Switch to full style
Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
Post a reply

Swap place on platters

August 2nd, 2018, 15:45

Hi,
I just performed a head replacement on a drive where 7/8 heads was able to read 100% of the data.
The bad thing was that head no.3 died quite quick becaus of platter damages.

So, instead of replacing the complete headstack again, would it be possible to swap place on the platters to use head 1, 5 or 7 instead and worn them out one by one and afterwards merge those maps in PC3K somehow?

Thanks!

Re: Swap place on platters

August 3rd, 2018, 5:41

Try it, what could possible go wrong? :mrgreen:
As you are in the DR business and working with clients drives, you should know some basic in DR...but you don't. And I feel a bit sorry for your clients. :(
Short answer is NO.

Re: Swap place on platters

August 3rd, 2018, 11:19

I can only dream if it was that easy :)

All the instructions written to the drives firmware are unique to the platter structure during creation, including alignment ( on most drives alignment is key) So moving the platters around is instant death to the data. Plus in the long term of things it would be easier to just replace the head stack since the head stack will 99% have to come out anyways to remove the platters.

You never need to remove the platters on a hard drive unless you are dealing with motor issues or they need to be cleaned due to scratches, water, or fire damage.

So if the drive spins to speed which it is since you read the other surfaces, do not unscrew the platters.

as previously said before, this is data recovery 101.

just out of curiosity what is the brand and model of the hard drive?

Re: Swap place on platters

August 14th, 2018, 15:11

It is possible.
pepe

Re: Swap place on platters

August 15th, 2018, 13:55

Agree with Pepe . It is possible but not for all the drives . For Hitachi and Seagate this method is working

Re: Swap place on platters

August 15th, 2018, 14:34

i would not narrow it to those 2 brands...

Re: Swap place on platters

August 15th, 2018, 15:24

pepe wrote:i would not narrow it to those 2 brands...

Agree on this

Re: Swap place on platters

August 15th, 2018, 16:17

If I have a donor ready for heads replacement, I wouldn't risk for platters swap.

Re: Swap place on platters

August 15th, 2018, 21:07

+1 to pepe and Doomer
Post a reply