In my homemade clean room, I opened my Seagate Baacuda 700.8 250GB drive, and the platters wouldn't spin at all, completely frozen, with no give. I thought it might be head stiction, but the head stack seems to move a little bit (Not completely, but I'm guessing it locks somehow when parked, and I didn't want to move the heads across the platter surfaces.)

Could this be somthing other than the bearing? If not, is there a way to 're-oil' the bearing, or unfreeze it long enough for me to get some data off? What is the 'fluid' thie use in a FDB?

hi re-oil is not possible with this type of hdd. It's bearings are shattered internaly and completely stuck. The only way is to remove the platters to a good hdd, but alignment is the biggest issue, success rate is slim.

Hi,

I would like to argue
recently I had a similar drive its owner dropped, bearing badly stuck.
I drilled, 'oiled', rotated, recovered the data.
The platter swap may be good, but risky. What if U cannot get them well centered afterwards...?
pepe

hi Pepe

Drilling is also risky, as the drilling process creates vibration which may or may not damage the head as you know the cap is a really solid stainless steel, to peel off the cap is not easy, i guess its just luck.....but sometimes lucks in data recovery works....

Yes, I was concerned about drilling too, mainly for the small chips that would break loos, do do such wonders for a close tolerance bearing

I was contemplating a small hammer, as well as heat on the stainless cap,but I suppose drilling might be best. Has anyone had bad results from drilling?

Also, is the fluid in the bearing very thin? If I removed the cap completely, would it pour out, and be like running a car with no oil? Would it stay in like a thick grease?

I did the "grinding" not "drilling". Yes it's very dangerous. Sometimes the depth of grinding (about 0.5-1 mm) to find the bearing caps is the biggest issue to resolve. My result : 3 works, 7 fails...

I think I really really need a lot of practice and example from various models. It's very difficult indeed.
Using small hammer (rubber made...) ----> never try it out...
Haeting the stainless stell caps ? Oh, no....I think too dangerous....You will be in a lot of trouble if can not find the right temperature to do so ...
The grease will not pour. It will stay inside the bearing housing...