Hi everyone!
I am trying to get some information on how to recover data from damaged hard drives. I know how to replace PCB board and how to disassemble a hard drive. I've tried to get data from couple old drives that were working before I disassebled them, but once I put them back together they didn't work any more. I know that you "supposed" to have a clean room enviroment, but I know that there are some techs who do it in regular rooms with no problems. Does anyone know on where to get this kind of info? I would really appreciate it.
Thank you all!
George.

Thank you all!
George.

Did you know that something as small as a cigarette smoke particle in a hard drive can cause the heads to crash?

Do yourself a favor BACKUP!
Sorry, I do not check for private messages

"but I know that there are some techs who do it in regular rooms with no problems."

Not to be rude but, no you don't. As Ham30 said even a smoke particle can destroy a drive. If a tech tells you he dissasembled a drive outside of a clean room and it still works, he is either lying or hasn't waited long enough for the damage to show up.

If you really need your data back and software recovery programs haven't helped, you're only real option is to send it off to a data recovery company.

I don't know who these "techs" are, but they must be magic techs, because once a hard drive case is opened & the internals are exposed to "dirty" air, it's all over

http://www.getodd.com/stuf/stupid/hdcp/hdcp.html

200 ways to fix a hard drive:
http://teh.intrawebs.net/200ways.pdf
Physical fixes:
http://hackaday.com/entry/1234000840067578/
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1035/index.asp
Before you attempt to open the drive, try to fix the problem using a variety of methods discussed in the first link.
If you are going to attempt to switch the platters of the disk with another drive make sure it is identical. Not just the same model number, it would need to be the same revision number. Try to get identical serial numbers.
If you are trying to get data of a drive that's important and is unique, like a novel or thesis, then send it to a professional guy. If you want to attempt a hard disk repair just for learning, then start out with low capacity drives and work you way up.
If a drive is not recognized by the bios and all you want to do is get it working again, for say your old 286 then you could try low level formatting it. This DESTROYS all data.
If you are thinking about using a drive that's been repaired, like a new drive, then you are really dumb. If you are thinking about reselling "Fixed" drives without explaining that the drive is probably going to loose its data, then you have no soul, go repair something dangerous in the dark.
I would highly recommend either a glove box (very expensive, google for a how to make one if you want) or a clean room, class 10 or higher. (extremely expensive).
The only drive i have ever "successfully repaired" was a 20MB ST-506 MFM hdd, I had an similar drive, same model, and switched the platters out, I am not a expert, so I marked the platters so that they would be lined up to the best of my ability. I did manage to get back a few files but this was just in dos and i didn't know, at that time, about data recovery software. The "clean room" environment...a dusty barn.
Hope this helps, good luck. If you successfully repair a drive over 20GB then, you are doing extremely well.

you'd better send the hard drive to professional data recovery company.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=data+recovery+service&spell=1

Thanks mR_Slug. Your answer was the most helpful to me. I am curious where all the "data recovery" companies get this kind of education/experience/information on how to recover data from hard drives?
There got to be some kind of serious literature out there.
George.

Thank you all!
George.

I would presume the people who develop the methods for data recovery have previous experience in hard disk design. If something's broken the best person to fix it is the guy who designed it.