I have a WD800BB-75FRAU with 1 bad head. swapped platter into a donor drive and adjusted top lid by pushing around a little. Started copying LBA's using DDI. Got about 38% copied then I guess head alignment was so approximate that further reading stopped. I have been shifting (loosening the screws and rotating) the platter and adusting top plate (to push HSA axis screw) for some time now. The drive sees index marks and sometimes it ID's but won't read data. Do others use this same technique??? Is there a tool I need? This has been going on for about 3 days!

Thanks
Gordon

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Thanks,
GB

Hi,

You need tool + knowledge + a big pack of fortune (at this point) to solve this case....

Janos

Thanks Janos

I am using PC3000 technology generally and Deepspar's DDI to see if IDX markers are being seen. If they are then I adjust until Idx stripes are more steadily seen - hoping for a "lockon". I have been doing this for a few years now and am a small shop with limited outside help. I understand your "lots of fortune" wish but was hoping for some practical tips or general comments on how to realign in shorter order after platter swaps or head swaps for that matter. Any suggestions or should I expect to ultimately lock on again if I persist?

Gordon

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Thanks,
GB

In general, i mean you should know with few years of experience the 2 base rule:

1. don't open WD until you are 100% sure, it is needed. (because you will need to re-align.)
2. don't loosen up platters, until you are 10000% sure, the spindle is the problem.

Now you are really lucky, because you can get allready some LBAs.
But now you should align the platters in center (center of track not in center of platter), and align heads as well....

This is really hard, this is why i sad, you will need a big pack of fortune.

Janos

I'm working on a prototype tool for helping to realign opened WD drives. It's still in the testing phase. See below.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Why "tools" ?