There a YT video -- from a HDD recovery company -- that purports the importance of PRECISE torque settings for that HDD cover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CAn22TiVV0
While I can't confirm or deny that claim, I've never really had issues with this as noted in the video. And, yes, I've disassembled/reassembled several std. HDDs over the years. Torque-wise, I follow nothing more than common mechanical sense: do opposite corners, to anchor, and use diag. method to firmly/gently clamp down -- but not strip-force overtorque, of course. I've never noticed the torque-related noise in the above video.

The only screw I'm unsure of is the sealed one above the magnet assembly ...
http://www.unicomputos.com/page/site/images/img_productos/HitachiDisco%20Duro%201TB%20Sata31.jpg

... it seems to have a "grindey" feel to it, like there was thread-lock compound used. Dunno, folks...???

The specific torque settings have a direct impact on the internal alignment of the assembly during manufacture (note the disk drive family in the video).

Reassembling with the same torque settings as previously will not guarantee the same alignment as it was previously. To correctly align will need lots of experience.

Also, for modern WD drives is not a big issue.

The procedure used in this document suggests the torque screwdriver video is marketing BS.

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

Link not working

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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

Hmmm, sorry about the bad link. This what it was supposed to be (a direct download of the PDF article):

http://www.gefund-it.de/content/site/da ... change.pdf

http://www.gefund-it.de/en-download.php is the URL of the page in English, with the download link at the bottom.

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

Pay attention to hddguy's posts.

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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

It has no relevance today, but a torque screwdriver was mandatory when I was performing head alignments 30 years ago. But that was completely different technology ...

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Yeah, at least in my limited experience with newer Seagate, Hitachi and an older Maxtor go, common-sense refastening was all that was necessary. I even put stethoscope on the HDD to make sure I didn't mess anything up. All OK. And one of them -- a Hitachi 1TB 7210 -- has been working okay for 2 years post (I only removed cover to examine, and never touched internals, replacing the cover quickly). Also, with the inherent vibration, thermal expansion/contraction, and NON-use of thread-lock compound by OEM, I suspect the credulity of above claims from a HDD recovery outfit.
But if enough HDD recovery experts (replying to this thread) state otherwise ... THEN, I STAND CORRECTED.

The drive in the article to which I linked is a modern drive, manufactured in Jan. 2011. Is the article bogus then?

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

It took me awhile to find this pattern of tightening the screws without special tools. Though one might not need to use this on every drive, since I have used this pattern I have not worried about the click of death on any drive I work on. As always if you find something that works stick with it. If you find something better go for it.

What pattern are you referring to. Can you share?

Possibly this one by Frank Meincke.

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

Hello,
This Even Today Has Direct Effect On Many Many Seagate Drives That Click After Head Replacement And Damage Heads ,I would say a Torgue Screwdriver is Must .

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Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

A few months ago I had an older drive that hadn't been used for a couple of years bought into me as it was beeping and not spinning up.
I assumed stuck heads, but, no, on this model ( I cant remember what it was), the heads parked on the inner surface all the time.
However, the Bearing had seized up.
I applied a bit of torque to the drive, as I applied power, and it began to slowly, slowly spin up... I put the cover on, as the heads started tracking.
There were quite a few nasty beeps and noises.
As I did the head stack screw tighter, the sound when away, until I finally tightened it - and the noise came back... so I backed of a little bit until the noise disappeared again.
By that time, I could see the contents and quickly copied off the data successfully.

Probably not the best way to do it, but the customer wasn't willing to send it to our recovery specialists, and was happy to take a risk on not getting the data, knowing it could make future recovery attempts less likely to succeed.

+1
And so current, let's put the case of the "wonderful" rosewoods.

They are not essential but very recommendable.

i have that torque limiter built in my hands, that's enough.

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

How do you find out if a drive needs specific torque settings. And is there a general setting for it like '2' or so?

torque is a funny thing. It may or may not impact your job at hand. I rebuilt some engines many years ago where most of the engine bolts required to be torqued to specifics. Rarely did I follow it being young, stupid (and broke, Torque wrenches are not cheap). Cant say I ever had an issue, or one that I could put down to bad torquing.

If you are just recovering data and you don't properly torque the screws, the time spent may be nowhere near enough to cause an issue. Or, if you do not measure torque, you may actually be tightening the screws withing the limits without knowing it. In some cases it may be critical, and probably the more modern the drives would be the most picky.

Would it matter if a drive was used by a user upright/vertical. So after a physical repair. Is it best to sit it upright after putting back the screws. Or horizontal?

Er-tools.com

Which head replacement and unstick tools would be compatible for WDC green and blue drives?