Data Recovery Head Swap - Hard Drive Crash -

Author: ACS Data Recovery
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9m 58s Lenght
128 Rating

http://www.acsdata.com ~~~WARNING~~~ ****THIS IS NOT AN INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO**** There are key steps and some proprietary information that has been edited out. This is also only a 10 minute video, where just the head swap alone can take well over an hour depending on the drive. We also don't show our method for aligning the heads on this particular model. This video was originally produced because many of our customers were simply curious, or ill informed about what is done to physically repair a hard drive for recovery. This video is not intended to make you think swapping heads is easy. This video is not intended to make you think you can do it yourself. In 99% of this cases, if you attempt this on your own, even within a clean room environment, you will probably lose your data for good. Also, just because your drive is clicking, does not necessarily mean the heads are bad. Proper diagnosis is key with doing data recovery correctly. Most lower level companies will just try to swap the heads, when it may be a PCB or firmware issue. When the head swap doesn't work, they will say your data is unrecoverable. We get drives like that in every week, where a customer has been told the heads are bad, when they weren't. So just because your drive is clicking, there maybe something more to it, but you won't have the proper equipment needed to verify this or not and neither will a lower end data recovery firm. The simple message here is, if your data is critical, make absolutely sure you let a professional data recovery firm do the recovery. Even if you have no desire at all to send a hard drive to us for recovery, PLEASE shop around, do your homework on the industry and ask for solid references from the company you do choose. If they are local, maybe even stop by their offices just to check them out first. There are literally thousands of companies out there that say they do this type of work, but VERY few actually do. If they say they can do a physical recovery for $199, you might want to keep shopping. The parts alone can be more than that. In most cases, a physical recovery is going to run anywhere from $600 to $1,500+ depending on the size of the drive, and the type of failure that has occurred. An actual data recovery case. Head swap on a Hitachi Travelstar hard drive. http://www.acsdata.com

Comments

  1. Hi,
    I opened my damaged drive and saw that the disc was damaged by the head. There is a 0.5mm circle scretch. Is there a way to recover the data from heatlhy parts of damaged disc?
  2. Can I replace a 750 GB drive head with a 1 TB drive head of the same make and model?
  3. Ok, question, too many comments to read through. When the donor head is removed and replaced into the original HDD, I noticed you didn't use a tool to keep the headers separate. In my understanding, it is vital that the headers can not touch. Your video doesn't prove that theory. Does it matter, if the headers touch during exchange? Or, am I supposed to keep them separate while exchanging, then remove tool when time to put in park?
  4. So is this guy a hack?
  5. i'm computer tech my self, long story short, you people are paying sooo much money is simply because of the Convenience we bring to you! remember this people
  6. Excuse, might i ask a question? Why are you wearing a protective mask while doing the hard disk head swap?
  7. Excuse, might i ask a question? Why are you wearing a protective mask while doing the hard disk head swap?
  8. @mattbrad2 The video is edited down to fit within YouTube's 10 minute limit. Most recoveries take a few hours to complete if things go perfectly. Some take days, some take weeks, and a few take months.
  9. So... you fixed this drive in 10 minutes (roughly)? And you will charge the customer how much exactly??
  10. Or run raid 1. its much easier.
  11. I never understood why you had to have the same numbers. I got screwed because nobody was ever able to find my exact model. You would think a 80GB drive is the same as any other. Taught me a valuable lesson though. BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP!
  12. lol i have a pentium 1 hard drive 2.5 GB with 16 heads 4960 cylinders and 63 sectors, made in 1997.... lol
  13. This is absolutely false in regards to the platters. A single platter you may get away with. A Toshiba drive, is a bit more forgiving on both horizontal and vertical axis alignments. You can use head stacks that contain more heads than the original source, given that other parameters are also properly matched. Yo don't have to cut them off, and risk damaging the good usable heads. The drive controller won't try to read them so they will just be null anyway.
  14. Damn... and that's a hitachi travelstar too... while waiting for my folder thumbnails to load, my hard disk suddenly hanged and started making a clicking sound like the arm tapping on that smaller metal round thing in the center of the gold disk... I immediately panicked realizing, "FUCK NO, CLICK OF DEATH" and held my power button till my lap shut down... is there still a way to recover my data?
  15. data is recovarable if u wipe the HD out with one pass =]. You just have to want it bad enought to recover. hehehe
  16. And what advice has he given us. NOTHING !
  17. Swapping platters is a much more complex process in most cases. In some drives we do just that. Toshibas for example, are very forgiving. However, we only swap platters as a last resort in cases where the spindle motor has seized or failed altogether. There are too many possible issues with vibration and axis alignments. In short, you can't just take the platters out and put them into another drive. All alignment has to be maintained, vertical and rotational or the data will be inaccessible.
  18. stop giving people bad advice!
  19. what imaging ware is that?
  20. Even his cotton t-shirt is giving off dust particles. He should have hooded coveralls.