I'm in Australia so this question isn't for me, but it might be relevant for anybody slightly closer.<p>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?<p>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 <i>proven</i> steady, and a good handle on what can go wrong and how to deal with it. This can't be taught in a day.<p>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.<p>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 <i>don't</i> have the skill for that!<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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 - <a href="https://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/contact-drivesavers/" rel="nofollow">https://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/contact-drivesavers/</a>) may benefit from knowing "no, definitely not useful" or "yes, these jobs are very hard to get wrong if you know the basics".