2.5" WD 2 platters/4 heads

Appears that the damage is limited to the top of the upper platter.

2 thin score rings, one near the out edge, one about midway.

Any tips for recovering from between the scores, keeping the new heads off the damage?

Anyone have any success stories?

Probably it's going to just turn out to be a lost cause unless it's a really old drive.

I'd start by replacing the heads and possibly even cut off the top head (to avoid further damage to the platter) and image the lower three surfaces. If that goes well, then swap the heads again and hope for the best. Just be prepared to remove the heads over and over and clean them under a microscope.

Or you can send it to Gillware for the old burnish glide treatment.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

I have done exactly this a few times, snipped off top head and imaged H0,1,2 then threw a couple more head stacks at it and images backwards and forwards. Surprisingly good results

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I'll give that a try. Thanks for the feedback guys.

Good luck!

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What would happen if you got a long piece of fishing line and tied it near the end of the top head, and tied the other end to something a couple of feet above and carefully tensioned it? Would it lift the head up just enough to not let it touch the platter but still allow the heads to move freely?

Well,
This is not firmware data recovery were your claimed mastery is there spildit ,Its very much possible to remove platters ,inspect and try to avoid the physical issues and clone the rest of the hard drive ,You are a kid in data recovery of physical work ,So its about time to To Teach You And The Thread Creator How To Solve this is Is As Following

1 : Better To Make a Hot Swap Ready HDD In case You Like To Avoid More Time Spend On the Case " Why we will discuss later "

2 : Use a New Head Stack And Physically Cut The Top Head From The Start Of The Flex Steel Part in Headstack assembly

3 : Start The Hot Swap Drive " There is Another Technique were you can start the native drive " but i am not giving it out .Change Head Map to 0,1,2,2 Instead of 0,1,2,3 And Swap Logic Board To Patient Drive .

4 : Clone Head No 0,1,2

5 : If You Have Read MFT Record in NTFS File system And Make a Map of Pending Files .Then You Will Have a list of pending file segment maps on top Head No 3 .The please alter the read to higher lba to lower and spin down the motor .

6 :Change Head Again With All Active Heads ,Spinout The Motor And Change Head Map in Ram To 0,1,2,3 .Start Cloning The Drive Top Head Surface .

PS 1 : MT51 Stuff will only work in mostly 3.5 in drive were the drive can accommodate more platters and the current patient has less platters ,This technique works 100%

PS 2 : The outer ring can be avoided if you can make a custom Ramp with top slider ramp Crossing That Ring ,The Inner Ring Can Be Avoided My Restricting The Head stack movement under the magnet by custom modding the top and bottom magnet after cloning rest of the heads or by installing a brake at the right area .

PS 3 : if you are a newbie then forget it its out of your league dataminer

PS 4 : spildit i am least interested in replying to any of your stuff on hddguru but i count not control my hands for this because now you are butting in in a sphere thats beyond your current capabilities

_________________
Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

Well,
He did not read well and i think neither have you ,Instead of understanding you are laughing .I did reply to the concerned guy

" PS 1 : MT51 Stuff will only work in mostly 3.5 in drive were the drive can accommodate more platters and the current patient has less platters ,This technique works 100% "

This amazing technique was taught to me by one of my seniors in trade from mexico .You can use this technique if you have a HDA that can accommodate 3 platters for and example and only 2 are installed and its a ramp less version drive like many seagates ,Then you have to lift the top head slightly in the air and tie that finishing line to the top platter heads as they are not installed and there is a hole in there .If you still cannot understand then

_________________
Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

keen to know the outcome, keep us posted bro!