Hi all,

Just a quick question: is it possible to do a hot swap on Hitachi laptop drive?
It is: HTS541080G9SA00.
I got two identical drives, one of them (that needs recovery) doesn't go ready, second one (a donor) is working perfectly fine.

Thanks.

no you can't.

Spaz is right, there are too many adaptives that will not be compatible after the process. Also, even if was successful, there is too many data-dependent adaptives such as defect tables and zone tables etc.

not reaching DRDY is not a lot of info to work with, try explaining problem in more detail, maybe someone here can help, but I suspect that professional diagnosis may be needed.

No two drives are identical these days I am afraid.

A hot swap will not be enough to get access to the failed drive.

There is a way to do hotswap, but you should have a lot of knowledge including how to deal with unique adaptives, not all the same-model drives is good for this, and you need to have special equipment to work with this drive.
If you have and know all, than yes, you can do hotswap.

But if you have missing something, you should seek for professional help.

Janos