hard drive disks?

Question

is there any type of gear i can buy that can read the data off of the actual platters from hard drives? Or is that only within the realm of "data recovery experts" with expensive pieces of gear?

Answer 1

Sean ... Nice question.

I agree that getting data from disk platters is something for spies to do and other data recovery experts.

HOWEVER, I did read in a forum about a fellow whose hard drive stopped functioning. He strongly suspected it was the electronics and not the data integrity itself. He claimed he removed the platters from the non-functioning drive and installed them into a new drive that was the exact make, model, and size as the old drive. He SAID, repeat, he SAID this worked well enough and long enough to recover his data, but the drive died a short time later. He expected this might happen and was not disappointed at all because he DID get his data back, he said.

I've ALSO heard about someone who swapped the circuit card from one drive to replace the malfunctioning circuit card of another drive. However, I never heard whether this method actually worked.

I have my doubts about whether either of these methods should be attempted unless you're desperate. But keep in mind that "playing" with the platters too much may make them unreadable.

Personally, I like the idea of swapping the card better than the idea of swapping the platters, but I guess that depends on whether you've got the right tools and whether the drive's design lends itself to being manipulated in this way.

I wish you luck ... I hope your ideas, whatever they may be, will work.

Answer 2

Typically the controller board on the drive goes bad. In one instance I had a drive head gouge a trench in the top platter of a hard disk.

Sometimes you can swap the controller board and other times this does not work.

Then there is the myth that freezing a hard disk will bring it back to life. This sometimes works.

Answer 3

What the first poster said is exactly true, except that they do that in white rooms, which means that they are completely dust free. They just recover the data and put it on another harddrive that wasn't contaminated. Of course, this costs you the price of two drives (times 5), plus a nominal hourly fee in the realm of $200/hour in most cases.

If you go at it on your own, best of luck to you friend!