To move the actuator arm back to the parking spot would you need a special tool becuase it has 2 platters?

Hey guys got a quick picture of the inside.

is this the parking zone for a seagate laptop hard drive?

You do not need a special tool. All the heads are attached to one another in a column. Move one and they all move.

I'm more concerned about the visible dust and what appears to be a smudge on the platter. Fortunately there is no head on the top platter, but there is almost certainly dust on the other platters now

Things to remember: If you are able to move the arm that the heads are on, spin the platters slowly while you move the arm slowly toward that white ramp on the right side.

Assume that you will lose the data and that it is not worth a couple hundred bucks to get back if you do this on your own without a cleanroom or experience.

Luck can always happen, but it's not something to rely on.

It's not the heads that are causing the problem. I think its the motor. The platter is spinning freely now and By moving the heads off the platter and when the splatter spins it makes a grinding sound.

Thinking about buying a donor drive for experience. Does the firmware have to be identical?

also the spots and marks are just my camera, it all seems pretty god darn clean at the moment

uploading a video to youtube of what it does.

This is purely learning now I think

Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MP8v8AtBjY

Oh and that top arm isn't a head at all. There is only 2 heads which are inside both platters. reading the inside of each platter.

Does getting dust on the top still matter as much?

Much like this:

___
^
V
___


___ being a platter and V/^ being heads

It will have 3 heads.

0,1,2 (3 missing)

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Can't see the third head on the arm anywhere?

There are 2 platters. Each platter has 2 sides. The bottom platter has a head on the top and bottom sides. The top platter only has a head on the bottom side. Dust and stuff on the top platter is not of immediate critical importance because there is no head to damage that passes over that surface. However, that dust will move around inside the drive when powered on and may easily negatively impact the other heads.

Head 3 vaporized as soon as the vacuum seal was broken on the drive. You are going to need the good old data recovery spray in order to work around that.

Seriously, though. Make the choice, force the heads off and see what happens or pay the premium lab fee for an assessment on a tampered drive.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Just watched the video. Several things:

1: Stiction was your original issue. That has been solved, but now you have others.
2: Running a drive without the cover on is a really bad idea. You change the airflow inside the drive and can cause the heads to not fly at the proper height. At best they will not read, at worst the will be destroyed by the contaminated air or by scratching the surface. This last scenario where the platters get scratched will make the drive unusable and make recovery all but impossible.
3: If it doesn't work with the cover back on, you killed the heads when trying to free the stiction. You will now need a much more costly head stack replacement if you need the data. If you don't need the data, just seal the drive back up, and grab a new one. This one is toast.