Lowest cost clean room for internal HDD Read/Write head replacement.

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WilliamMerzlak

WilliamMerzlak

Prominent
Jul 15, 2017
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Hi there! My media drive failed on me a few days ago. It's not in any raid setup. Just a singular media storage drive with photos, music, documents and video files totaling about 450GB.
Make: Seagate
Model: ST1000DM003

Device Capacity: 1000
Serial Number: Z1D6GP8Q
Interface: SATA

Initial Diagnostics:

Visual Inspection: PASS
Printed Circuit Board (PCB): PASS
Motor: PASS
Read/Write Heads: FAIL
Firmware: N/A
Encryption: NO

Everywhere I've contacted has wanted around $1,500.00 to $1,800.00
I'm aware of the procedure in replacing or repairing read/write heads from donor drives and it's a 40 minute process of unscrewing and swapping the arm out. I don't believe that any 40 minute job warrants that price.

Does anyone know of any company anywhere that will do this for less? Ideally within the $200 range?

Thanks!
 
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Yes, you can find corporations that will do it for $600-800.

It's not the time it takes, it's the setup, the equipment, rent and skills. If a surgeon does an operation, it might take him 40 minutes, but is that what you are paying for?

If you do find a place that will do it, ask to see their setup. It should be done inside a HEPA filtered type box or shelf, through gloves, using non-magnetic tools (bronze or ceramic). It's very delicate work, requires steady hands. And lot's of practice.

Let the cost of this teach you to backup, backup often, and backup frequently. Redundant phrase? Yeah, that's the point. Backup your data.
 
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G

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Another thing, places will quote you a price, but negotiate. Don't appear desperate, and hint that you be happy to find a place that could reliably do this for you. Then after bs-ing for a while (making them invested in you), stare them in the eye, and ask them what is the absolute best price they can do. Then pause, softly tell them that you felt comfortable with their presentation, you liked their setup, but that another place quoted them -25% whatever their best offer was. Shake their hand and tell them you are sorry but you are bound by the price. Then, start to walk away and pull a "Columbo", asking if their was any way they could find themselves able to match the price you invented that was about 25% less than what they pretended was their best offer.

Or, negotiate any way you want. But this isn't a commodity you're buying, it's a high touch service. Negotiation is expected.
 
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COLGeek

COLGeek

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Apr 6, 2009
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MERGED QUESTION
Question from WilliamMerzlak : "Internal Sata Hard Drive randomly vanished from system mid use"







 
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WilliamMerzlak

WilliamMerzlak

Prominent
Jul 15, 2017
5
0
510
Anything less than a Thousand dollars would be nice. I found a company in Florida that quoted $380.00. So far that's the best quote I've found. But that still seems high. A company in South Korea quoted $150.00 but that entails international shipping and probably several months wait time.
Seagate quoted me $1500.00 and Secure Data Recovery here in Charlotte quoted me $1680.00. I might opt for South Korea but there has to be somewhere here in the United States that will do the job for less than $400.00.
 
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That South Korean company is probably the real deal. Ask them for pictures of their setup, with them holding a word (your word, random), on a cardboard in the pictures. To make sure it's really their pictures. It won't take months. It's air shipping back and forth. Asians are really good at, cough cough, international shipping forms. It could cost you an extra $40-50, but could be 5 day out, 5 day in. Or less. Not months.

I haven't dealt much with South Korean, but Shenzhen and HK, and they get volume fast shipping discounts, know how to hustle UPS or such. They have that special "Asian line" shipping access. They might even have something like 48hours in, 48hours out shipping.
 
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