Failing drives, deleted files, machines that will not boot with a lifetime of photos inside. The rule here is already written into how we sell: image first, work on the copy, never gamble someone's files to win a job. You will also carry the hardest conversations we have, because sometimes the honest answer is that the data is gone.
Imaging first, always: the original drive is evidence, the copy is the workbench. Your day moves between logical recoveries, failing mechanical drives that get one good read if they get any, and the conversations that come with them, because the person on the phone is not asking about a drive, they are asking about their photographs.
Some days end with everything back. Some end with you explaining, carefully, what is gone. Both have to be done well, and the second one is the reason this role needs a particular kind of person.
Deep familiarity with filesystems, storage hardware and imaging tools, and the discipline to work on copies without exception. You can explain risk in plain English before work starts, you never promise what the hardware has not agreed to, and you treat a stranger's files with the privacy you would want for your own.
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