Inner platter inspection

[crecomp]

hi guys

just wondering how people are dealing with inner platter inspection, top platters are obvioulsly not an issue to examine but i would like to inspec the middle platter prior to doing a head swap as i have been caufght out several times now where i have reaplced the faulty heads only to find that the donor heads also got damaged and would not go back to working in the donor drives. this is obviously preferable to test for damage prior to a head swap.

thx to all

[Doomer]

dentist mirror is the cheapest solution

[pcrecovery]

What about examination of the patient heads themselves under microscope. Would you not expect to see substantial particulate matter on heads? I would assume that any damage that you can see with your eye would be substantial.

[crecomp]

Doomer, keeping it simple is always good
PCrecovery i guess i wanted something more accurate, something that you could possibly take a photo of and show a customer what is the actual matter with their drive

thx for replies guys

[BadMac]

I just had one where it was the bottom of the bottom platter which was scratched and bottom of top platter just starting to ring. Didn't see it with mirror, so spent a few frustrating hours trying to get the data with head swaps. In the end, I removed the platters and visually found the damage (the heads looked fine visually, I should have checked them under the microscope, but didn't!!!).

So, to continue the thread, is there some kind of fine fibre optic camera or USB inspection camera that can get a view between platters and show on the screen? Obviously then I can take a picture for the customers inspection report.

[crecomp]

i have searched for extremely fine cameras but have not yet come accross something so small, the smallest i have found is a usb with ahead of about 1cm way too big

[beto]

Check PM crecomp