HDD REPAIR & RECOVERY OF ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS

[tipsyengine101]

Want to start a business in data recovery and hard disk drive repair.
Anybody there knows what is required?
Software and Hardware requirements?

Also will appreciate any information on tools and equipment required for large scale recovery of components from old electronic boards.

 

[itsmoked]

You need a clean room. This is because one of the most common methods is removing the platters and reinstalling them into a functioning chassis. You also need the software to handle alignment because the platter was formatted and written in a different chassis.

These places often have dozens of these hacked drives available so they can service whatever comes in.

It's one of those business that require a lot of weird software, a lot of hands-on fiddling, a lot of equipment, a lot of patience, and an ability to handle disappointed customers.

Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.-

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[tipsyengine101]

itsmoked,
Thanks for your response.
A clean room I may not be able to afford immediately, but I hear we could make do with an 'clean box'. with insert for technician hands and tools.
problem is I do not have details of how this can be constructed, or where to obtain ready made ones.

I recently receive a quote from acelaboratory.com,their product PC-3000, they claim can recover data from most damaged HDD, any body out there know anything about this product?

Regards.

 

[IRstuff]

Look for "glove box"

http://www.coylab.com/aluminum_glovebox.html

You'd need to add a HEPA filtered air supply to that

TTFN

 

[analogkid2digitalman]

An ESD protective glove box, no less.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's the questions that drive us"
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[nbucska]

Hi Tipsy:

I was in a similar business -- the job is getting more
difficult as the HDD are more integrated and density is
increasing -- so as someone familliar with the business
I can only advice you to find something else...

Plesae read FAQ240-1032
My WEB: <

http://geocities.com/nbucska/>

 

[tipsyengine101]

Thank guys.
Nbuska,
I agree, HDD is becoming very integrated and dense, but very cheap and poorly made.

But the fact is that most people are daily loosing valuable data on which you can not put a price tag. The isuue as you know is not the HDD, but the data specially on laptops and standalone systems. Almost every week I meet a guy with a roast disk and the look on his face tells you all......schedule, missed schedule!

What software or tools were you using in your former business?


IR Stuff, the link is okay, but cant find price information.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

If the data is invaluable, they shoudl be backing it up daily (hourly?) on a second (and third) media type when using a laptop, and using a RAID array when on the desktop machine. Even a USB stick is great for holding backup files since it's so quick (especially 2.0)... 4GB sticks can be had for under $200, 1GB sticks can be had for $30.

The minor amount of time spent copying every so often will pale in comparison to having only one copy on a HDD that needs to disappear into the bowels of a recovery shop for several days with no guarantee of a recovery. To rely upon a single media type/unit to store invaluable data is foolhardy, at best.


Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[richs]

Hiya-

Might I also suggest a full complement of electronic test
equipment.

Scope, logic analyzer, microscope, inert gas, and quite
a few hdd's around that you can hack with as well.

Many times, you can still pull the data from the read
write heads so you can piggyback the servo, head positioning
and aforementioned read/write heads from the offending
drive to the "helper" electronics.

Pulling platters is fraught with terror and should only
be used as a last resort.

If you can get the controller to work, you might be
able to pull data from the drive allbeit "corrupted".

I have used the linux operating system to pull many
disk format types from other operating systems. I haven't
tried with a windoze XP type file system yet. But have
recoverd quite a bit from wacked FAT32 type filesystems.

I worked with floppy disk devices (and some with early
Winchester drives). A solid understanding of analog
and digital electronics will be the very best tool of
all.

Hope this little post will help.

Best of luck with you endeavors.

Cheers,

Rich S.

 

[IRstuff]

That link was just an example of the product. I expect that you would do your own research.

TTFN

 

[nbucska]

I don't have any more info I feel free to publish

Plesae read FAQ240-1032
My WEB: <

http://geocities.com/nbucska/>

 

[itsmoked]

?

Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.-

http://www.flaminsystems.com