Tips for swapping heads?

Any tips here for swapping heads? Are some drives tougher than others? I was recently working on a Maxtor 740-series drive (I had two) and found moving the head stack form one to the other to be nearly impossible. I was only dealing w/ a 40GB drive w/ a single platter, and I think it would be easier to move the platter over. But this, of course, would be a problem on multi-platter drives.

hi,

the problem is not in transfering the heads. With this model the donor heads must be exactly the same in geometry and position, otherwise the drive would not calibrate.

regards,
pepe

I wouldn't swap the platter. It is likely that you just don't have a correct match.

No, it isn't that I moved the heads and it didn't work. I didn't move the heads. I couldn't figure out how to. The head assembly has a set screw on the spindle that I couldn't get enough torque on. I couldn't figure out how to remove the heads, so I couldn't move 'em.

Thanks,
Phil

Hi,

with proper tools it should not be an impossible mission to get the head stack out. On the contrary, it is quite easy to remove the head stack itself.
you only have to remove the fixing screw from the other side of the HDD, bellow the PCB.

regards,
pepe

where do I find these "proper tools" ?