okokyim wrote:
The ring is intended to be there, it is the landing zone.
Because I use external hard drives to transfer data quite often, I found out that if the power is suddenly cut while running, the head might be stuck on the platter.
I have opened a few and have no problem letting them run without the lid on. I have done some head swaps and platter swaps (for fun) for some unwanted disks and as long as there are no big particles, they all work fine. Maybe it is because I work in a chemistry lab, where they have some air filtration (not sure what grade but definitely not dust free, but sure better than normal)
I do agree opening the disk will do some damage to the platter but that is very minimal according to the scans. I won't use any opened disk anymore after getting the data out.
The disk I showed have not been tinkered before.
You have a nice ring, because the head scratches all that area.
The discs that have the parked on top of the discs do not have any rings to park on the disc.
The unit does not start because the head is trying to read that area and since it cannot, it clicks of dead.