The following is not, in any way, meant to be snarky: Or the end before it starts.
You've done an excellent job giving a synopsis of the classes of tools and why one might, or might not, wish to proceed within a given class. And if a given path that you've outlined is determined to be, "not for me," that's absolutely invaluable information to have had offered. Going in with eyes wide open is essential in almost any endeavor, and having as much information before starting down a path to determine whether you even want to do so is something one should strive to compile. A big thanks for your contribution.
I am not sure exactly what it is you're saying, but this is probably more due to my native language not being English. I can not read anything 'snarky' in your reply so no offense taken at all. And I did not want to discourage anyone. TBH I can not decide for anyone, what I do I sort of organically grew into influenced by curiosity and 'need'. IOW, I never asked myself 'will it pay off or not?'. In retrospect, that's a luxury position of course.
I just wanted to warn. PC3000 (which I do not own) is a hefty piece of equipment and I didn't want there to be misunderstandings. I can buy a load of car repair equipment, but it will probably not allow me to fix any car with it. I have seen multiple examples of people offering their PC3000 tools for sale in various forums where they state something like 'owned for 2 years, used once'. I think these are examples of people expecting that simply owning the tools would allow to magically solve cases they could not solve before.
Some other random ponderings..
Logical data recovery may seem simple enough; you buy a license and you're all set, right? Majority of what I do is logical data recovery, and perhaps I am attracting odd cases, but I find it's often not as simple as running some tool. I also discover that in one case a tool may work, in another it does not or another tool does better. So I find myself buying licenses for several tools. And then there's cases that none of the tools handle while I still have a gut feeling it should be do-able, so then I see if I can write a custom tool or adept an existing one.
Also, as soon as you hammer a sign 'data recovery' to the wall people will bring in cases that you're not yet equipped to handle. And if you do not want to disappoint these people, it means yet another tool or investment in time to figure it out. For example, you may find that your existing software does not handle the SD Card that client used in a GoPro all that well.
ReclaiMe, assuming we're talking about the end user versions, are
somewhat like RapidSpar. Largely automatic with little room for mistakes, but also with little room for influencing the outcome. They either work, or they don't. They hide a great amount of knowledge, make more or less intelligent decisions autonomously, without bothering it's user too much. Again, this has it's down sides too but it is exactly what the developers of these tools had in mind.
So, apart from tools it's also a state of mind. I was reminded about this yesterday, when I watched one of Luke's (
@lcoughey) videos in which he goes through great lengths to make some tool work. The subject of his video has little value to me, it's about something I do not offer and tools I do not own. But to me it is inspirational.
Now, if I were offered drives that click a lot, I'd start with buying some drives and tools to open them up. 10 or so, and then with those 10 I'd see if I could remove heads and put them back, close up drive and see if it still works. For this you only need a couple of second hand known good drives and some screw drivers. And then decide if it's something you want to further explore.
Question to experts: Assuming you get cleanroom cabinet to handle such cases, do you need PC3000? What about MRT or some of the DFL solutions?
