Hi there,

There have been recent floods in my province, so I'm helping people and small businesses recover their data.

I've received several dozen HDDs and SSDs, most of which I've recovered by repairing the PCB and imaging with ddrescue.

A few of them had water inside them so I'll should have to take the platters apart, clean them and mount them in a new enclosure with new headers. I have a small laminar flow cabinet to do this in clean environment.

My question is:

If the HDD has more than one platter, how can I align them after cleaning? Or is there any software/hardware to read unaligned platters?

Thanks in advance

Platter Swap Without Alignment Issues:

https://www.recoveryforce.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1566#p1566

I believe that 3M Novec is the preferred cleaning fluid. AIUI, isopropyl alcohol is inadvisable because it attacks the lubricant.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

While it is great you want to help those having losses, i would not recommend dealing with platters on your level. Without tools and experience. This is not the time for a start i think.

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

Thank you so much for the link and the advice about cleaners.

I did a little search and found a whole family called Novec. Which is the right one? "3M Novec Electronic Degreaser"?

I've seen several videos of cleaning the surface with a swab. Is this the recommended tool?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.