Hard Drive Failure - Remount Platters

[TheGhost]

Hey.

My roommate's external hard drive was punched on the top and it would no longer read. We're trying to get the important data off of it. We've already tried taking the drive out of the enclosure, freezing it, and trying to put it in my PC. Now we're thinking about buying an identical drive and remounting the platters (which are unscratched, we checked) into the new drive. Has anyone done this or have any experience with this?

[dg]

Uhh, not to rain on your parade, but I thought when you would even touch the platters, you need a completely dust/static free environment. I am not 100% sure, but that was my understanding of the entire process.

[legionaire45]

It's very likely that just having out in the air at this point may have caused some damage to the disks =/.

If you haven't physically removed the platters you might want to try swapping PCBs if that is the issue. If the motor is the issue then yeah, you'll need to swap the platters. All I can say is good luck.

[paladin]

Most likely, garbage. Sorry.

[InnerGoat]

Opening the drive doesn't kill it like you think, and people have swaped platters from bad drives into new ones and got it working (or totaly damaged the platters of both drives, lulz).

Have fun trying to realign a multiplatter drive though. You'll end up killing yourself in frustration. :woop:

[Zeph]

Good luck out there little buddy.
You're gonna need it.

[beele]

Don't do it it's a 99% chance that it will not work. If any dust gets on it your screwed. This is because the magnetic reader of the drive floats (while in operation) about 0,003 (or was it 0,0003) millimeters above the platter surface.

[Kalub]

Human hair is like a mountain for the poor readers :(

[Phopojijo]

Yea, you need a clean room.

I mean, if its not TOO important and you don't want to send it to drivesavers... then sure. But if it's that important, let the pros do it with the equipment you need.