Question Please introduce reference for hard disks ?

[hakaru_eitara]

Hello
For the sake of learning more, are there any reliable training programs or reference books that provide practical guidance on hard drive surgery for someone who already understands the basic structure and electronics?
In fields like software, hardware, and their related disciplines, there are many free and paid training courses categorized by skill level—from beginner to professional. However, when it comes to hard drive repair, resources are quite limited, and the most well-known ones tend to be paid and extremely expensive.
The materials I’ve found so far often involve complex mathematics, which is not directly relevant to my purpose. The book I currently have takes an engineering approach rather than a practical and educational one.
https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Disk-Drive-Mechatronics-Engineering/dp/0849372534
Would you be able to recommend any hands-on training or books that focus on practical hard drive repair techniques?

Thank you

 

[hakaru_eitara]

software tool

Sorry for multiple replies , I do not know what this software could do , does it do data recovery ? if yes ,from my side and my research I believe R-Studio or DMDE is suggested from an expert.
Several brands like rapidspar regardless of true or false function it does have, demonstrate very good demo and explanation, makes easy for begineer.
For example different characteristics between deepspar diskimager and this one Sediv , where I could know the differences and practical output and result .

 

[Aeacus]

At the risk of bashing this guy ...

https://old.reddit.com/r/ElectronicsRepair/comments/1izopeo/northridge_fix/

There are such repair jobs where time spent working on it isn't cost effective. That much was also said in that thread;

"Not repairable" is a simplified statement that is short for "not financially repairable at our rates", aka "we can fix it but we have enough work that we can charge a lot of money and it would be cheaper for you to buy another device than pay us".

Alex has described what "no fix" is:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89lxHSVh8ks


And when you have cracked multi-layer PCB (e.g MoBo or GPU), it isn't cost effective to repair that crack.

 

[fzabkar]

IP = Intellectual Property

HDDSuperClone (now forked into OpenSuperClone) is a Linux based, open source, cloning tool that understands how to work around bad sectors. It attempts the easy sectors on the first pass, skips over bad areas, and then attempts the more difficult sectors on subsequent passes. Dd is a sector-by-sector cloning tool that does not handle bad sectors and is really only useful for healthy drives. Ddrescue is similar to HDDSuperClone, but it is media agnostic. That is, it does not incorporate any special treatment for HDDs.

Hardware tools usually incorporate firmware tweaks that facilitate smooth cloning. For example, a drive that encounters a bad sector will retry that sector numerous times. If it succeeds in reading it, it will reallocate its LBA to a spare sector. This process can slow down the transfer rate to KB/s speeds and can also fill up the grown defect list. Firmware tweaks will disable retries, switch off reallocation and SMART, and will also implement TLER and timeouts. A firmware tool can also switch off a bad head so that the drive's good heads can be imaged. A head swap can then recover the data from the remaining surface.

Here are software tools used by the professionals:

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=3208

UFS Explorer is the gold standard. R-Studio is probably the second most popular. DMDE is an inexpensive tool that is not widely used by pros, but it is excellent nonetheless.

SeDiv's hardware equipment consists of power-switching adaptors. These enable SeDiv to power cycle an unresponsive device. HDDSuperClone can also do this. SeDiv and other tools can also access the UART/terminal ports of storage devices via a cheap USB-TTL adaptor.

One way to assess a tool is to ask those who use it. Also examine the features that are listed in the updates. For example, PC3000 has a list of supported SSDs that is frequently updated. The corresponding list from MRT is much smaller.

I don't know of any training materials for HDD repair other than Scott Moulton's course. I think it costs around US$5K. The nature of HDD technology is that it is vendor specific and proprietary, so it stands to reason that nobody would be teaching it. Tools such as PC3000 and MRT are developed through reverse engineering and probably involve some IP theft.

RapidSpar was sold on the basis that it could remotely access a database of firmware solutions, but I think this is no longer possible because the firmware for most devices has been locked down. PC3000, MRT and Dolphin can unlock the firmware, but this often necessitates physical access to the ROMs.

DeepSpar's Disk Imager is an old tool whose usefulness probably came to end about a decade ago. At least, I haven't seen anyone talking about it for a very long time.

The big problem in data recovery today is that there is still no support for helium drives in the major tools. Support for SSDs is slow in coming. Many pros have left, or are leaving, this business. The future doesn't look good.

 

[fzabkar]

Honestly, after your response last night, I checked more than 20 YouTube channels that demonstrate disk repair.

I like this channel for SSD repair:

https://www.youtube.com/@XFJDIY/videos

His handling of SSDs is rather brutal, and I don't like his hot-plugging, but his diagnostic ability is excellent.

His knowledge and troubleshooting procedure for HDD PCBs is weak, though:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vKHGJNUyNxQ

He focuses on the MCU and some corroded vias rather than the motor controller -- the latter is responsible for his missing supply rails.

If you want to get into flash data recovery, then here is a great introductory resource (NAND Flash Data Recovery Cookbook, by Igor Sestanj):

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=1949

 

[hakaru_eitara]

HDDSuperClone (now forked into OpenSuperClone) is a Linux based, open source, cloning tool that understands how to work around bad sectors. It attempts the easy sectors on the first pass, skips over bad areas, and then attempts the more difficult sectors on subsequent passes. Dd is a sector-by-sector cloning tool that does not handle bad sectors and is really only useful for healthy drives. Ddrescue is similar to HDDSuperClone, but it is media agnostic. That is, it does not incorporate any special treatment for HDDs.

Hello, and thank you for your detailed response.

My lack of knowledge has made me read multiple times and search for several terms. I am truly grateful.

For example, PC3000 has a list of supported SSDs that is frequently updated. The corresponding list from MRT is much smaller.

Could you please elaborate this ....do you mean MRT or DFL which supports several brand can't repair all models ? or while they support brand , all models are supported ?



Thank you

The big problem in data recovery today is that there is still no support for helium drives in the major tools. Support for SSDs is slow in coming. Many pros have left, or are leaving, this business. The future doesn't look good

I understand what you mean.



Thank you

 

[hakaru_eitara]

I like this channel for SSD repair:

https://www.youtube.com/@XFJDIY/videos

His handling of SSDs is rather brutal, and I don't like his hot-plugging, but his diagnostic ability is excellent.

His knowledge and troubleshooting procedure for HDD PCBs is weak, though:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vKHGJNUyNxQ

He focuses on the MCU and some corroded vias rather than the motor controller -- the latter is responsible for his missing supply rails.

If you want to get into flash data recovery, then here is a great introductory resource (NAND Flash Data Recovery Cookbook, by Igor Sestanj):

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=1949

Thank you.

Apart from the head, platter, magnetic section, and software, what additional practical knowledge is needed—beyond electronics, PCB repair, and PCB design—to better understand and work on PCB-related tasks? For example, swapping the CPU and ROM from Drive A onto the same PCB of Drive B (mounting) and to retrieve data.
I think most parts related to knowing Electronic and PCB repair .

 

[fzabkar]

This is PC3000's list of supported SSDs:

https://blog.acelab.eu.com/pc-3000-ssd-list-of-supported-ssd-drives-regularly-updated.html

You will find that other tools don't support as many models and controllers.

As for practical knowledge, it sometimes helps if you have programming knowledge. Proficiency with a hex editor is mandatory.

Some modern PCBs have digital signatures which are tied to a unique key in the MCU. I don't know all the secrets, but you can transfer the calibration data ("adaptives") from a patient ROM to a donor ROM by patching it with a hex editor.

 

[hakaru_eitara]

This is PC3000's list of supported SSDs:

https://blog.acelab.eu.com/pc-3000-ssd-list-of-supported-ssd-drives-regularly-updated.html

You will find that other tools don't support as many models and controllers.

As for practical knowledge, it sometimes helps if you have programming knowledge. Proficiency with a hex editor is mandatory.

Some modern PCBs have digital signatures which are tied to a unique key in the MCU. I don't know all the secrets, but you can transfer the calibration data ("adaptives") from a patient ROM to a donor ROM by patching it with a hex editor.

Thank you really

Some modern PCBs have digital signatures which are tied to a unique key in the MCU. I don't know all the secrets, but you can transfer the calibration data ("adaptives") from a patient ROM to a donor ROM by patching it with a hex editor.

I asked this after watching :

I