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I'm in Australia so this question isn't for me, but it might be relevant for anybody slightly closer. Could/should people who want to volunteer contact this co

I'm in Australia so this question isn't for me, but it might be relevant for anybody slightly closer. Could/should people who want to volunteer contact this company and offer their time? Are there things people with limited expertise in data recovery could assist with? It's certainly obvious that quite a few areas in data recovery - like relocating disk platters, Flash/SSD chip resoldering, etc - need a clean room, hands that are proven steady, and a good handle on what can go wrong and how to deal with it. This can't be taught in a day. Waterlogged media probably means tons of controller board replacements. That's not a completely unskilled job either, and one I would be cautious about helping out with. When I think of waterlogged phones I immediately go worst-case-scenario and think of Flash chip desoldering because PCB + battery + water == disaster. Nope. I don't have the skill for that! It's (unfortunately) also quite possible that water-damaged media has also been impacted due to the rough-and-tumble of rescue efforts as well. Then I think about the software side. Manufacturer and/or in-house recovery tooling that operates at such a low level (on the same order as BIOS updates etc) is likely going to require attention to detail and high awareness (and knowledge of what a proper run looks like) to get an intuitive sense that something's working or not. Then there are probably "this tool never existed" NDA things on top of that. My main consideration is reputation. It's cases like these where a 32-year reputation is cemented even further - or blown out the door if dozens of failures are reported at once. Now I've just thought of all this I feel like I've answered my own question in the firm negative - but I'll ask anyway, since others (particularly those near one of the ~18 (!) drop-off locations - https://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/contact-drivesavers/ https://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/contact-drivesavers/) may benefit from knowing "no, definitely not useful" or "yes, these jobs are very hard to get wrong if you know the basics".

userbinator 9y ago
These are almost certainly physical recoveries, so definitely requiring very specific skills and training. But it wouldn't hurt to ask. Maybe they would much appreciate things like cleaning off the exterior dirt and otherwise washing drives in distilled water. (One of the tips I've read is that if you have wet electronics that can't be immediately dried thoroughly, flush thoroughly and then keep them submerged in distilled water to prevent further corrosion.)

userbinator 9y ago

These are almost certainly physical recoveries, so definitely requiring very specific skills and training. But it wouldn't hurt to ask. Maybe they would much appreciate things like cleaning off the exterior dirt and otherwise washing drives in distilled water. (One of the tips I've read is that if you have wet electronics that can't be immediately dried thoroughly, flush thoroughly and then keep them submerged in distilled water to prevent further corrosion.)