I have an old IBM IC35L040AVVN07-0 hd that stopped being recognized by my computer. I would like my digicam pics back, but they aren't important enough to me to spend a lot of money to have them professionally recovered. I'm having fun with this anyway.

I purchased an identical model/pn/mlc hd for about $25, and tried replacing the heads and pcb, and my drive was still making a cricket noise.

Figuring the motor was bad (it resists spinning by hand also) I swapped the platter over. It's a single platter. I know if it was multiple platters I would be SOL. I have tried both heads and both PCBs.

The drive spins now and the cricket noise is gone, but it makes the IBM squealing noise that I've heard from other IBM drives, like it's looking for the first track but can't find it.

I wore latex gloves w/o powder. I know the platter isn't upside down, didn't get dust on it, there are no scratches, and of course no fingerprints. Looks fine to me.

I know at a small level the platter isn't an exact fit, but its a pretty snug fit.

I read on here by searching that the AVVN drives were touchy about alignment even on single platters. I also saw gtd4242's recent post but I didnt want to hijack his post and his was about multiple platters.

Can anyone give advice how to get this single platter aligned? Do I just keep unscrewing the platter, moving it a bit side to side, screw it back in, and hope it works?

At this point you need a sorcerer rather than an advice.

I am not sure if you are saying that because I am a newbie or because of something with the AVVN drives. (I did see an older post here about AVVN pickiness on single platter swaps.)

It you're saying that because I am a newbie and screwed something up, please let me know why. I know a pro would have done a better job, but the myharddrivedied videos made single platter swaps sound like they weren't that bad, and it was worth $25 to try to me but not a full pro's bill.

The Myharddrivedied videos make everything seem simple.
but that doesn't make it so.

If you believe on videos.... then you have the solution. And this is why you have made data unrecoverable :

1) Seemed that you tried to move platter with heads LOADED by hands.
2) PCBs have compatibility issues
3) You didn't consider ADAPTIVES
4) Contamination (drive opened in non controlled environment)
5) You don't have the necessary tools to check the SA.

There are also other things but these 5 are enough. Don't expect different advice.

Oh, sorry, I should have made my first post clearer. I didn't move the platters with heads loaded. I unloaded the heads with paper in between sot they didn't touch, unloaded the ramp, moved the platter, put back the ramp, and put back the heads.

IF (I know that's a big if) the original motor was all that was bad on the drive, shouldn't moving the original PCB, heads, and platter to a new drive (so the new drive only has the new motor) get around the pcb compatibility and adaptives issues?

No.

(you haven't figured out what the original problem was !)

You have never considered a profesional help, but it could have cost you couple of hundred dollars to get your data back.
What is a point of coming back for an advice?
You did everything in your power to destroy your data anyway.

As you have said "your data is not that important".
You should accept your losses and continue your life. That is my advice.

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www.datarecoveryne.com

Absolutely right : if you want to practice, at this point, get a couple of similar drives, get the necessary knowledge and make some experiment (just for schooling purpose), otherwise at this point MAYBE it is possible to get your data back but this is gonna cost you $$$ (a honest quote in this case would be in the 2000 $ range) and the possibilities are low.

I am pretty sure those drives cannot be run open. If you tried running it without the cover then you probably started crashing you drive.

Ohh that F guy Scott "F" Moulton? He is an idiot, he thinks he knows everything and very proud of publishing and showing off.

It looks easy but did he show on video and it works? NO! he showed how to do it and hoping someone will screwed up and look for him for DR.

I dont see any of his warning telling people Do It at your Own Risk!

Hey, rellis, I have solution for you.

Take the hammer and use it for platter aligment. It 100% works.
Also you can put the platter to the oven for burning of the dust on it.

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This user was found to be affiliated with Ace Lab/PC-3000. See this topic for details.

Yes, the site 'myharddrivedied.com' has a twin : 'andnowyourtoo.com'. Why not contact him and ask what to do now?

I think your hard drive had bads. Maybe you should have tested it. Very common with these drives. Now its got VERY BADS/FUBAR