Hello! I have been working with PC hardware since the early 1990s, and I've always been fascinated with forensic data recovery. Recently, one of the four HDDs from a RAID-0 died, which means all the data on said volume is assumed lost forever.

I have backups, and have since restored the data to new hardware without any issues, so at this point I'm wanting to attempt recovery for the experience of it rather than necessity. I have confirmed physical damage to the SA of the second hdd. It fails to detect, throws a "servo fail" in terminal when powering up, and has been deemed "prohibitively expensive and unlikely to succeed" by a local data recovery business (they opened it in a clean room and saw the platter scoring and a damaged head). My goal here isn't to recover the data, but I want to try to repair the drive and make an image for the experience of nothing else. If it helps, think of me as a hobbyist. I'd love to use any of the 'good' drives for parts if needed, as they're all the same model and running the same firmware. I also have an ISO-5 workspace, so the "clean room" concern is already addressed. I do not have any head comb/tool yet.

Hardware:
(x4) Seagate Constellation ES3 ST4000NM0033
RAID controller: Integrated Intel RST on Asus MAXIMUS z790 Hero

I've already imaged drives 3 and 4 of the set (or, drives 2 and 3 if using the 0-to-3 numbering), and would have imaged the first drive as well if it didn't detect as a corrupt 16tb volume (I'll still make an image of it, I've just been procrastinating...). Drive 2 is the failed one.

I mean, why would anyone make a 4*RAID 0 (!) using Seagate drives (!!) ?
It should be illegal by law.

I'm afraid you're only wasting your time.
These Constellation drives are challenging, even for pros, even without having media damage.

I mean, you can always try, since you already have a backup you don't have anything to lose, but if the local DR shops' evaluation is correct, your chances are 0%.

Even though your post doesn't contain an actual question, I'm assuming you need advice on how to proceed changing heads on the failed drive?
You would need a clean room, a head comb, a lot of practice and hardware to image the drive afterwards. But, as I've said, your chances are 0%.

PS. You sure the array is RAID0 and not RAID5 or RAID10? EDIT: You said you're seeing a 16TB partition, so it's RAID0...

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