Ok thanks, I was afraid that would be the case.
Looking around I found this video where a professional DR company recovers an identical drive. Although it seems that the headswap was pretty fast (unfortunately there is no close-up in the video when he reposition the heads) they had to try heads from several donor drives before succeeding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcvNWPPNWSEAlso, after the headswap he is using some kind of DOS program to remap/image the drive, what software is that and is it publically available?
I found a pretty reasonably priced donor drive with matching sitecode and first three serial letters (different firmware however). I realize chances of success are small, but since I can work in a cleanroom I thought I might give it a try. Is there anyone that could recommend a video showing the repositioning of the heads in more detail?
How critical is it to match up the firmware? i Found another set of matching criteria (below) for the Seagate F3 that differs from the ones in your link. There, FW version is listed as a criteria
.
Also, Heads map & preamplifier type is not printed on my drive.
Hard Drive Match Criteria (for Head Stack Assembly replacement or Platter Swap).
1. Full Model Number. Example: ST9640320AS, ST31000528AS
2. Site Code. Example: TK, AMK, KRATSG, WUXISG
3. Full part number or first 3 characters in serial number. Example: 9Y7389-301, 9JU138-302, 5MA84KC2, 9ND29XWG
4. Firmware. Example: CC44, 0005HPM1
(
http://stores.ebay.com/hddSupplier/Matching-Guide.html)
• Model number: Match the model number exactly.
• Serial number: Match the second and third characters of the serial number.
• Heads map: Match the physical heads (PH) map exactly. It is OK if the donor has more heads than the original drive, but all heads before that should match.
• Preamplifier type: Optional — Match the first two digits of the preamplifier type.
• Part number: Match the 1st half of the part number. If the second half also matches, it is likely to be an even better match.
• Site code: Match the site code. This indicates the location of manufacture.
• Date code: Convert the date codes. They should be within three months of each other — the closer the better.
(
http://www.donordrives.com/blog/matching-guide#seagate)