HDD Recovery Seagate 8Tb

[Twitch79]

I have an external HDD, an 8TB Seagate Barracuda (ST8000DM004) that after a fall has the heads stuck to the platter. There is nothing on the drive that warrants a professional recovery, 80% of it is disposable and can be acquired again. Thinking about attempting a head swap knowing it may very well be unsuccessful. I have all the tools except the head comb, which will be ordered. But if by some chance the drive does revive, if I only want to recover a small amount of the 6TB of data stored on it. Is the next best step, or only step, still running an image recovery program? I was looking at ddrescue or HDDSuperclone as I don't have access to the PC3000 the pros use. I do have Macrium Reflect, but the forums seem to prefer a Linux based recovery over Windows. Imaging all 6TB will take at minimum a day, and undoubtedly a lot longer, is that still the safest option? I won't be attempting this for about a month, time to learn the software and procedure. Potentially even attempting it on an old almost dead IBM drive from the 90s.

I am heading into to this as a learning experience and if any data is recovered that is a bonus. There are a few files I will miss if they are gone, but the drive was basically used as a 'junk drawer' to dump unimportant stuff onto it to keep the laptop drive clean. Odds are the drive is beyond a home recovery, but thought I would ask for advice anyway. I've seen the pro recoveries using PC3000 and DIY that just copy and paste in Windows. Some successful others not.

Thanks.

[Zero Alpha]

This is a very difficult case even for an experienced professional. You are destined for failure regardless of which free app or YouTube tutorial you choose.

[kotel]

Keep us updated about how your head swap attempt goes. I'm also keen on data recovery/""fixing"" (more like putting a bandage on an broken bone) drives, but my attempts are rather impossible (due to scarce amounts of donor's where i live) and unsuccessful.