Opening a compact flash

[gtd4242]

I've got a 6gb Seagate ST1 compact flash drive, where it appears the heads are seized to the platter. I don't work with many of these drives. I was just curious what you recommend for opening them. It looks like a tri-wing screw. Can you tell me the size, so I can try and locate one please? Thanks.

[CK]

You won't find a tri-wing commercially that's small enough.

I posted recently that the best way is to use a sharp blade or scalpel. Crude but effective. Watch those valuable DR fingers!

[Alexii]

Yeah , i the one who used that sugestion , and look ma all fingers present =)) 2 drives restored to life in 1 day , both with stuck heads. Used a sharp scalpel on the tri wings.

[pcimage]

Yep, agree.

The only way I could open them is with a scapel blade point.

[gtd4242]

Thanks for the suggestions. Now all I gotta do is try and find a scalpel.

[gtd4242]

One more question. Do you know what size scalpel you're using? I've seen #4, #10, #22, dental scalpels, etc.

[CK]

I've used a number of regular 'stanley' blade style tools - it doesn't need to be anything terribly fancy.

I apply pressure to the centre of the tri-wing with the point of the blade and 'turn' the drive around the blade, rather than trying to turn the actual screw itself.