re: Portable Hard Drive Recovery

quote:

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If he does what I said he won't have to pay shite. This seriously will work on dead drives even if they are clicking. I've done it as have a few other people I know

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Oh, I know. But he doesn't sound technically inclined enough to pull it off. If he has hardware failure he'll have to replace the actuator and/or drive head, or mount the platters in a new drive. If you know what you're doing this can be done with latex gloves inside a big freezer bag. Both the new and old drive will not be usable for long since you aren't in a true clean room but it'll probably work long enough to get the data back.

The Ubuntu thumb drive trick doesn't seem like it'll work with broken hardware though. If the hardware doesn't work Ubuntu won't spin the platters or move the drive head for you.

ETA: In fact, one of your links specifically states it won't work with dead hardware.