Trying to learn heads swap but all times fail :/

[Scorpion]

Hi all,

I hope that you will be able to give me some tips or any advice on the following frustrating phenomenon:
I try to learn how to perform correctly heads swap and recover dead different hard drives.
So I bought HDRC heads tools and I follow very carfully their video tutorials.
I practice on my lab drives. First I check that the drive is fully functional with PC3K and can read the data. Than I remove complitly the heads from the drive with HDRC tool and put tham back to their original place on the drive.
The problem is: NO MATTER WHAT or HOW I do or how gentenly I take care of the drive, after the heads are back to their orginal place on the drive, the drive become dead.
The drive doesn't work anymore after that action and make some weired clicks (not clicks of droped hard drives or burnt PCB).
It happend on few working drives. I can't figure out what can cause the drive to die after I put back the heads to their original place.
Till now 0 success with puting back the heads to the drive and keeping the drive alive.
What can I do?
What can be my "beginers mistake"?

I will be greatful for any tip or advice.

[SquaL]

Hi, this is not a easy thing to do, seems a lot of experimenting is required before this is mastered. Some drives are easier to work with, maybe start with those first. Hopefully those inclined to mess with opening drive and swaping internals read this post. Anyway what model drive have you been trying with?

[thatdellguy]

What can be my "beginers mistake"?

A: HDRC tools; biggest mistake newbies make is buying this crap from India then finding out it doesn't work. You have to make your own tools or purchase the ones that actually work.

[Tawfeek]

buy real professional tools + practice to get experience

[BlackST]

I think tooling is 50% of the battle, in this case there can be contamination issues or heads get damaged while un/loading. Should audit the entire process to see what is wrong.

[Scorpion]

Hi,

Thank you for the replays.
I know lots of people who recommand HDDsurgery tools.
But each tool cost 500EUR.
It will be very bad to me buying those tools and than to find out that it doesn't actually work.
What do you think about it?

[SquaL]

Unfortunately cannot speak from experience, but from research and feedback it seems you cannot go wrong with HDDsurgery tools. By the way still curious about drives you have worked on. Send PM if prefer.

[hddguy]

I think tooling is 50% of the battle,

I agree

[Good Stones]

More practice.

[poehere]

Time, practice, investment in tools and junk drives. You will get this after time. Some people taks around 3 to 6 months some longer. But in this time a lot of money is invested in drives and tools.

[DataWreck]

Not just practising on a load of old western digital's by any chance are you?

[laptokowiec]

Even if you own the best tools, you won't success without experience (practice) unless your'e lucky.
You don't have to use any special tools, but your brain.

[Touchclarity]

When it comes to heads swaps technique is King, and this is only gained by experience..... you will learn different techniques for different drives and different do's and dont's. This is certainly NOT an area where one technique fits all...

Some people use home made tools and some prefer to buy custom made tools - MOST use a combination of both, but unless you have the hand-eye co-ordination to go with it, then it's going to be a long learning curve..

[Alexii]

What drives are u practicing on ? There are certain drives ( older WD for example ) that are a real bitch to work with.

[Scorpion]

Till now I practiced on Seagate drives 7200.9/10/11/12. But nothing.
They all become dead with unfamiler clicking noise after that.
I have suspicious that the magnet is the problem since I can't think on a logical reason why the heads will just drop dead after such operation?!

What do you think about hddsurgery tools?

[Good Stones]

Swap the heads back, do the drive reads data?

[labtech]

Sent pm.