HGST recovery , How to overcome SA defects

[terminator2]

For past few days I am struggling with HGST HTS725050A7E630 hard disk.
It has defects in SA so I cant read P list (PSHT & RDMT ). While imaging disk gives lots of read errors. I have twice replaced heads (healthy ) in hope that with newer heads I might get better results. I have repaired both files as per procedure and have created translator in Ram giving path of these repaired files. However despite all this there is no difference in symptoms .
I think reallocating SA in spare sector might be the solution ,but I dont know how to do that. Can someone pls. suggest any alternate way
I have attached both PSHT and RDMT files (original as well as repaired ) .Can someone familiar with hitachi check them for any errors which is causing read errors?
My experience with all 7200 RPM disks is not good.
here is download link --
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vUGOKa ... sp=sharing

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[pepe]

the drive does not load a damaged PSHT, so you won't get too much sectors, maybe some million from the beginning.
your PSHT is damaged near the end, that area is not important, so just upload it to ram using pc3k feature.

pepe

[terminator2]

hi thanks a lot pepe
Yes I have uploaded both files in ram ,that has given access to some data ,but in general drive is giving large defects and data is not of much use.
I think I will have to give up as drive will not accept damaged PSHT.

[pepe]

that psht does not look very damaged, it is normal that the drive does not load it on its own but it should work with it if loaded manually.
So i think there is some other problem, like one of the heads being weak or surface damage...

pepe

[terminator2]

Oh OK.
Yes head 1 is relatively weak ,may be platter degradation is also the issue.
Thanks pepe ,I will give it another try by replacing heads.

[pcimage]

We see quite a lot of media degradation in 2.5" HGST drives, especially it seems on Apple drives with the area containing the catalog file etc.. particularly bad.

[labtech]

With good heads, and loaded PSHT in RAM, change the head map in RAM to 00s.
Try to clone surface 0 alone. Does the drive clone consistently in the middle of the drive?

[terminator2]

hi labtech
After changing heads and loading PSHT in ram there is marked improvement & aprox 50% data recovered ,But still disk behaves differently for both heads.
Gives more errors for head 0.
As you said I will change head map to 00 and give it a try.

[pepe]

changing HM to 0 0 can (will) ruin the SA copy 0...
Moreover it has no effect if the disk has good heads.

pepe

[labtech]

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood in that surface 1 had poor reading.

[terminator2]

:roll: changing HM to 0 0 can (will) ruin the SA copy 0...
Moreover it has no effect if the disk has good heads.

pepe

Oh Its so dangerous , Thanks pepe your timely post has saved this drive.