Сleanroom Recovery - Head Stuck Between Platter/Ramp

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Hello Everyone ,
I have this helios 1tb hdd .Model no is WD10TMvv-11TK7S2 .Upon Inspection of the HDD in My Clean Room i noticed that the head did not mount on the ramp and was lying very close to it on the platters .The Ramp Was Removed And i Carefully removed the head .Upon Inspection i could see some damage on the outer side of the platter and 2 to 3 odd spots a dent/pit .also on the surface i could see a small 1 inch scratch in the middle .The Top Head was broken "Just the gimble " and stuck to top lid .The portion of the slider that mounts the head had rest of the heads intact but i did notice 2 to 3 of them very slightly bend there ".This bend is not on the main slider metal arm but the metal arm under the end of the slider that has the head .This is what i plan to do to solve this can someone with this experience share with me on forum of via pm if the is right approach

1 : PCB Swapped To SATA [ New PCB No Not In Acelab list hence posted the same ] - > viewtopic.php?f=155&t=8376&start=15#p30379
2 : I Run The HDD And see If It will Work With Those Heads " Would the broken gimble head of top layer get suspended in air due to air velocity of will it hit the surface " this is my first question .My second question is that if it will hit surface then no point bothering to run this headstack without a swap but if according to your experience it will not hit surface might be it gets a issue in mounting back to ramp as it is slightly lower to surface due to gimble not being present and if you say it will not hit surface and also mount back properly then i can give it a try and might be i can bend the head so that it never comes near surface and also the top slider arm end point goes fly past the plastic ramp .Another Question is that as the gimble is broken would the pcb and the Preamp chip have a issue with this and start clicking as there is no physical contact " due to it being broken .The last question is that whats the tool approach in this "Disable last head in rom " or leave rom as is and disable in ram and then clone goood heads .

PS : Feeling on cloud nine today and striving for hard work .

[data-medics]

A damaged head should never be allowed near the platter surface. So ultimately you'll need to replace it, and I'd bet that even the other heads are damaged beyond use too.

That having been said I did once have success just cutting off a top head with a pair of diagonal cutters. But it was an older drive and the top platter was scratched beyond hope anyway.

[pcimage]

A damaged head should never be allowed near the platter surface. So ultimately you'll need to replace it, and I'd bet that even the other heads are damaged beyond use too.

That having been said I did once have success just cutting off a top head with a pair of diagonal cutters. But it was an older drive and the top platter was scratched beyond hope anyway.

Agree. Never, ever run a drive with damaged heads or missing sliders!

We've had tons of successful recoveries involving snipped/lifted heads. Of course not full recoveries but often up to 90% even with one platter surface scraped to ****!

For example we have had several 1Tb Hitachi KLxx drives (10 heads) with one surface scraped and got ~90%

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

A damaged head should never be allowed near the platter surface. So ultimately you'll need to replace it, and I'd bet that even the other heads are damaged beyond use too.

That having been said I did once have success just cutting off a top head with a pair of diagonal cutters. But it was an older drive and the top platter was scratched beyond hope anyway.

Jared ,
The other heads seem kinda fine in inspection .Just correct me if i am wrong the gimble is the black read/write head connected to slider end right .what if i bend the top slider high enough so that it never comes near top surface and also flies past the plastic ramp

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

A damaged head should never be allowed near the platter surface. So ultimately you'll need to replace it, and I'd bet that even the other heads are damaged beyond use too.

That having been said I did once have success just cutting off a top head with a pair of diagonal cutters. But it was an older drive and the top platter was scratched beyond hope anyway.

Agree. Never, ever run a drive with damaged heads or missing sliders!

We've had tons of successful recoveries involving snipped/lifted heads. Of course not full recoveries but often up to 90% even with one platter surface scraped to ****!

For example we have had several 1Tb Hitachi KLxx drives (10 heads) with one surface scraped and got ~90%

Sean ,
Please point me to a source where i have a idea what part of the has is called what .I think i am confused between a slider and a gimble .Secondly i have read many times that once the drive gets power it will sense the heads one by one .If we snipe one head would this not effect the firmware start and the drive can then start endless knocking .Might be we would need to disable it in rom/nvram and of if it clicks and stops might be disable in ram and again start it .And 10 heads thats freaken too much lol max i have seen are 8 [ god bless you ] . how will you inspect other surfaces other then top one

[pcimage]

Here you go, hope it helps....

http://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_from_inside.html