Should I open the drive?

[unhappy_wd_user]

Hi everyone,

Some of you might have known that my HDD's head is damaged (at least that's what the data recovery person said) from my old thread: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29173

I was browsing through Youtube yesterday and saw many successful video in fixing clicking sound issue.

Of course, by fixing I mean they have opened up the drive and try moving the head around.

And most of the clicking sounds they had are caused by the head is stucked on the platter, and to fix it is just by moving the head back to the rest area where it should be in the healthy drive.

And one thing I noticed, from all the videos I watched (I pratically watched every videos), the so-called "clicking" sounds are nothing like mine.

Their "clicking" sounds are so loud and distinctive and it practically tells you there's something wrong inside.

For mine, like I told you before, it sounded normal like how the head trying to read the data.

That's why I'm not too sure if my issue is related to "head problem" as diagnosed by the data recovery people.

However, I do agreed with them that the HDD should not spin down and spin up again like mine did.

So, should I opened it up and see what's wrong inside since I have already accepted the fact that I will not be able to retrieve the data anymore, so I don't have anything to lose if I really did screwed up when opening the drive.

And if I do opened it up, what should I do with the head if it does rest on the correct place?

Or is there anything I can try such as checking the head if it is correctly aligned?

Or should I powered up the opened drive to see what's making the so-called clicking sound so i know where the problem lies?

[linkbefore]

Hello
first before opening any HDD you need to know if your problem is in fact the head, the most suitable in your case is to have a tool like PC3000UDMA or any of its competitors or even some homemade hyperterminal TTL mode as an example for the to see through the terminal logic board sends the message to you your problem apparently seems to be a problem of the service area of the disc or logic board.

[HaQue]

many times yo will not visually see the issue, even when there are faulty heads or whatever. opening the drive will likely put an end to your data recovery hopes and dreams.

So, if you want closure, open it. you might see something you might not, but at least that will be the end of it, throw it away and get on with your life

[northwind]

or even some homemade hyperterminal TTL

It's a WD.

I was browsing through Youtube yesterday and saw many successful video in fixing clicking sound issue.

Of course, by fixing I mean they have opened up the drive and try moving the head around.

And most of the clicking sounds they had are caused by the head is stucked on the platter, and to fix it is just by moving the head back to the rest area where it should be in the healthy drive.

No. They "fixed" stiction. Stiction does not cause clicking. Stiction causes clicking AFTER it has been fixed by amateurs

So, should I opened it up and see what's wrong inside since I have already accepted the fact that I will not be able to retrieve the data anymore, so I don't have anything to lose if I really did screwed up when opening the drive.

I don't understand the question. If you accepted the fact that there is no hope in recovering your data, then you can do whatever you want with the drive. Open it up, make a clock from it, bin it etc. But if you have a hope that you will recover your data eventually, like HaQue said, opening the drive will put an end in your hopes for files.

To me, since you're asking the question, you're still hoping to recover this drive, so NO.

Your drive needs to be correctly diagnosed by a decent pro. Some labs offer free evaluation, so you can at least know what you're dealing with.

Good luck.

[digitalferret]

should I opened it up and see what's wrong inside

"see whats wrong" - how could you tell?

For the few that have had "reported" success there will be hundreds that have /face-palmed and #failed

Hard drive "dismantle diagnostics" without specialist equipment and/or extensive diagnostic experience is akin to removing the top off your head and poking about with a screwdriver in an attempt to improve brain function:

Don't do it unless you specifically want to cripple something.

[jerovsek]

hello unhappy_wd_user,

as I always say, if data are valuable for you, then don't DIY and find some pro DR.
Without knowledge and proper tools and without donor drive you will not be able to do anything.

Think, before you start with next step. It could be like walk through the minefield

[unhappy_wd_user]

Thank you everyone for the advice!

Just an update, I'm putting the "open disk" thought aside because I'm having the thought that this is not due to head problem afterall.