Data recovery

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xyber

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I am planning to setup a data recovery lab and i am new in the recovery biz
so wanted some opinions on basic equipment's and other kits needed for recovery.
and if there are any guides or tools it would be more helpful.
 
Welcome, xyber. Getting into the data recovery business is an expensive and challenging task and will take years of training and experience to fully realize. (I'm just a novice at it and have no intentions of making it a full-fledged, dedicated business on its own.) Those who have made it their sole/primary source of income usually recommend an AceLab PC3000 and a DeepSpar DDI imager (or the PC3K with the DE add-on). They are very expensive and the PC3K license is to you personally and not transferable, which makes for a daunting decision for a start-up. The MRTLab firmware tool is a knock-off of the PC3K and includes an imager but is rife with bugs. However, while not perfect it is more affordable than a PC3K and monthly payment terms are available. Dolphin Data Labs also makes a variety of data recovery equipment for those in your position but it is not exactly cheap either, and their equipment is still undergoing development pains. DFL's and MRT's licenses are transferable.

To justify the expense, you need a market that has the potential to make the risk and effort worth taking. What I have found as a computer repair shop trying to get into data recovery, is that your largest potential source of business (other computer repair shops) is your competition, which makes it difficult to sign them up as data recovery partners. Residential customers typically are not willing/able to spend the kinds of money needed to make a success of the business from data recovery alone. There is a lot of risk in serving business clients and they typically have more challenging needs, e.g., NAS devices, RAID arrays, server (SAS) drives, proprietary software databases, and very large storage capacities--hardly inviting to a DR newcomer. In addition to the market, you need to consider your competition.

Sorry to be so discouraging, but getting into data recovery is not for the timid or underfunded.
 
Larry Sabo said:
Welcome, xyber. Getting into the data recovery business is an expensive and challenging task and will take years of training and experience to fully realize. (I'm just a novice at it and have no intentions of making it a full-fledged, dedicated business on its own.) Those who have made it their sole/primary source of income usually recommend an AceLab PC3000 and a DeepSpar DDI imager (or the PC3K with the DE add-on). They are very expensive and the PC3K license is to you personally and not transferable, which makes for a daunting decision for a start-up. The MRTLab firmware tool is a knock-off of the PC3K and includes an imager but is rife with bugs. However, while not perfect it is more affordable than a PC3K and monthly payment terms are available. Dolphin Data Labs also makes a variety of data recovery equipment for those in your position but it is not exactly cheap either, and their equipment is still undergoing development pains. DFL's and MRT's licenses are transferable.

To justify the expense, you need a market that has the potential to make the risk and effort worth taking. What I have found as a computer repair shop trying to get into data recovery, is that your largest potential source of business (other computer repair shops) is your competition, which makes it difficult to sign them up as data recovery partners. Residential customers typically are not willing/able to spend the kinds of money needed to make a success of the business from data recovery alone. There is a lot of risk in serving business clients and they typically have more challenging needs, e.g., NAS devices, RAID arrays, server (SAS) drives, proprietary software databases, and very large storage capacities--hardly inviting to a DR newcomer. In addition to the market, you need to consider your competition.

Sorry to be so discouraging, but getting into data recovery is not for the timid or underfunded.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your opinion larry, actually i was only thinking to open it as a side job in which i can make some bucks. I have a limited budget to go with it , here i am having some links to some of the local tech shops around 3 to 4 and i am currently running my own tech shops where i am getting around 2 to 3 cases (quarterly) of my own in my shop (here they charge around minimal 200$ for data recovery depending on the size of data and type of problem) i have tried recovery by changing the boards of the hdd 3 times and succeeded 2 times for another it was a problem of head so i sent it to the lab.

I am only planning to buy equipments for hard disks from laptop and desktop. and i didnt know any good tools for replacing head and diagnostics so wanted to learn those.
I choose this job coz i get to learn new things everyday which are very interesting so i am going one step at a time. :)
 
@xyber, in that case, using ddrescue or buying a used DDI3 seems to make most sense. Keep an eye out in the HDDGuru forum or eBay for used data recovery equipment. You could also consider a DFL-DE, which is an imager that also incorporates many fixes for common firmware problems, but being a USB 2.0 device means it's painfully slow. When business grows, it can be upgraded for the difference in price to a DFL-DDP USB 3.0 imager, which is identical except for the much higher speed. The DFL-DE will at least grant you access to the DFL users' forum where you will find many videos and PDF documents that will help in learning more about firmware and other repair procedures using DFL tools.

AceLabs also has a forum open to the public and a blog, which are handy if you have a PC3K but also provides information that's helpful no matter what equipment you use. I would also suggest reading through the HDDOracle forum, as it is more open with information than most others. Scott Moulton hosts the Data Recovery Certification Google Group that's open to the public but was established to facilitate sharing between his data recovery training course graduates.

For changing heads, you will need a "cleanroom environment," which you can make yourself if you are handy and have the tools. Google "laminar flow bench" or "clean chamber" for ideas You will also need head combs but may be able to make your own following instructions here. Successfully changing heads takes lots of practice to do so successfully so be sure to use your own drives before working on customers' drives.

Good luck!
 
thanks a lot Larry Sabo i will search for these and let you know once i setup things on my end :)
 
I use QNAP Nas boxes and it is installed as an app on them. I have a friend who installed it independently on a server and he uses it at his employer. I believe the originator is French, so the web page is on a French site.
 
Blackhammer said:
Are you looking at doing more that Testdisk or Photorec will offer?
Click to expand...
I was talking about data recovery on hardware part, for example if the hdd is not being detected in the pc recovery software's cant do anything for that we have to diagnose the problem on hardware lvl and recover the data using other tools.
 
I'm also kind of new to backup. What do you guys think of AOMEI backupper? I like the simplicity and fact that you can boot into it
 
Its ok, I like Comodo Time Machine even better though. It makes snapshots of your system so you can restore to an earlier time even if your system crashes. Much better then System Restore
 
xyber said:
I am planning to setup a data recovery lab and i am new in the recovery biz
so wanted some opinions on basic equipment's and other kits needed for recovery.
and if there are any guides or tools it would be more helpful.
Click to expand...

ADMIN: Self advertising is against the forum rules; unless with express permission off Bryce.

I have removed the link to your site.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey, nice to see ReclaiMe on-board! Welcome to TN. I just used ReclaiMe Pro a couple of weeks ago for the first time, to successfully recover HFS+ files that defied recovery by all my other tools. Great product, and I've enjoyed your tutorial videos.

Edit: Oops! I see you've been here for a while, but you're still most welcome. :)
 
Larry Sabo said:
Welcome, xyber. Getting into the data recovery business is an expensive and challenging task and will take years of training and experience to fully realize. (I'm just a novice at it and have no intentions of making it a full-fledged, dedicated business on its own.) Those who have made it their sole/primary source of income usually recommend an AceLab PC3000 and a DeepSpar DDI imager (or the PC3K with the DE add-on). They are very expensive and the PC3K license is to you personally and not transferable, which makes for a daunting decision for a start-up. The MRTLab firmware tool is a knock-off of the PC3K and includes an imager but is rife with bugs. However, while not perfect it is more affordable than a PC3K and monthly payment terms are available. Dolphin Data Labs also makes a variety of data recovery equipment for those in your position but it is not exactly cheap either, and their equipment is still undergoing development pains. DFL's and MRT's licenses are transferable.

To justify the expense, you need a market that has the potential to make the risk and effort worth taking. What I have found as a computer repair shop trying to get into data recovery, is that your largest potential source of business (other computer repair shops) is your competition, which makes it difficult to sign them up as data recovery partners. Residential customers typically are not willing/able to spend the kinds of money needed to make a success of the business from data recovery alone. There is a lot of risk in serving business clients and they typically have more challenging needs, e.g., NAS devices, RAID arrays, server (SAS) drives, proprietary software databases, and very large storage capacities--hardly inviting to a DR newcomer. In addition to the market, you need to consider your competition.

Sorry to be so discouraging, but getting into data recovery is not for the timid or underfunded.
Click to expand...

Superbly detailed answer Larry. Helped me out as well- cheers!
 
Larry Sabo said:
@xyber, in that case, using ddrescue or buying a used DDI3 seems to make most sense. Keep an eye out in the HDDGuru forum or eBay for used data recovery equipment. You could also consider a DFL-DE, which is an imager that also incorporates many fixes for common firmware problems, but being a USB 2.0 device means it's painfully slow. When business grows, it can be upgraded for the difference in price to a DFL-DDP USB 3.0 imager, which is identical except for the much higher speed. The DFL-DE will at least grant you access to the DFL users' forum where you will find many videos and PDF documents that will help in learning more about firmware and other repair procedures using DFL tools.

AceLabs also has a forum open to the public and a blog, which are handy if you have a PC3K but also provides information that's helpful no matter what equipment you use. I would also suggest reading through the HDDOracle forum, as it is more open with information than most others. Scott Moulton hosts the Data Recovery Certification Google Group that's open to the public but was established to facilitate sharing between his data recovery training course graduates.

For changing heads, you will need a "cleanroom environment," which you can make yourself if you are handy and have the tools. Google "laminar flow bench" or "clean chamber" for ideas You will also need head combs but may be able to make your own following instructions here. Successfully changing heads takes lots of practice to do so successfully so be sure to use your own drives before working on customers' drives.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

very well written :)
 
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