Balancing and aligning the motor/platters?

[SirForensic]

Hello,

Hopefully, I can get some help with my problem here.

I have an issue, the drive's motor is jammed and I have an identical donor HDD and after swapping the platters the drive vibrates strongly.
The original donor drive did not vibrate, so I believe this is a Motor balancing issue and unfortunately, I do not have knowledge of how to balance the motor.

I did one platter swap to the 2 platter drive and it was a success, but of course, it can't be compared to 5 platters...

Drive details:
Seagate Ironwolf 8TB
Model code: ST8000VN004 / PN: 2M2101-500
Platter amount: 5
Heads amount: 10

According to information found online already, the problem and needed information would be, how to balance the motor so it won't vibrate?

Thanks in advance!

[pepe]

Ouch, loosing original alignment in a 5 platter drive, that's what i would call a trouble.
It is not impossible but at least very hard to recover from this situation.
I have a feeling you are not very experienced in the field, believe me this job is not for you, it wasn't at first even, but now you need somebody who knows these well.

pepe

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Well,
All Platters Could Have Come Out in One Motion And Swapped To Another Donor ,This i have a bad feeling for

[SirForensic]

Thank you for your response.

The platters itself doesn't have to be aligned with all drive models, balancing the platters/motor is the key, this is based on the experience and actual tests + got information from the manufacturer. Of course, in many models, the platters itself has to be perfectly aligned, but not all models. Could you please tell me how you take 5 platters without moving them even 1/100 mm or answer my original question? 2 or 3 platters are easy. @pepe @Amarbir[CDR-Labs]

"Many people were talking about hdd platter alignment issue which is actually motor balance loss causing vibration after platter swap or platter clamp removal or the platter screws’ operations. In case the motor balance is lost, the hard drive motor will vibrate and the heads may read/write very slowly or impossible to read/write"

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Well,
Even Ten Platters can be swapped to a donor under 1 USD with proper tools and trust me they do not move even 1/100mm .Balancing means not tightening one screw at a time but all slowly until its done thats it

[SirForensic]

Well,
Even Ten Platters can be swapped to a donor under 1 USD with proper tools and trust me they do not move even 1/100mm .Balancing means not tightening one screw at a time but all slowly until its done thats it

Of course, I could use a simple tape technique, but not with this drive, not gonna happen, not possible. Please tell me, what proper tool do you mean? The screws were tightened this way, but it was vibrating, maybe I did something wrong there, but I would like to know is there some other trick than just tightening them up slowly and equally?

[pepe]

balancing is not everything, seagates use a couple of techniques to keep virtual tracks as circular as possible, thus keeping power consuption low. One can get it right accidentially but more likely he would fail without knowing how they work internally. The more platter the drive has the more probably one or more fails.
@Amarbir: balancing has nothing to do with screws tightening order, which is also important but not for that reason.


pepe

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Well,
Even Ten Platters can be swapped to a donor under 1 USD with proper tools and trust me they do not move even 1/100mm .Balancing means not tightening one screw at a time but all slowly until its done thats it

Of course, I could use a simple tape technique, but not with this drive, not gonna happen, not possible. Please tell me, what proper tool do you mean? The screws were tightened this way, but it was vibrating, maybe I did something wrong there, but I would like to know is there some other trick than just tightening them up slowly and equally?

Well,
Why do you say tape method will not work ?

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

balancing is not everything, seagates use a couple of techniques to keep virtual tracks as circular as possible, thus keeping power consuption low. One can get it right accidentially but more likely he would fail without knowing how they work internally. The more platter the drive has the more probably one or more fails.
@Amarbir: balancing has nothing to do with screws tightening order, which is also important but not for that reason.


pepe

Well,
If balancing is not related to screw adjustment its beyond anyone scope then ,I mean we first try to figure out which side of motor and its spindle that holds platter is of more weight then we counter the same effect with platter ,who has that much of gadgetry

[SirForensic]

Well,
Why do you say tape method will not work ?

Because this drive has disk separator plates between all the platters and spacer rings. The way it's built it blocks to make it even possible to use old fashion tape technique.

[SirForensic]

balancing is not everything, seagates use a couple of techniques to keep virtual tracks as circular as possible, thus keeping power consuption low. One can get it right accidentially but more likely he would fail without knowing how they work internally. The more platter the drive has the more probably one or more fails.
@Amarbir: balancing has nothing to do with screws tightening order, which is also important but not for that reason.


pepe

Interesting.
Could you lighten me up a little, what are these couple of techniques to keep virtual tracks as circular as possible?

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Well,
Why do you say tape method will not work ?

Because this drive has disk separator plates between all the platters and spacer rings. The way it's built it blocks to make it even possible to use old fashion tape technique.

Well,
I can Do This With Tape ,You Can Try ,I knew you will say it has spacers

[SirForensic]

Well,
Why do you say tape method will not work ?

Because this drive has disk separator plates between all the platters and spacer rings. The way it's built it blocks to make it even possible to use old fashion tape technique.

Well,
I can Do This With Tape ,You Can Try ,I knew you will say it has spacers

Please show me how you lift 5 platters, which includes spacers + platter plates between all the platters, otherwise, I don't believe you.

[SirForensic]

Well,
Why do you say tape method will not work ?

Because this drive has disk separator plates between all the platters and spacer rings. The way it's built it blocks to make it even possible to use old fashion tape technique.

Well,
I can Do This With Tape ,You Can Try ,I knew you will say it has spacers

Please show me how you lift 5 platters, which includes spacers + platter plates between all the platters, otherwise, I don't believe you.

EDIT! My apologies! I did testing with a good tape and I was able to lift them all. I guess before I didn't test this with proper technique at it was a fail before, now it was success.

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Hum,
Thats nice keep up the good work .