My wife dropped her 2tb WD My Passport. WD20nmvw-11w68so
It spins and beeps, it is not recognized by the PC
From the days of reading I've been doing I am assuming that the head stack will have to be replaced to retrieve the data from the drive.
After contacting data recovery services, many of them, it appears that they want me to send it in and find out later that it isn't going to cost $499 to fix it like the ad says, it is going to be in the $1,500 to $3,000 range.
So I have to make the decision on just how valuable the data, mostly pictures, is.
I have an exact donor drive, I bought two when I made the original purchase, So I should have the parts.
Now I'm just debating if I should pop the top and go at it, or sell a kidney.
In the past I have opened drives and managed to get them running long enough to get the data off, but that was long ago on big clunky drives and I had never been warned about needing a clean room.
I see I could buy a kit of head combs for about $80 if I chickened out of the DIY spacers.
I have a big pile of old drives to practice on, no 4 platter drives though.

I guess I'm looking for advise, and a good flaming I suppose.

If the data is wanted, you should take it to a pro...No success doing a 8 head drive by your self.

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

This is isn't a good drive for a DIY head change, for many reasons.

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

+1 Not DIY



This is a realistic price range for this drive.

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Web: https://www.day1data.de

+1
If It would be simple.
Nobody are not announced would have such prices.

I could recovery for this type of case for $400-$700.