I've worked on a lot of Seagate and WD drives but not too much on IBM's. I'm doing a favor job for a friend on an IBM deskstar (deathstar). I've determined that it is definitely a problem with the headstack assembly.

Here's the specs:
40GB
Model: IC35L040AVER07-0
P/N: 07N7403
MLC: H32368
Date: Nov-2001

I read something that suggested all you have to match is the MLC #, but I'm wondering if I have to match the P/N as well. I can't seem to find a drive that matches both or I wouldn't bother asking.

Any help would be appreciated.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

Why not buy both parts and figure it out. These should be cheap.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

If your not sure then maybe you should buy in more than 2 just for tests. But 4 working models and record which heads are interchangeable into which donor. Only then you should attempt the repair.

Hitachi are often not so nice to work on. Many problems and often there is surface damage that is near impossible to see. If you try to change heads with incompatible model it will only succeed in degrading the HDD further.

Ideally you need to get it right first time every time.

I'm asking for the very reason of not getting it wrong the first time. Money really isn't the issue, but I was hoping someone would offer help to save me some time. As I said this is a favor job, no profit to be made, so buying extra drives to experiment isn't really an option.

_________________
Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

Sent PMs.

Let us know the outcome, if possible.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

is this the drive you need?