Straightening out a bent arm assembly with a pair of tweezers; cleaning the heads on an Hitachi ARM drive; and getting a perfect read.

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Nice ...who needs donors

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Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

Doesn't this seriously disturb the aerodynamics of the heads?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

It certainly can. But nothing screws up aerodynamics like bent, misshapen or contaminated parts . . .

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

All I can say is Brave! I don't think I'd ever trust a bent arm after straightening to fly stable again. But, good job regardless.

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

I've done it once before, successfully. It certainly is not something I want to do every day.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

I don't have any experience which is relevant to modern HDDs, but many, many years ago when I was rebuilding a drive after a head crash, I would try to salvage any reusable heads. I would always clean them with isopropyl alcohol, being careful not to exert any more than the slightest amount of pressure on the head pad so as not to bend the suspension. I was taught that even the slightest deformation would impact on the head's ability to fly, so it was always with great trepidation that I powered up the drive.

I am stunned that anyone would even consider doing what you have done. At least in my case I could test my work against a scratch disc pack rather than a data pack, so in the worst case I would have lost about $3K in parts and consumables if I messed up.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Nor I. I spend quite a bit of my time examining heads under a microscope, so I have a pretty good idea of what is going to "fly." I would not install something that looks questionable, and often I test parts using a spare drive instead of a client's -- if there is likelihood that the patient drive might be damaged. (Best practices).

Hitachi ARM heads are a PITA to match, so necessity was the mother of invention.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Aren't these parts constructed from spring steel?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

AFAIK they are.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Happiness is when people don't question what you do
Nice work, Jon.

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

Bravo, Yianni

Happiness is when friends succeed in doing fantastic work!

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http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

The only tweezers work i ever did with the heads involved quantum fireballs and donor heads. ( 1 was very memorable case cause a factory was standing since quantum was from C&C unit , they lost so much money every day and kept calling on the hour for status updates )