[NBLUG/talk] [SoCoSA/discuss] Burnt Laptops

gandalf at sonic.net gandalf at sonic.net
Fri Apr 10 13:33:03 PDT 2009


No, specific files directories would be fine. I think that Documents and Settings would probably be fine for these drives. The discount place I spoke of is http://www.myharddrivedied.com/ run by Scott A. Moulton. Scott also teaches amateur and professional hard drive recovery and forensics. You can actually take an online version of his class for $3k. I have been watching his videos and reading his material.

His quote for full recovery on the drives is $800 for 100 gigs or smaller (laptop) and with additional market costs for larger. He does not charge for "what you want to go after", he gets what is there and charges for the job. With drivesavers the cost looks to be $800 to $3,500 per drive depending on how much data you want to recover. 

I think it is quite possible that one or two of these drives may spin up fine and if there are PCB problems the drives will probably do nothing. Now in that case I may be able to retrieve all or most of the important files since many are the same on at least two of the drives. Now if I'm able to retrieve important files form two drives and the third does not respond I will probably try a PCB replacement. If that does not work, I'll probably pack it up and send it to Scott with my notes for internal work. Alternatively I may build one of his clean boxes and give it a go myself. It would certainly be a great learning experience. I could even play with some older drives for practice first. 

One little gem I got from him is that a clean room is not an absolute must for this kind of thing. They are a benefit though and since he has one, he tends to use it. The thing is that hard drives are not sealed environments, hence the little "do not cover this" hole. The spinning up of a hard drive displaces dust and other light dirt and even material from the plates. This material is caught in pockets in the case that have filters (pillows) just for this purpose. So if you are working on a hard drive and you want it to last for years a clean room is a very good idea, but if you just want to get the info off the drive it is much less necessary. Still I think I'd build a clean box if I'm going to open up a drive as my house is generally full of dust and contaminants. 

I think the first thing they do is take the drive to a clean room, open it up and give it a visual inspection for problems. Then they probably connect it to a diagnostic computer and see how it behaves and try to get an image. He has some very interesting devices for cooling drives down, I may want to build one as I've encountered that before. I've generally used air cans to cool overheating hard drives. Spray them until they get real cold, place on top of drive. 

(imagine a cute or dirty tagline here)

 On Fri 10/04/09 12:51 PM , "Trevor Benson" tbenson at a-1networks.com sent:
> Were you looking into FULL recovery of the OS and all data on the  
> drive, or specific recovery of a set amount of data from known  
> directories?  Generally Drive Savers will customize their quote for  
> recovery, and I have seen charges well less then $1,000 for getting  
> what you need, not 100% of the OS and junk that will be reinstalled  
> anyway.
> 
> 
> Trevor Benson
> A1 Networks
> (707)570-2021 x201
> tbens
> on at a-1networks.com
> 
> 
> On Apr 9, 2009, at 4:13 PM, gandalf at son
> ic.net wrote:
> > 1. I looked into DriveSavers and the $1k+
> pricetag per drive is  > beyond what I could resource for
> this.> 2. I looked into a competitor and it's still in
> the $1k per drive  > range although significantly lighter than
> drivesavers and with only  > a $50 evaluation fee.
> > 3. I think it is very likely that these drives
> (or some of them) may  > spin up allowing file transfer.
> > 4. I think it is rather likely that some of
> these drives may work  > and continue to work without issue.
> > 5. I think what I want to attempt is probably
> what all drive  > restoration places would do in the first place
> anyway.> 6. The next step after a failed os/image
> restoration is drive board  > replacement and that doesn't seem difficult, but
> instead tedious in  > finding a donor drive from ebay. The drive needs
> to match the  > production dates for the given drive within two
> weeks and be the  > exact same in other respects.
> >
> > Now to my thinking I can do all of these steps
> and if the drive  > still doesn't work then turn it over to one of
> these companies.  > However I think it is very unlikely that there
> is any actual  > physical damage to the motor/arm and plates
> (insides). Most likely  > the damage would be limited to the exterior
> circuit board.>
> > I base this upon the level of physical damage to
> the drives. Two of  > the drives were hot enough that plastic to some
> extent melted on  > them. This would mean that the area around these
> drives was 300-600  > degrees. I have heard that the inside elements
> of drives are good to  > about 1800 degrees. I'm sure that at 1800
> degrees the plastic would  > not have just melted. I'm sure that parts of the
> laptops were  > exposed to 1800 degree heat, but the drives were
> underneath  > protected by several layers of motherboard,
> keyboard, etc. So I  > think that the drives were probably only cooked
> to 450 degrees or  > so. While this is outside normal drive operating
> temperatures I  > don't think this is hot enough to damage the
> drive boards when they  > were not powered up. However the plastic melted
> on the one drive  > board is a concern. I think I should attempt to
> chip it off if I can  > as I think it could cause shorts. But then
> plastic is an insulator.>
> > Anyway, that's how my thinking is currently
> going.>
> > (imagine a cute or dirty tagline
> here)>
> > On Thu 09/04/09  3:35 PM , "Jordan
> Erickson" jerickson at logicalnetworking.net >  sent:
> >> If you've got the funds and/or your data is
> important enough, I would>> *highly* recommend DriveSavers in Novato (www.drivesavers.com).  >> They've recovered data from
> worse.>>
> >> If you want to go your own route, be very
> careful. Once you spin a  >> drive
> >> up that's been damaged, you're likely going
> to inflict more damage  >> upon
> >> it.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Jordan
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> gandalf at son>> ic.net wrote:> Hey guys. In February my
> house burned up and>> three laptops went with it. I have the three
> harddrives. I think  >> they might
> >> just spin up when connected to an os, but an
> unsure. There seems to  >> be more
> >> problems with things melted to them than
> them actually melting.  >> Anyway I'm
> >> trying to bone up on knowledge and come up
> with a plan before I do>> anything. I'm thinking of getting a WD book
> terabyte drive for file/ >> image
> >> backup. So I thought I'd post here and ask
> for input. >>>>
> >>>
> >>
> _______________________________________________> talk mailing
> list>>> talk at nblug.org
> >>> http://nblug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk>>>
> >>
> >> -- 
> >> Jordan Erickson
> >> Owner, Logical Networking
> Solutions>> http://www.logicalnetworking.net707-636-5678>>
> >> Latest LNS Blogs - http://blog.logicalnetworking.net>> Leaving computers on overnight = $2.8
> billion a year>> Starbucks Ditches T-Mobile, Will Offer AT+T
> WiFi>> Google Earth Uncovers Brit Nuclear Sub Base,
> Missile Facility>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________> SoCoSA discuss mailing list
> > discuss at so
> cosa.org> Your address: tbens
> on at a-1networks.com> http://socosa.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss> http://socosa.org/mailman/options/discuss/tbenson@a-1networks.c
> om
> 
> 
> 



More information about the talk mailing list