Let me give the disclaimer that I am a newbie to HDD repair in that I have never even opened a hard drive. I have a Samsung 250GB SATA which crashed. I know I should have backed it up but I didn't and now I need to find a way to recover the data. I have another HDD of the same exact model purchased at the same time.

Is it possible to swap the platters in order to recover the data? If so does anyone have detailed instructions on how to do it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

What do you mean by "dead"?

Why on earth would you want to swap the platters?

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HDD¨s are piece of engineering, with special "Alignment´s" wich was recorded on factory process, if u take off platters surely u kill that "alignment and u data too, and even any hope from another DR tried to did the Data Recovery. the best way should be "identify u problem"

What is happening inside "Wich its the problem" PCB Problems, Bad sectors area, Bad Head, SA damaged etc to take the proper actions to the DR

If you want to destroy the drive, yes, you can swap platters . Or need a clean room, platter extractor, tool, etc. Assuming you know what to do. P.s. No spoon feeding.

Platter exchange is the most advanced "open drive" operation there is. You are proposing the equivalent of a medical student going directly from stitching accidental lacerations to heart replacemet.