Learning how to perform a head-swap

[maddin]

Finally I got a lot of drives to train with but before I start I would like to ask you professionals something...

I got a while ago that quite outdated set of tools: https://www.dolphindatalab.com/product/ ... combs-pro/ (2nd hand on ebay for few EUR). While searching for some tutorial how to use them I found that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJiVRk2ukYs&t=643s

It freaks me out that they just slide the heads off the platter and it looks like they just let the heads smash together. After they sepperate them with some paper / plastics foil to push them back on the platter? Are heads really that robust? Can you really do that this way without damaging them? What kind of plastic-foil could you use for that?

As most of the head combs don't fit the drives I have I was really curious if you can peroform a head-swap that way. Or if there is a saver way to do it by inserting some foil / paper before pulling them off. But what material would not scratch the surface of the platters? Basically how tough are platters?

Here is another one which show quite rough material which get used and come in contact with the platters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIPZtJyrVPw&t=329s

After training for a while and getting the first head-swaps working I would invest in some Apex-Tools and a bigger laminar flow box... First i would want to test that I am able to handle that things with my fine-motorical skills.

[fzabkar]

It freaks me out that they just slide the heads off the platter and it looks like they just let the heads smash together.

Wow! I was led to believe that it was imperative to prevent the sliders from touching each other, otherwise they would stick together.

[HddDonorMarket]

I have had experienced head touch with accidentally. May be 6 -7 different drives HSA. Only 1 or 2 worked again. I remember that worked ones had separated vertical direction to HSA. Not horizontal (meaning to easy undertand parallel direction to platters) I hav3 guessed it's about liquid that I have trying to find head cleaners liquid. Liquid made lubricated on Head surface , and didnt scratch

So my assumption is head surface scratch (when heads touch each other ) kill heads . It's not magnetic issue. It's physical (kinda optical breaking) issue. That's my assumption after watching that videos

Best and safety way using swapping tools.
Sory my poor English.

[northwind]

These videos are ridiculous, to say the least.

[maddin]

For the one or other beginner here I want to share my "experience".

I took an 160GB drive which is known goog working, fill it with data and then I opened it up in a small laminar flow box. I used a 2,5cm long and 6mm thick strip of an antistatic bag, folded it in half and inserted it in between the heads to get them off the ramp without touching them together...

While taking the arm-limiter out it slipped out of my tweezers and landed on the platters. Lession learnd - take other tweezers with better grip.

When I try to take the head-stack out I see I forget to unscrew the connector to the PCB so I placed the loose headstack back and unscrew the connector. While doing so i bumbed the head-stack and it rotated a bit so that the heads slide back on the platters and the piece of foil was pushed out between the heads. SO i had to get the heads off the platters and try to fiddle in the same time the foil back in between. Lession learned - do the steps in the right order and crosscheck if you don't forget something!

After that torture I did to the poor disk I was pretty sure I could not get any data but I reassambled it without further mistakes and connected it to MRT. The MRT was getting an ID from that drive and i was able to read some random ectors manually. I am pretty impressed how robust the internals of a disk are...

Don't get me wrong i am pretty sure that both action caused survear damage and some data loss but I am still impressed that the heads kind of survived that first try.

[labtech]

Old drives were more robustly built, hence better chances of surviving mistakes.

[Jidis]

It freaks me out that they just slide the heads off the platter and it looks like they just let the heads smash together. After they sepperate them with some paper / plastics foil to push them back on the platter?

I was just watching a different video where someone does the same thing on a WD 80G. He doesn't insert the spacer until after they've cleared the platters.

It seems even some of you experienced guys resort to those folded spacers and pieces of heatshrink tubing for the oddball drive that you don't have a comb for. Do any real people actually use DIY combs on drives with no ramp? I've been playing with that on some old IDE drives and it seems nearly impossible, though I've got a long ways to go "dexterity-wise". You can't really get anything in between the arms until the sliders are pretty much off the edge of the platter. In fact, you can barely even see the area a spacer would need to get to on the bottom heads until they're off, and I don't suppose trying to blindly slide something into that space would be a wise idea.

Is there any way DIY combs can work in those cases (when the heads initially leave the platters), or do you take your chances like the guys in the videos?

Thanks!

[jono-ats]

Wow, that Salvation Data video is a recipe for disaster!

Just about every day we have to deal with fatal mistakes people make thinking that they can watch a couple of videos and do a head swap in their kitchen . . . or however they do their hacks.

Last week we received a drive that had a Seagate platter installed with a Hitachi base (and PCB). The hub cover wasn't installed and was floating around in the enclosure; the platter was scratched and of course had fingerprints. The client expected that we would have some magical formula to get their data back. Obviously my training isn't finished at Hogwarts yet . . .

I shudder to think some client had entrusted them with their priceless data. And it makes me sad, too, for the needless loss.

Sometimes heads are ruined when they touch; sometimes they aren't. If they stuck, often too much force is used to try to separate them, and that deforms and destroys them. Sometimes you can put a drop of pure IPA on the sliders and they eventually can be separated without damage. But they are probably now contaminated.


The ability to clean heads and diagnose drive failures by examining them is one of the most important skills that you can develop if you do clean room type work.

IME, most WD drives (some of the newer Passports excepted) won't stick together if they touch, because the sliders aren't parallel.

It takes LOTS of practice to do flawless head swaps.