Any Body tried to swap Hard drive platters

[deanostz]

Hello all,

I am just wondering if anyone has tried to swap hard drive platters from one drive to anoter drive of the same make and model ?

As I have had a power supply go and takeout my hard drive and I am trying to recover the data

Regards

dean

[stompah]

Dont bother. Those babies are sealed. Break the seal let the dirt in and buh-bye platters. HDs run really tight tolerances one speck of dust and it crashes the HD.


Maybe later some other guys will post tring to help you retireve info from your HD. I have no clue.

[TranceBear]

One question....WHY!!!!!?

[Veland]

If you really want your data back, have it done by professionals. It's expensive, but if you data is worth it.. Otherwise, I've seen some trying window mods, so it is possible to open a HD and getting it to work after that. But removing platters is a whole different thing. I disected a HD, and it was really hard and required special tools. Also removing the platters without removing the read heads was impossible, so this would probably ruin any chance of ever getting it to work again. On top of this comes problems when the FAT list files that no longer are there..

All in all, this has very low chance of success, sorry.

The platters do make nice coasters and decorations though :)

[KILLorBE]

I think it can be done, but like Veland said removing the heads is a real pain, also you'll need a torx (Philips) and a good flathead screwdriver.
I'm gonna try something like that, I have one dead 2.1Gb and a working 1.5Gb collecting dust both are WD Caviars, but before I do that I need to copy the data that's on the 1.5Gb.

Maybe these guys (http://www.dtidata.com/harddisk-data-recovery.htm) can help.(1-866-438-6932 toll free or mail them @Dtidata (support@dtidata.com)).
I don't know what it will cost but a while back I read it was something like $100+:eek: .

Oh and here is a HDD mod.
HDD MOD (http://www.bp6.com/pics/holodeck2/reviews/HD%20mod/HD.htm)
More pics (http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?threadid=38506&highlight=hdd)

Good luck if you decide to try it yourself.

BTW: I pulled the 2.1Gb apart and everything went fine, till I tried to put it back together....killed one head:eh?:

[drunkmonkey]

You would have to disect it in a total vaccuum, which is bad for the skin & eyes to get in, lol.

[KILLorBE]

Originally posted by drunkmonkey
You would have to disect it in a total vaccuum, which is bad for the skin & eyes to get in, lol.

No, there's a small hole in the HD and some crappy filter covers it.

[JaY_III]

it would not work
you would damage the harddrive, and the read/write heats for sure.
the read/write heads would crash if a pice of dust was on the drive as they are so close to the disk... This would make it not imposible to switch platetrs from drive to drive.. unless maby you had a zero dust room like they have in FABs and other manucaturing fabs.

Then the firmware of the drive would have to be updated to know what the new platters are. SO unless you know how to update the fireware for the hardrive (and you would have to write the firmware update yourself) its just not going to happen

[JigPu]

I don't think the heads are as close to the platters as people make them out to be. I've disected a HD before, and the head seemed to be a good quarter inch above the platter. I even poked at stuff with a screwdriver (pinning the read/write arm, ect.) while the drive was running. Still works perfectly today! Then again, I was probably pushing my luck :rolleyes:

As for the replacing the platters, I don't think it can be done by any conventional means. Like jay said, you would have to change the firmware so the drive knows all about the new platters, and so it can give the BIOS the right geometries. Even if you could do that, it seems nearly impossible to actually take off the platters.

JigPu

[cyberey66]

My brother had 2 scsi hhds start to go on him. Idk, worth a try though, someone said to freeze your hhd and there might be a chance of getting it to work long enough to recover data. Idk what that does but it might work.

[*JEREMY*]

I think they have to be balanced to perfection though also because I have seen very small counter weights on some center hubs.I took apart my old drive that wasnt working,I just need to find something cool to do with the platters now:D

[UnseenMenace]

How about drilling holes in them max powerz as they would make some pretty cool fan guards

[*JEREMY*]

aww man dont get me started,that would be sweet!I wonder what they are made out of?Kind of feels like aluminum but sounds like steel

[Slurgi]

MaX PowerZ



I have the exact same mousepad! :)

[stompah]

me three!

mine is extremely dirty...

[martyt]

One thing I would try to do is to connect this hard drive to a computer with a working Win XP OS. When I choose no hard drive in the BIOS or the slave on my XP machine, Win XP can still see the hard drive.

If Win XP can see the drive at all then you can try the following freeware program which is similar to lost and found:

http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/rescue/index.html

This won't work if the drive is physically trashed but there are other problems that prevent booting from HD's and it would be worth a try to do this.

I think there is a freeware program for hard drive disaster recovery but I haven't been able to find it today.

[martyt]

Here is a link to another hard disk recovery tool:

http://www.finaldata.com/english/

[VashTheStampede]

What about using a can of compressed air to throughly clean the platters before buttoning it back up?

Few years back my brother swapped two platters in Micropolis SCSI drives. In the original drive, it would make a horrible noise (I think the platters were hitting or something) so he put them in another drive and they worked fine for about 2 1/2 weeks. One of the many reasons why Micropolis went bankrupt.

~Vash~

[Mr B]

**Moved post to "General Hardware".**

Mr B

[Bmxpunk86pl]

actually the read and write heads are very close to the platers. they are like a .001 of an inch away.

[CJPC]

Both of these programs worked for me:


Use Lost and Found, no one sells it any more, but it is out there, I was lucky enough to get a copy.

Or

Use a program called EasyRecovery by Ontrack there is a free version at http://www.ontrack.com and there are other versions out there that are full.

Full for me!


Hope you can recover your data!

[deanostz]

Thank you all for the replies to my problem,

I was able to recover my data by doing the following

The problem with the drive was that my power supply had gone nuts and put more voltage on to the bus than expected and zapped the power reg chip on the circuit board attached to the HD

I was able to come to this conclusion due to the really bad smell and the brown mess the didn't look to much like a chip any more

So I went and purchased a new hard drive, same make and model and changed the HD driver boards over and luckily the drive came back to life

again

Many thanks

deanostz

:)

[CJPC]

At least you got your data back!

[martyt]

Good thinking!!