I dropped the drive. The heads stuck to platters.

I opened up the drive and freed up the heads which are now damaged as they make a scraping sound if I power the unit. Close inspection reveals one head is really broken/dangling.

I am considering soem options:

1) Send drive to a data recovery shop

2) Buy a new ST2000 for $150 and attempt to replace the spindle (disks) in the new drive with the old spindle

3) Buy a new ST2000 for $150 and attempt to replace the read heads in my old drvie


Willing to fork our maybe 500-600 for the recovery as much of the data is sentimental and I don't have any copies. This Seagate drive was supposed to be my secure backup (yeah right). Some business and tax stuff also.

Would like recommendations for reputable Canadian DR service. Anyone heard of theses duded http://www.dataretrieval.ca or care to recommend another?

I have some dexterity to attempt options 2 or 3 but concerned how effective this sort of replacement might be. For instance - is it dfficult to align heads and disks whichever option I decide to try?

Really appreciate any help anyone can offer.

Cheers
Nubiwan of Canada

you have 2 options, I suggest to do them both concurrently:
contact a reputable DR firm, and
pray

noises, and opening a drive like you did are both very bad.

Fully Agree ..
Opening on top was suicidal...

Sounds like another DIY wrecking job unfortunately. If you want to send to a DR place try Luke at Recovery Force.

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