@oliver1996, @diybit, @Spildit: Thank you so much for taking the time and helping me out!
oliver1996 wrote:
If you're willing to risk losing your data permanently
Yes, I am fully aware that this is a possible, most would say probable, scenario... But like my grandpa used to say: no risk, no fun - what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger
oliver1996 wrote:
The drive you mentioned (WD20EARS - 00MVWB0) belongs to the Saddle G6 family. Start by searching for head ramps suitable for this specific family. The ones you previously shared seem to be of low quality. I'd recommend using metal ramps instead of plastic ones.
Oh, I completely agree - e.g. the ones from HddSurgery are real pieces of art. However they seem to only come in sets, the cheap plastic one I linked above is literally the only option I found for buying only a single one.
oliver1996 wrote:
However, post head-swap, it's crucial to determine if your drive originates from a WD enclosure.
All are genuine SATA drives, no shucking involved, so encryption should not be an issue. Also there seem to be pretty reliable ways around WD encryption as well.
oliver1996 wrote:
Additionally, there might be challenges with imaging the drive without proper data recovery tools.
Most important is proper dealing with issues like bad sectors or weak heads, correct? So I would go for something like ddrescue or HddSuperClone?
diybit wrote:
Not touched for 10 years and gone bad, I'm curious to know if you were careful with it, does the drive have been shocked!?
There might have been some minor shocks, as the box where I kept the HDDs was moved a few times during the years, but no major abuse. Also from all the drives of different brands, this is the only one resisting to cooperate...
diybit wrote:
If I were you, and choosing the diy way, I would firstly try an hotswap, and see what is the result...
You can find infos about hotswap of the same model there
http://hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2815#p21368But very first, try to plug the drive after the Windows boot
https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php ... 08#p295508Sound reasonable - I will try that!
Spildit wrote:
Don't do anuything "stupid" like opening the drive and try a head swap without knowing what is going wrong with it.
Excellent, love it. Like my grandma used to say: think before you act and consider all your options first
Spildit wrote:
Awesome - I will read through everything and report back!
Thanks again for the input everyone! Considering all there is to know around this topic, you can study for years and still be learning - quickly swapping heads somehow seemed like the easy way out... But you are all right, slow and steady wins the race.