Dear friends and colleagues,

After 3 years of intensive use and a large number of successful spindle replacements, we have decided to present you some additional hints and tricks in using the HddSurgery Spindle Replacement Tool. These additional tips are based on our experience with spindle replacement so far, and they represent some of the best practices which should help achieve a success rate that is close to 100%.

This is not a manual - it is an appendix to the manual which you can see in whole here:
http://www.hddsurgery.com/dl/HDDS_Spindle_Replacement_Tool_ver9.pdf



1. Check the patient heads

When preparing the patient hard drive (after step 10. of the original manual), before starting the spindle replacement procedure, take its heads out and check them for dirt and damage.



Heads should be checked for both physical damage, and for dirt under the microscope. If heads are damaged or dirty, they should be replaced. Either way, it's better to leave the heads out during the bearing replacement and put them back afterwards.

2. Use longer screws

While preparing the patient hard drive (step 13.), instead of using the screws previously removed, use longer screws to mount the platter holder.



Longer screws (shown left on the picture) will ensure a tighter connection between the platter holder and the platter carrier. These longer screws could be easily found in Maxtor DiamondMax 9 and 10 hard drives – the ones holding the head connector in them.

3. Tighten the hard drive casing

We have noticed that some hard drive casings are not lying perfectly flat on a flat surface. Because of this, when tightening the hard drive casing (step 17.), tighten only the middle two screws firmly (screws 1 and 2 on the picture).



Rest of the butterfly screws (screws 3, 4, 5 and 6) should only be tightened until the “case fastener” touches the hard drive casing (as shown in part “C” of the picture).

4. Clean the donor bearing

When the donor bearing is extracted (step 9.), it still has traces of glue on it. This is the factory glue that was used to affix the bearing to the hard drive case.



Be sure to clean the traces of glue on the donor bearing before placing it in a patient hard drive (step 25.).

5. Check the height of the platters

When the bearing replacement is done (step 34.) check the height of the platters by checking the distance between the platters and the spacers. Rotate the platters and check if they are passing close to the spacers or touch them in some position.



If the platters are too close to the spacers or touch them, they should be lifted (if they are too low), or lowered (if they are too high).

4.6. Adjust the height of the platters

To move the platters (lift them or lower them), steps 10 – 17 (from the original manual) need to be done again.

4.6.1. Lifting the platters
Screw the needle-screw until the needle touches the top of the spindle. Use Allen wrench to hold the needle-screw in this place while unscrewing the upper cylinder counter-clockwise using the adjustable wrench. Do not rotate the needle-screw, just hold it in the same position. This will assure that the spindle stays in place while the platter carrier (“the hat”) gets lifted. Since usually only slight adjustments are needed, a quarter of turn (1/4) should be enough to lift the platters of the spacers.



4.6.2. Lowering the platters
Screw the bottom cylinder until it touches the hard drive from the bottom (same as in step 19. of the manual). After this, screw the spindle-pushing screw in the bottom cylinder until it hits the bottom of the bearing on hard drive. This will assure that the bearing stays in place while the platter carrier (“the hat”) gets lowered. Using the adjustable wrench, screw the upper cylinder (turn it clockwise) to lower the platters. A quarter of turn (1/4) should be enough for slight adjustment.

4.7. Use “Edit HDD ID“ function

Hard drives with a replaced bearing sometimes become a bit “wobbly” so they should be put on a workbench before they are plugged in. Workbench will keep them steady and help them stabilize.



When the hard drive is plugged in, it will usually click for a while until it calibrates. If you are using the PC3000 UDMA kit, let the drive calibrate, start the Seagate utility and then use the “Edit HDD ID” option which can be found in Tests/Service information/Work with service area. In the “Edit HDD ID” window, uncheck all the checkboxes except the “Disable IDLE activities” checkbox, and then click “OK”. After this, the drive should stop clicking and it should calibrate easily.

All comments and suggestions are welcome

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HddSurgery - Professional Data Recovery Tools