HD failure can I replace platters into a new HD to recover data

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry Tannahill
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Larry Tannahill

I had a Western Digital WD400 40gig drive go down (when installed the system
will not boot)
It appears the motor is not working. How can I recover the data. Can I
replace the drive spindle(motor). Altenativly can I swap the patters with a
compatible drive with any chance of success. I can't spend upwards of $1000
to recover with a data recovery company.


LArry
 
I had a Western Digital WD400 40gig drive go down (when installed the system
will not boot)
It appears the motor is not working. How can I recover the data. Can I
replace the drive spindle(motor). Altenativly can I swap the patters with a
compatible drive with any chance of success. I can't spend upwards of $1000
to recover with a data recovery company.


LArry
Click to expand...

To open the drive without doing damage requires a very specialized clean
room. Any particle between the head and the platter will physically damage
the drive and head. Not practical to do on your own. It could be the drive
electronics is not letting the motor spin up. If that is the case, you
could swap the electronics between a similar drive and possibly recover it
that way. Worth a try.
 
I had a Western Digital WD400 40gig drive go down (when installed the system
will not boot)
It appears the motor is not working. How can I recover the data. Can I
replace the drive spindle(motor). Altenativly can I swap the patters with a
compatible drive with any chance of success. I can't spend upwards of $1000
to recover with a data recovery company.


LArry
Click to expand...

If by "motor not working" you mean that the patter(s) aren't spinning,
there is very little chance of recovering that data yourself.

The motor is not user-replaceable, and the platters aren't swappable.
Well, they are, but the 2nd drive has to READ them, that's the
problem. There are only a couple of things worth trying at this
point.

Pop the drive into a freezer baggie and let it sit in the freezer for
a few hours, then remove from freezer and immediately try to copy off
the data before the drive warms up. 2nd (last) try would be opening
the drive in as clean an environment as you can manage (perhaps a
really large freezer baggie plus wearing gloves) and free up the stuck
patters by rotating them with your hand, making sure not to touch the
data area, only the and/or sides, then close it up. Even if you get a
few specs of dust inside that alone wouldn't generally interfere with
copying off as much data as possible, if the rest of the drive were
funcitional eoough. When a drive has a bad bearing and you manage to
get it going, it may suddenly sieze and jolt itself sideways, so don't
leave it sitting loose, unsecured next to anything that might be
damaged by a minor impact.


Dave
 
In response to #Kony there have been reports of doing the opposite to
freezing and being about to get the hdd working
wrap it well in foil and bung it in the oven NOT microwave, on the
lowest heat for a few mins until you can easily handle it

then try

these actions arent reccomended but have been known to work in rare
occasions, also if the drive is in warranty/gaurantee with western
digital you could try sendding it back.

or spend money and take it to a proffesional data recovery company..

Pedro
 
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