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WD 1200ve / 1200beve

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milkbar

Technical User
Jan 14, 2011
5
US
Hello. I have platters from a WD1200ve . I need to get info off of them. Seems that the market has many more WD1200beve. Does anyone know how i can make sure I can install WD1200ve platters into a WD1200beve. Is there a website that I can verify if I can use the beve for the ve platters. Thank you all so much.
 
Platters? they are out in the open, where dust and other airborne contaminants can get on them? ouch...

you may wish to contact a Data Recovery firm, if the data is that important to you, instead... albeit they are not cheap, but they have BETTER means and ways at getting to your data...

here is some information to read:

HARD DRIVE HEAD & PLATTER SWAP INFORMATION

CLASS 100 CLEAN ROOM

Hard Drive and Clean Room Technology

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
Yeah - that's what I was wondering. Where's the clean room?? Hopefully, user is not using platters as a coaster!?!?

Sounds like a job for a professional if you ask me. But now, too late if platters are exposed.
 
LOL .... no they are not coasters and they are not frisbees either. so if a dust particle touches the platter .... ??? its ruined ??? or if there is a finger smudge ??? Some one told me if I want to remove dust --- use a can of air and to clean finger smudges use microfiber cloth. I know you all hate novices like me asking the wretched " does anybody know " questions , but Im interested in this field....and I want to learn about this stuff instead of just sending it off and paying someone. I love technology and how else am I supposed to learn. So back to my question >>>> I have two platters from a WD1200ve. Yes they have been exposed. I see a dust particle or two on each and a very small finger smudge. besides that they are perfect. I am not new to working on electronics so i am eager to give this a shot. I am not naive about how delicate this surgery is. I know the read write heads are very touchy and everything must be done exact. I like the challenge. Like I said I have two platters.... I really would appreciate if someone could tell me if I should try this swap or not. Are platters totally shot cause of a couple of dust particles and a smudge. Thank you all for any help.
 
well, you can take your drive apart, and try to swap the platters to see what can happen, just don't try it with a drive you needed to recover data from. I am all for trying things out, but do it with units that have no value other than as a learning tool. That way if you mess something out, you learned not to do that again. :) but before you open anything, I would suggest you read up a little on the internet about what you are trying to do, because in this case you most likely ruined those drives, but it could have been worse if you had taken apart a power supply, or an old crt monitor, which have voltages that can actually do you some damage.
 
Yes, you can try to transplant the platters and see if the head from the other drive can read them. There's no guarantee it will work either way.

While dust on a platter is not a good thing, no one can absolutely guarantee they'll be ruined instantly. You can try and give it a shot.

Just now that platters are in fact very sensitive, and yes hey may, MAY develop irreparable damage if the dust is not fully removed.

Your next concern will be the read arms. If they aren't reassembled precisely they can strike the platters and destroy the information.

A good blast of compressed air should clean out the platters before reassembly of the drive. Finger smudges are a different deal, as any attempt to clean them off may scratch the platter.

Never tried to clean platters, but then again I've never put my greasy fingers on the surface of one. I have had some limited success with transplants, but its usually not worth the time, and as a former recovery engineer not worth the client's money in the long run as it is very very expensive.

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.
 
So apart from a circuit board and the platters - which may be made of glass with a ferromagnetic coating - they can easily shatter into sharp shards - you have an aluminium box with some gizmos attached - a motor, an arm assembly with heads to read the data which used to be on the platters, some low friction bearings and a coil assembly.

The upside is that there are some pretty awesome neodymium alloy magnets in there, which force the heads to move. The downside is that they snap together with such force, they can tear or crush skin trapped between them, or break small children's finger bones! Look out for tiny, millimetre-sized magnets that stop the arm from travelling too far, you may be lucky to find some.
 
Man I love learning this stuff. I think Im getting addicted. All of you have been so cool. Some forum guys are such pricks. Regardless I do believe I have succesfully ruined these platters by removing them and putting them back. I also heard that my finger smudge and dust doesnt matter now, cause to realign the platter properly is " almost imposible ". Especially for a noob like me. Oh and none of that matters cause the top platter has such a perfect circle on it that initially I thought it was manufactured that way. But now after days of research I know that they are DEEP scratches........ never figured it to be scratches cause these circles look so precise and perfect. and when held up at an angle you could not see any sign of the scratch on the surface ( meaning no groove or damage could be seen on surface ) ..... only see it when you look down on it. I thought they were like segments or partitions at first. Im sure i have all you veterans scoffing and mocking my ignorance now. LOL !!!
 
No, I don't think there's much mocking and scoffing going on, merely a few wry grins from us old nerds at a newbie who has recently lost his 'virginity'. Most of us would be too cautious to open a possibly retrievable drive, only attempting disassembly of items that were beyond repair. And then why bother, since there are pictures online. Not all of us wield screwdrivers too comfortably, otherwise we would have hobbies like clock- or cabinet-making which would preclude much of our time spent here on TT.

I blame it on all these pictures of open disk cases on Data Recovery site homepages - creating an impression that the first thing the data retrieval techs do is strip the mechanism down like a car mechanic fixing a gearbox. I dunno, do they?

Still there's a future for you as a secure data disposal consultant. Just video the act as you take the identified drive and reduce it to component atoms, learn to do it really quickly, and as long as you continue to enjoy your work, you could be employed in the perfect job. :):)

 
yup no scoffing or laughing here... just a little smile, as it reminded me of my childhood, where I took apart radios, ones with tubes, and switching those tubes around... boy I loved those sparks flying and the arcs of electricity that flew from the antenna to the case, it was magic to a 10 yr old...

no matter how old one is, if that magic is there, go with it and learn...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
You need to buy yourself a full cleanroom outfit lol:

cleanroomtechs.jpg


Martin

On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep
 
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