I think most drives are OK with the heads touching, as long as they don't slap together. If you just pull it off the back of the ramp, with nothing separating the heads, the impact when they snap together will usually always kill the heads. However, if you gently remove a spacer in such a way as to gracefully place them together they're usually fine later. This might be useful for storage purposes if you want to save a set without putting them back in the donor drive. There are some, however, that will get stuck together if they touch and you may damage them trying to separate them afterward. So my rule of thumb is to always keep them separated. If they do touch, I'd inspect them well under a microscope before using them in a patient drive. Just in case there's physical damage.
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