Change Head or Platter

[investryd]

Hello Gurus
If changing platter is easier than changing head, should one go for it. Or is it always better to change head?

For example, instead of taking head from a good drive and putting it in a bad one.... can I, if it is easier, take the platter from the drive with broken head and put it the good drive? Or should the platter always stay with its casing due to circuit board (since I heard that the circuit board also holds some essential info regarding the data).

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks

[loki]

Hi,

Swapping platters should be the last thing you choose ie when you have siezed spindle motor. Also you would need specialist tools ie cleanroom, platter removal tools, head removal tools & lots of practice & experience before attempting it for real.

Even when swapping heads its not easy you still need a cleanroom & head removal tools & experience. One mistake & you could damage the platters & lose your data.

If the data is important then i would advise seeking a professional recovery.

Loki

[pcimage]

Loki is 100% right.

[investryd]

Thanks for the responses. Could you also clarify the need for PCB to stay with platter. Does PCB hold anything relevant to data on the disk? Or it can be replaced without losing integrity of the data on disk.

Thanks

[Vulcan]

Does PCB hold anything relevant to data on the disk?

Depending on the specific drive, the answer can be yes or no - with modern drives typically yes.