I've been honing some techniques for swapping platters, especially in the 500GB and up Seagate models with the spacers. I don't really care for some of the tools out there, and have heard both good and bad about them. I just have stacks of these drives that I have been practicing on. The actual swap I can pull off without a hitch. I am able to lift out the entire pack, with the spacers included, and transplant them without a problem at all. However the problem comes when I power up the drive. 9 out of 10 will have substantial vibration, and often times, this vibration seems to be keeping the heads from reading the tracks properly. The only possible reason for this vibration is that the platters are just slightly off center after the transplant. Actually when you reflect light off the surface of the platter you can actually see some movement, so it's definitely a little off center. Are there any suggestions for reducing the amount of vibration? I'm guess you just have to keep playing with them until it smooths out. But I was just wondering if there might be something I'm overlooking when I place the platters in the new case. With hardly any play at all between the spindle shaft and the inner platters, there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for adjustment. Any ideas?

You mean eccentricity ?

Correct.

If it doesn't work, then you must of done something wrong.

May be you should reconsider and start using proper tools.

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Something is not correct in the diagnose. In this case vibration = VERTICAL vibration especially on the OD or eccentricity ? Eccentricity seems unlikely to me

Yeah, it would seem eccentricity wouldn't be an issue with the platters. At least not enough to cause vibration.

But I've never done this, could the spacers be the problem? Do the spacers have the same I.D. as the platters?

Eccentricity seemed to be the issue, but may it's not. That's the problem I had with that theory too, is that there is so little gap between the platters and spindle. I think what I am going to do is see about using an in/lbs torque drive on the screws so that I can make sure they are snugged down evenly. If one screw is retaining the pack harder than some of the others, it seems like it could possibly tilt the pack ever so slightly on one side. This is all experimental right now, so I'm just throwing things out there. I have CNC equipment that I have been using to develop my own tools for this process, and right now I'm just trying to iron out the details. Thanks for all the input folks.

... and anyway never had such problem. IF there was eccentricity and/or vertical vibration, the drive will operate with LOUD noise. More than normal anyway.... For me something was not OK in the overall platter swap process but there's something positive : you are 75% way keep on.

If there was enough eccentricity in platter rotation to be seriously vibrating the drive or making a lot of noise, you would destroy the spindle bearings in very short order, to say nothing of what it will do to your heads and groove the platter anyway.

Not necessarily catastrophic, but the drive won't start.