Seems like more often than not they can not do anything but make a very good show on the net to encourage everyone their direction just in case they can make some money. 

 Scott Moulton of http://myharddrivedied.com

 

Head swap using pill container plastic home made tool

 

DIY Hard Drive Diagnostics and Data Recovery – Youtube changed their format – table is full of videos.  Better to use links apparently.

Video Links

•  Shmoocon 2010: DIY Hard Drive Diagnostics: Understanding a Broken Drive 1/7
•  Shmoocon 2010: DIY Hard Drive Diagnostics: Understanding a Broken Drive 2/7

 

 

Advanced Hard Drive Data Recovery 

Video Links

• Advanced Hard Drive Data Recovery Part 1
• Advanced Hard Drive Data Recovery Part 2
•  

 

Software Links

• Microsoft:  Troubleshooting disks and file systems
• hddguru.com
• DeepSpar disk imager
• dd_rescue
• SystemRescueCd  Question about recovering NTFS disk data
• Hard drive diagnostic tools and utilities

Hardware Tools

• Seagate Serial Port Schematic