This WD drive was dropped and has a nick on the platter (physical damage). What can be done to prevent the new write heads from crashing due to the existing damage so the data can be recovered? Someone told me to cut the write head off the top platter where the damage is. I thought that was unconventional.

From your question, it is not clear whether the person suggested to logically cut the read head of the platter (i.e. disable it in firmware) or to phycically cut it and remove it.
However, I guess the second situation.

There are to reasons for physically removing the damaged head:

• avoiding the damaged head to further scratch the damaged platter side at locations other than thus of the nick
• avoiding that the head — even if an undamaged one coming from a donor drive — flies on the nick, be destroyed by it, make the drive click, and prevent data recovery from the other, undamaged, platter surface.

This is by no mean a recommendation, and can be done only by a lab specialized in data recovery, but a possible data recovery scenario in your situation is:

1. Phycically cut the damage head.
2. Image the undamaged platter side with the other head, assuming it is in good condition.
3. If the nick is not too close from the platter edge so that it is worth imaging part of the damaged platter surface:
   replace the head stack assembly using thus of a WD5000LPVX donor drive.
4. Image the damaged platter side, from the outside cylinders, up to the nick.
5. Finalize the data recovery.

You don't tell if the person who told you about (physically) cutting the head is the technician from a data recovery lab. If so, you should assume he knows what to to, especially if the lab has good reputation. The community here could help you know if the lab is a well known and renowed one.

In case the lab is not renowned, ask them a picture of the damaged platter side where the scratch is visible, and the permission for posting it here to get advice from other data recovery professionals.

Thank you! That was very informative. Instead of cutting off write head, possible to just bend upward so it won't read? I've attached a pic of Nick in platter, not sure if so visible and helpful.

The picture may fool me, but that seems like magnetic dust to me. I can see part of it on the ramp and on the head itself.
If that's true, then I 'd expect the bottom surface to be scratched badly.

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