is the only book you will find on this subject and might be the cheapest way of learning on this one. You can take the free information from Internet and see on your own how this can work or not. You will learn in time but this can take you years to perfect the techniques necessary to do this work. No book good or bad can replace hands on experience and knowledge learned from doing this type of work for a living.

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Iorana Haraharaini

There is also no commercial book for purchase. It's either you get lucky enough to work for a company that will train you or learn the hard way buy spending lots of time in research and testing, and spending money and time, and did I say time
If that's not something that you are willing to do, then Data Recovery is most likely not for you.
If it would be easy then everyone would do it.

And I must add that a DR expert must be intuitive and have a broad mind. I think anybody can take apart 200 drives and only a few will learn anything from it.
So if one wants to learn from book, the basics are completely missing.

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

I totally agree with Pepe on this!

my experience is good book for me.

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data recovery service[/b]

"How to fix hard drive for dummies"

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

I´d like to write a book with some custmers sayings ...

like:

After a successful DR from a real defect 2,5" laptop hdd, I asked whether I
should dispose the drive as its for no use any more - he replied:
..."no, I will format it at home and use it for back up of photos...."

or the usual reply after you made a first price guess for a DR
..."oh thats too expensive, a friend of mine will have a look onto it..."

or
any quote for a student (even for 50,-):
"... no thats too much - look its only to copy a few files
..... I thought its not more than 20.- ... cant afford more..."

standard customer: - nearly crying for lost wedding film of his only daughter
... after quotation for mechanic (cleanroom) repair for about 600,-
".... no its not that important ...."

My personal saying is:
Self-overestimation (DIY), relativs (son, son in law, friend of daughter), friends,
neighbours and collegues from work are the harddisks and datas death...

+++

LOL Walter,

It's funny but also sad because it's all true!

Amazing how "if i don't get my photos back its the end of my life" turns into "it's not that important" once they realise it's going to cost them money.

Another favourite of mine is "$200!!! Thats more than the drive cost! You trying to fleece me!"

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Also have you noticed that if they do actually admit dropping an external drive, it's always "drive only fell approx 6 inches onto soft carpet"

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Thats so true !!!!!!!!!!!

LOL agree on that one!

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

another one....."I don't understand how its failed, it was working fine yesterday!"

I'm afraid ZenDre was looking for some other book, but to be honest TerraNova's book came to my mind also.
Anyway, Zen, please forgive us intercepting your topic a bit. There are so many guys out there taking drives apart without knowledge and experience and messing up things for $100 in a moment that such book would be really harmful for customers' data.
Basically if one thinks he has some knowledge, it is more dangerous than having no knowledge at all. You need to be aware of your limits and let pros do what you can't.

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

And thats why they always want a "soft" price aswell

@ ZenDre, here is a 359 pages of good knowledge book for you to start up with:

I have this book if you interested of buying, if so send me a Pm.

Regards
Bosse

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

I think that customers are similar in their minds all over the world, ( UK,Russia,hungary,egypt.. etc ) and they are all saying the same things.

Specially this one ( "$200!!! Thats more than the drive cost! You trying to fleece me!" ) I like it the most

LOL

yeah and happily go out and spend $200 on a night on the town!!!

Data Recovery is cheap compared to some services out there... Problem is....They read this forum and think it's easy like boiling an egg, so "Why should I pay $200???"

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

Too cheap considering all the knowledge, skill, time and equipment needed, and not to mention the headache from ungrateful customers who fail to see the complexity of what we do....