HEAD TRANSPLANT ON A 4GB HARD DRIVE

[JAMAN]

I HAVE A 4GB WESTERN DIGITAL HARD DRIVE THAT HAS A PSYICAL FAILURE. IT CONTAINS VALUABLE DATA THAT WILL BE LOST IF I CAN'T GET IT FIXED. I HAVE AN IDENTICAL DRIVE THAT I AM WILLING TO SACRIFICE IN ORDER TO RETRIEVE THE DATA. HAS ANYONE EVER DONE A HEAD TRANSPLANT ON A HARD DRIVE? IF SO PLEASE HELP ME WITH INSTRUCTIONS OR ADVICE.

 

[MasterRacker]

DO NOT OPEN THE DRIVE!!!!! <br>
<br>
You cannot simply swap pieces around between hard disks. I won't ask why you don't have a backup. <br>
<br>
At the very minimum, opening a disk needs to be done in a cleanroon. Send it in and have the data recovered professionally. (It will be expensive - probably at least $1000.00) One source:<br>
<br>
On-Track Data Recovery<br>
Casey Lund<br>
6321 Bury Drive<br>
Suite 13-21<br>
Eden Prairie, MN 55346<br>
800-872-2599<br>
<br>
<p> Jeff<br><a href=mailto: masterracker@hotmail.com> masterracker@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[FredWagner]

I second Masterracker's advice - do NOT open the drive, DO call Ontrack Data Recovery - they will recover the drive's contents, and ship them back to you on your choice of tape media, or another drive. CD-ROM used to be another option, but your drive is much bigger than a single CD. Ontrack's price increases with the speed of service you require - cheapest is about a week, increasing to most expensive where they work on it round-the-clock.

 

[DaveGoTech]

If you are just trying to retrieve data, you<br>
can open the unit to change parts. (We have<br>
done it many times.) Just work in a CLEAN<br>
area, don't touch the media and work quickly!<br>
The problem in this case is that if the media<br>
or heads are changed, you cannot align the<br>
tracks. Hard disks are also known as fixed (not removable) devices, because the data is written to the sectors according to how the particular unit was initially assembled.<br>
Try changing the circuit board first to see if this corrects the problem.

 

[Alt255]

Good tip, Dave. Replacing the IDE controller may be the safest start (assuming an exact match can be found). <br>
<br>
Unfortunatly, JAMAN mentioned the head. If he had a simple head crash there may be nothing wrong with the equipment, only the media. A cheap program like Power Quest Lost and Found could recover much of the data.<br>