cleaning heads on hard drive that clicks

for data recovery call: 855.366.4232

This hard drive arrived opened, and as usual, this adds more issues to the data recovery process. During the initial inspection, we noticed fairly large deposits of contamination on disk surfaces that most likely made their way into the drive during DIY attempt to recover data. In the last year or so, we actively started cleaning heads on hard drives that click, as opposed to the basic swap. Original heads if brought back to life can perform as good as new, and it avoids the need for a donor (which can be expensive if the hard drive is rare). During the detailed inspection, we discovered some permanent platter damage on 2 out of 4 surfaces that could jeopardize success of potential partial recovery. The head assembly was degreased and cleaned with 99.9% alcohol. To give this drive a standing chance at getting some data back from it, 2 out of 4 heads were decapitated to eliminate the drag and further platter dust accumulation.
To be continued with Hot-Swap procedure

and send your drive boxed with bubble wrap to this address:

HDD Recovery Services
391 Bank St, Suite 201
Ottawa, ON
K2P 1Y3
Canada

Updated 2019 my gear for soldering:

Gear for filming:

[geoffcarr]

In other words its all about the 0's and 1's. If you don't open your drive at home, data recovery it will cost $$$. Peeking inside changes the 0's and 1's and now recovery looks more like $$$$. LOL.

[tonyjablonski]

Excellent demonstration of expert techniques to fix/clean faulty disk drive heads by disassembly in a clean environment. Brought back memories of replacing and aligning heads on damaged big server disks many years ago. Those days we had to manually tweak repaired drive heads using an oscilloscope to obtain best dibit/tribit waveform patterns to optimise data retrieval signal amplitudes for error-free data transfers to/from the disk. Nice job.

[filmfiklmtin]

I cleaned the hard disk with a tissue and cleaning liquid. Did this damage the hard disk? Or not? It basically does not work and makes a sound. I wanted to transfer the disc to another healthy hard disk to save the data.

[kennener]

Would love to see a video on platter decontamination.

[polestar]

I think this channel is great. Find the work fascinating, not that I know what half the things are. He describes what he is doing and goes into great detail the way to do it.

[marcofigueroa]

Hey man great videos. Happy new year. Waiting fot the PC-3000 Flash review :)

[cwitmer]

Great video of a very skilled craftsman.
As mentioned in other comments, could you elaborate on what you did to keep the platters aligned? Or is it something you simply didn't have to care about at this stage as it will be dealt with in the hot-swap video?
A video about cleaning platters would be much appreciated as well. Thanks for sharing your professionalism.

[AngelGarrote]

Great info and tips. I see many questions about platter alignment and have the same question about it. I don't see any reply's to this or some other videos with the same questions. Would be great to see one video dedicated to platter alignment. It will help followers of the channel and will also help you answer all those questions once and for all.

[BlueRice]

what if the drive is missing pcb board? i remember i took the board out and tried swapping before. years later its maybe missing and or incorrect one. i just have to dig up my stash to look for the drive

[plaskor]

Love your videos. As you move platters around is there a need to index (or keep them aligned) or does the tool you use do that? Keep up with the great videos.

[andresbudihardja]

to swap platter WD 3.5" at center of platter there is circle with 6 screws and 2 of that 6 not able to unscrew

[patrickm.]

Really like your vids on how you engage your troubleshooting and fixing skills, while explaining it all. Keep it up!
Question: I work in the semi-conductor industry and for cleaning we also use 99IPA, but if it can't be cleaned with IPA we use ultra-pure acetone. Have you ever tried that on the heads or would that not be possible due to the head-material?

[NoferTrunions]

You mentioned buffing. Does that remove the protruding burrs associated with scratches? If the protruding high points could be "knocked down" to be level with the proper surface of the platter, could a head be used to recover data elsewhere on the platter?

I'm surprised ultrasonic cleaning was ineffective. I would expect 40khz cleaning frequencies would damage the micro sized features (they definitely kill inkjet print heads) and that higher frequencies would be used perhaps as high as 90khz or even higher.

[rolandongjr]

what exactly look like tip of the head.. i think mine is broken

[farazuaf]

Sir, if we remove platters and heads, cleans them, is it necessary to place platters back in there original alignment. Or we can place in and position Thanks

[parkerzeras]

Can i ask just clean a heads can make hdd can read and write normal again ? My hdd problem just heads, before i use hdd regenerator for repair bad sector is normal after use it 2times my hdd cannot read and write again..

[SharonDigitalVideos]

My seagate 500 GB HD head oscillates on top of the platter few times when powered up and then platter stops rotating. It doesn't read anything, computer does not recognize the drive at all. Any fix for it to get the data out? The head rests on the platter when power is off. Please help with suggestions to recover data.

[pmplatinumman]

Where do you get required tools to do head cleaning and swapping?

[mb]

Q: are the platters aligned relative to each other? If you take the platters out, how do get them to realign when you put them back in?

[Lionheartkickboxing]

is it possible to take the head bundle from a good drive of same model and replace it with the bad heads in the bad drive?