I'd be happy to hear if any one else has had similar issues.

I have a 2.5" Hitachi HTS541080G9SA00 80G drive with head trouble. I need to move the platters to a donor drive but am struggling to find a match. I didn't realise that there would be so many similar models. I have a number of Stock/Parts Hitachi Travelstar drives but this one has 2 platters and 4 Actuator Arms. Some very close models have single platter, 2 arms and the 60gig version has 2 Platter 3 arms.

If I could find a similar model with 4 arms, would it read the platters, bear in mind I am just doing a platter swap.

What are the matching protocols for these Hitachi Disks? Is it just serial number part Number. Has anyone done one recently?

Thanks in advance

Deeno

Why are you wanting to do a 'platter swap' if the drive has bad heads??

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Good point I never though how silly that sounds. However,I sometimes find it as easy to move the platters as to move the Heads. I will have to explain why, as that almost make no sense, even to me but in my own twisted way it does

With the Hitachi 2.5 TS the heads can be left in place just off of the parking ramp (after the top magnet and ramp are removed) this leaves enough space to do the platter change without removing the actuator from the case. With the 2.5 Hitachi the bottom magnet is loose in the case once the top magnet is removed and the actuator taken out. It's a pig to put the head unit back in to place with the floating magnet, so over time I have found it easier to leave the Actuator and heads set in place (there's a bit of patafix involved ) and then change over the platters.

It's a habit I got into with some drives and it works for me.

Does that make sense.

Any way back to the first questions in my post.

Deeno

Swapping multiple platters incorrectly will leave the data unrecoverable. You cannot just "move" them, it must be done with perfect precision, and when I say perfect, I mean perfect. In the long term of things if the motor is working fine , do not touch the platters. Trust me when i say the heads will be easier to move. If the data is important, i would suggest taking it to a professional in your area. If you do not care about the data, have at it and good luck.

I would say that moving the platters is WAY more risky than just swapping out the heads. Hitachis are, for me anyway, the most fiddly out of all 2.5" but with practice they become easier.

I would recommend possibly moving towards improving your head swapping skills as the risks are lower.

Another HTS541080G9xxxx should be fine as a donor. There is one other thing to match but I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say, but....matching the model and getting it within about a year of manufacture, you should for the most part be OK.

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Agree with all of this

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?? Not at liberty to say, what does that mean.

I 'm not a noob to platter swaps, I find them easy to do with the equipment I have and it's my preference. If you improve your platter swap skills you might find the same preference in this unusual case.

But thank you for the mention of the HTS541080G9, as shady and secretive as the advice might be. I have to say in an open forum like this we should be a liberty to say anything we like.

I do accept that platter change could in the most be considered more risky, but if you have changed a 100 with 100% success and find the kick back of the bottom magnet can damage the heads 4 times out of 10 on the Hitachi TS then then what would you suggest is the safest and easiest route?

Deeno

It means that people have spent hours and money on research to come to a certain conclusion, which will not be shared in public. You can do your own research if you wish and then post the results here for free. No offense meant, but some information have been extracted after years of study and trial and error and LOTS of money invested in spare parts and one should have the right to NOT publish the outcome of these studies on the public for free.

I do not know why you find this information to be secretive. Nick has given you the correct information there, if you follow that guide you should be ok.



Huh? There is another way that does not involve magnet risks and Hitachi head swaps are like a walk in the park. As said, some research will help. Pardon me for saying this, but platter swaps are way too dangerous even for a VERY experienced tech and the chance of screwing things up to a point of no return is way higher. I mean, if you accidently damage heads during a head swap, you just go ahead and put another set of heads and you'll be ok. If you screw things up during platter swap...

Again, if you feel more comfy with yourself about swapping the platters, then that's ok, go ahead. You have been supplied with the info you needed.
Good luck.

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Thanks Northwind

Thank you Nick

I appreciate your straight talking. And I understand fully what you are saying.

I guess we are all different in stages of life. Money and knowledge mean nothing to me, at this point in my life. I used to be secretive about the skills I had acquired but, that was a different life for me. When someone says how do you fix this, I say here is how. If they say that's beyond me. I will do it for them for a modest fee. I guess I feel a forum is the place to share knowledge and I appreciate what I have heard hear in this thread. There are those that can and those that never will be able to and that is where services make there niche.

However, if someone says to me what are the peculiarity's of this drive, in my case the Hitachi HTS541080G9 and I know the answer is lets say "make sure you match the Model, date within reason, the PN and the MLC, then I would say it to them, that is my choice. I might say, I've never come across a HTS541080G9** with a matching part number who's heads won't interchange! if I knew it to be my experience.

Anyways... I got my answer in amongst the discussion so thank you all.

On this model, I still prefer platter change, for me they rarely go wrong but I appreciate your warning, you reasoning is sound.

Enough on this subject, I hope it has entertained and fed some thoughts.

Deeno

Entertaining for sure...

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A kindred spirit!

Well said!

Onya mate!

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