Surface Damage from Headcrash or DR Attempt?

[D_R]

Hey Guys,

I've got a drive for a second opinion in my lab. The drive was returned from another lab with statement DR not possible, surface damage.
Today I opened the drive and saw no obvious surface damage like the typical rings. Instead I saw a scratch on the top platter. For me this scratch does not look like it was done by the drive. It looks more like a dropped screwdriver. And it's deep.

What's your opinion?

Attachments

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Well,
Correct ,How Many Platters is This Device ?

[D_R]

Well,
Correct ,How Many Platters is This Device ?

3 Platters, it's a WD2500JB drive.

[pepe]

It does not look like what i would declare as unrecoverable.
there are 5 other surfaces that are subject to evaluation.
Not to mention the usual problem with these PCBs which tends to kill the preamp and zap the data as well as servo. So there are a number of factors to consider.

pepe

[pcimage]

That scratch (or more like a “dink”) shouldn’t make it game over and as you say, it doesn’t look like natural damage.

However these can be particularly tricky drives to work on, so maybe the other company just didn’t know how to handle these drives? Also as Pepe says the preamp can get “over-voltaged” by a fairly common PCB fault and zap the SA.

We can take a look at it if you want to send to UK, or send to Pepe in Hungary.