**A Tour of Drive Savers' Facility**

Welcome to the Drive Savers facility, where we're going to explore the process of recovering data from hard drives and smartphones. I'm Austin, and I'll be your guide through this tour.

**Recovering Data from Hard Drives**

At Drive Savers, they specialize in recovering data from hard drives. They've got a whole series of PCs as well as drive bays at each work station. Let's say you want to just drop a drive in here; you know how to hard drive, right? Well, at this point, they've gotten all the data that they can off, and it's been cloned into a drive.

Normally, you might think, "Oh yes, I just want everything." But if you think about it, what's on a hard drive is gonna be your Windows installed, a bunch of programs that you're not necessarily going to want. So when you first contact Drive Savers, they're gonna ask, "Hey, what's on this drive? Do you care about photos, documents, pictures, whatever the case is."

**Prioritizing Data**

Photos and pictures are the same thing. Essentially, they'll start looking through and say, "Oh look, we found all your wedding photos or whatever the case is." Make sure that can be prioritized, so that you get the stuff that you actually want.

**Recovering Data from Smartphones**

One of the main things that Drive Savers also does is recover data off of smartphones. This is my victim, a Samsung Galaxy S6. Let's see here... Oh, there's like a silicon layer in between. I have to get the NAND flash off, okay? So, this is getting to be a little bit more manageable.

**The Recovery Process**

So, at this point, I've got the phone disconnected or disassembled and all ready to go. It's all lined up; I can see exactly what I'm doing in the microscope. The next step is to take a heat gun, sort of melt the solder, and basically get the NAND flash off.

**A Special Reader**

We're not going to put it back in the phone; we actually have a special reader for it. We'll take off all the silicon that's on there, clean that off, re-ball it so that it fits the in the weave perfectly.

**The Result**

And this is from an S6, am I correct? A Galaxy S6, yes. I'm legitimately nervous if I ruined this chip or not. But we'll see... Oh, hey! The partition here is going to be our user data partition coming in at about 30 gigabytes of data.

**A Successful Recovery**

The good thing is that once everything's dumped, sort of the danger zone is over, where the chip can go and light on fire; who cares, whatever. We've got a copy of it. So for right now, I think it's safe to say that this has been a successful recovery of a phone that I did not break, even though I came really close.

**A Big Thank You**

And if you guys ever have any problems with your data, you definitely know who to contact. Just make sure that you don't ask for Austin, because that's going to be a disaster!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Hey guys, this is Austin, and today,I am in an incrediblystylish suit for one reason.I'm about to go into thisclean room to take a lookto see how Drive Saversis able to save everythingfrom a hard drive to an SSD to,importantly for what we'regoing to be doing today,how to save the dataoff of your smart phone,so Drive Savers sponsored us outto take a look at their entire facility,including this twomillion dollar clean room,so I'm all suited up, I'm afraid I'm aboutto destroy everything, butlet's give it a try here.So, inside the clean room, whatwe're going to be able to dois look at a widevariety of different waysof saving the data on ahard drive, so you can seethey have these systemsset up all along the wallwith the power supplies,and they have variousdifferent connectors,but essentially, the maingoal is to figure out,once you get the harddrive, what's the problemand how to fix it, so theideal goal is to be ableto just copy all of thedata over and clone itto another drive, so sometimes,that actually is goingto be possible, Drive Savers has a varietyof different tools anddifferent pieces of softwareto do that kind of stuff,but, as you would imagine,it's not always going to be that simple.Sometimes, though, you actuallyhave to get a little bitmore creative, so they actuallyhave tools that will be ableto not only be able to re-flashthe firmware on your drive,so sometimes, that'llbe enough to save it,and sometimes you actuallyhave to do surgeries.You're actually going tohave to open up the drive,swap out differentpieces, in fact, actually,I think you're opening a drive right now?- Yes.- What's the deal with this one?- It's a clicking hard drive.- It's a clicking hard drive,that's never a good sign,so this is somethingthat you're going to haveto do some surgery on thedrive to be able to save it.You're gonna need a donor drive?- Correct, that is absolutely correct.- Gotcha, gotcha, it's funny,I do a lot of PC stuff,but I never actually seeopened up hard drivesbecause you really do needsomething like a clean roomlike this to be able toactually access them.Couple specs of dust willabsolutely kill somethinglike that, so once you getthe drive up and runningand you have all the hardwaresorted, the firmware sorted,the next step is toactually clone it all off,and as you can imagine, with some drives,it can take quite a while,anything from 30 minutesup to a couple weeks dependingon how badly the driveis damaged and how much datayou actually have to copy.This is so cool, there's somuch interesting tech here,to be able to save drivesfrom all kinds of sizes,all different kinds oftypes, but that's only partof what Drive Savers do, theyalso work on phones, SSDs,memory cards, USBs thathave been bitten by dogs,so step out of the clean room,and we have the drive inventory,so you've got some cool stuff here.- Thank you.- This is a 10 megabyte hard drive.- It is, it is, we purchasedthis for a recoveryfor an antiquated proprietary systemthat was running a robotic arm.- Look at that, so what yeardo you think this is from?- I'm guessing very late 80s.- Late 80s, aw, look at that,you can see the old schoolC Gate logo, 10 megabytes,it's insane that this is 10 megabytes.So, what you're looking athere are 20,000 hard drivesthat are valued at abouttwo million dollars,and you're gonna findall kinds of crazy stuff,so one of the things that theyreally have to keep in mindis that you never know what kind of driveis going to come in, sosometimes, you might haveto have a multitude of theexact same model numberbecause maybe there's goingto be slight differencesin the firmware or slightdifferences in the hardware,so once they're done with thedrive, before it's recycled,they wanna make sure thatthere's absolutely no chancethat there's going tobe any data left on it,so there's a couple fun tools to do that.First of all, is the dataeliminator or the degausser,which just sounds really cool.This essentially will justbasically EMP it, right?Say goodbye to this drive,it's about to be degaussed.All right, so just push it in?- Push it in.- I'm sure one of these is not cheap,but I feel like I can saythat about literally anythingin here, like, everythinglooks expensive (laughs).- Yeah.(loud thumping)- Was that it, what, that,erase successful, remove media.Oh, I wasn't even payingattention, it soundedlike a bomb went off, so nowthat it's been degaussed,the next step is tophysically destroy the drive,which we don't have todo but I kinda wanna do.So, we put the drive inhere, close the door,and now, I'm gonna hit destroy.Oh, you can see, it'sjust literally just gonnabend the drive in half, ohno, no way, oh! (laughs)Aw, I mean this drive hashad a rough day, you know,this has been EMPed, but now,I'm pretty sure it's safeto say, you're not gonnaget any data off of this,even these guys, I don't thinkwill be able to save this one.So, assuming that youdon't crush your drive,the next step in the process,once you leave the cleanroom is to come downstairs,so each work station is goingto have a whole series of PCsas well as drive bays, so for example,if I wanna just drop a drivein here, ah, I knew that.I know how to hard drive.So, at this point, they'vegotten all the datathat they can off, and it'sbeen cloned into a drive,so normally, you might think,oh yes, I just want everythingbut if you think aboutit, what's on a hard driveis gonna be your Windowsinstalled, a bunch of programsthat you're not necessarily going to want,so when you first contact DriveSavers, they're gonna ask,hey, what's on this drive, do you careabout photos, documents,pictures, whatever the case is.Photos and pictures are the same thing.I'm gonna keep going, so essentially,they'll start looking throughand say oh look, we found allof your wedding photosor whatever the case is,make sure that can be prioritized,so that you get the stuffthat you actually want, all right,so this is what I'vebeen waiting all day for.Now, of course it's greatto be able to recover stuffoff of hard drives, butone of the main thingthat Drive Savers alsodoes is recover dataoff of smart phones, so this is my victim,a Samsung Galaxy S6, all right,all right, all right, so let's see here.- This is a littlebattery connect here.- Just with my finger nail,okay, so get the battery,so I don't electrocutemyself, okay, all right,so, this is getting to be alittle bit more manageable,so we've got our NAND,so this is our NAND right here, right?So, I do see the individualpads here, so it doesn't looklike it's like, I cankinda see it, so hopefully,it's not gonna be too hard to get out.- So, there's like asilicon layer in between.- So, I have, wow, I justrealized how many peoplehave gathered around towatch this disaster (laughs),as everyone starts scattering (laughs).Okay, so at this point, I'vegot the phone disconnectedor disassembled and all ready to go.It's all lined up, I can seein the microscope exactlywhat I'm doing, so the nextstep is to take a heat gun,sort of melt the sodder,and basically, I just needto get the NAND flashoff, okay, well, I got,like the first cornerup, I should probablyjust work my way down now, right?Go through, oh, there we go, okay.- Still, we're not gonnaput it back in the phone.We actually have a special reader for it,but we're gonna take off allthe silicon that's on there,clean that off, re-ball it,so that it fits the inthe weave perfectly.- Okay, so as it shouldbe a surprise to no one,I am a failure, so that'swhy you send your phoneto Drive Savers, not Austinsavers, so the thing was,I got it like, what, maybe 40%ready, something like that?- Yeah.- That was a tentative yeah.- No, yeah, yeah!- 40% fixed, however,40% will not get yourphone up and running.I have brought you the hopefullyfixed re-balled NAND flash.- Nice, and this is froman S6, am I correct?- A Galaxy S6, yes.I'm legitimately nervous ifI ruined this chip or not.I think I did, but we'll see, oh, hey!- All right, so younotice, right off the bat,we've got some good signs here.This partition here is goingto be our user data partition,coming in at about 30 gigabytes of data.- The good thing is at thispoint, once everything's dumped,sort of the danger zone isover, where the chip can goand light on fire, who cares,whatever, all the data's safe.- Yeah, it wouldn't matter, wecould step on it by accident,we've got a copy of it.- So for right now, Ithink it's safe to saythat this has been asuccessful recovery of a phonethat I did not break, eventhough I came really close.So that is our totallybetter than Linus' tourof the Drive Savers' facility,of course, huge shout outto Drive Savers for sponsoring this video,and if you guys ever haveany problems with your data,you definitely know whoto contact, just make surethat you don't ask for Austin.