WD drives and headparking

[cheeser]

Hello.

I have received harddrives in the past by mail. Who were wrapped in a single layer of bubblewrap and put in a small brown box with no protection. Cringe. Harddisks worked fine. But a friend of mine dropped his western digital elements drive off a table about 4 ft after it was properly ejected and made no mechanical spinning sounds. I would guess the drive parked the heads properly. And although these drives are also surrounded by 4 thick pieces of rubber and encased within a plastic shell. The drive wouldnt turn on after. Why is this.

Do western digital drives have special protection like an extra latch that holds on to the HSA before first use?

Do western digital drives park their heads on or off the platters?

I have recorded the soft sound it makes when trying to turn it on. https://voca.ro/cvZ3t6RD6NN

What might have happened here?

[cheeser]

I have seen some videos. And in case yhis is about stiction to the platters. Do you need to make a shim to keep the hsa heads seperated before moving then off the platters?

[Arch Stanton]

You keep running into these or what? Are you looking for anyone's approval do follow the example of the 'stook heads' video?
If the data is of any importance, you don't power it up again and send it to a lab.

[northwind]

If the data is of any importance, you don't power it up again and send it to a lab.

+1000

Do western digital drives have special protection like an extra latch that holds on to the HSA before first use?

Nope. But good idea

Do western digital drives park their heads on or off the platters?

Modern drives park heads outside the platters, onto a ramp.

I have recorded the soft sound it makes when trying to turn it on. https://voca.ro/cvZ3t6RD6NN

This is stiction 100%. Dropped WD drive with stiction, more often than not heads are affected by this too.