Taking out hard drive platters and still have a working hard drive????????

[MrAntikid]

Does anyone here know if it is possible to remove the platters from a
hard drive, put them in a different hard drive and still be able to access
the data. i fried the controller board and have yet been able to find another
one, and i know that i need the right board (firmware) for it to work, but
what if somehow i could take out the platters and put them into a working
hard drive thats the same model, but different firmware on the controller.
or if anyone else can help me here i would appreciate it.
what happend is either the +5v or +12v and ground were shorted and shut
down the pc and now the hard drive won't spin.
i do know my way around electronics, im in school for electronics engineering
but still learning so from what i know it would be VERY hard and time consuming
to find out what burnt out. ive checked the board over and can't see any physical
burns or anything so im stuck.
someone help me PLEASE. i have LOTS of digital pictures that i want to keep.
its a WD 1200JB the firmware number is "2060-001160-001 REV A"
thanks
chris

 

[f95toli]

It can be done but only in a cleanroom enviroment and with special equipment and software /what you do is you remove the platters and then read them in a special machine, you get the data back on CDs or DVD).
Doing this yourself is impossible, even if you get the platters out without destrying them you will never be able t mount them in a new HD.
There are several companies that can help you and they might be able to recover most of the data, but it is VERY expensive.

 

[Smilin]

Yeah there was some guy here about a year ago that made his own "clean room" with a 10 gallon fishtank some rubber gloves and a bunch of duct tape. He pulled off something similar.

Depending on the drive you may be able to transplant the drive electronics from one drive to another without actually breaking the seal on the drive. This would be prefereable.

Good luck man!

 

you have virually no chance at transplanting the disks, but installing a new controller may be possible.

If your only problem is finding one with the right firmware, look fro a flash utility and ask around until you find some1 that has the right firmware to give you. I hope the flashing software is out there somewhere.

 

[jagec]

don't take out the platters if the board is all that's wrong with it...it is possible to get an identical model hard drive and swap out the boards without cracking the seal and risking contamination.

 

[SuperPickle]

If you have a pair of clackers: How-to attempt something similar.

 

[Geniere]

I did remove the platter from a hard drive that was suffering from an electronic failure, it often was not recognized by the BIOS. I took it apart out of curiosity. It was a 20g drive with one platter, but it was obviously built to hold one more platter. The only difficulty in removing the platters is due to the R/W heads; one is for lower surface of the platter while the other is for the upper surface. When parked the heads rest on the innermost part of the platter and held there a magnet. The heads are in contact with the surface of the platter when it is not spinning, so if moved would contact and likely mar the platter. To avoid this it is necessary to use very thin and stiff plastic to slide between both heads and the platter, than removing the R/W heads is easy. The heads will probably be destroyed after that process. The platter made the best mirror I?ve ever seen.

To read the data by putting the platter in a different drive would, I think, be very difficult. To my knowledge, the track information (low level format) is stored on the drive?s circuit board and is different from platter to platter. If it?s on a socketed flash ROM or the like, you may have a shot by swapping.

For a one shot read, I would not be overly concerned about clean room techniques. Do the job, blow it out with some canned air and give it a try. The microscopic dust will erode the heads and platter very quickly but I?m sure you will get at least one or two reads from it. You will need small metric tools including small Allen wrenches. I?m pretty good at doing this type of thing, and it took me several hours to study it and then do it. If I wanted to go all the way with it, I?m sure it would have been a 12-hour, probably fruitless, effort.

 

[MrAntikid]

well, this sucks, ive been looking for about a month now,
and i knew that taking them out would not be possible, but
it was worth it to ask.
anyone out there know where to get hard drive controllers??
thanks

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: MrAntikid
well, this sucks, ive been looking for about a month now,
and i knew that taking them out would not be possible, but
it was worth it to ask.
anyone out there know where to get hard drive controllers??
thanks

pretty much you just gotta buy an identical drive. If the data is worth that much to you, try posting a WTB on the for sale forum? Maybe someone will have that revision...

 

[MrAntikid]

ive already tried it, and no one has one.
i think im gonna email online retailers like
newegg and see if they might have one.
thats my last hope.

 

[wacki]

ebay baby, ebay

or post drive type here, someone here will be able to find one

 

[MrAntikid]

its a WD 1200JB the firmware number is "2060-001160-001 REV A"
thats the number thats actually etched on the controller itself.

heres all the other info off the drive

MDL : WD1200JB-00DUA3
DATE: 03 AUG 03
DCM : HSBHNVJCH

PRODUCT OF MALAYSIA

the sticker on the back by the ide connection is:
2061 - 001160 - 100D XW 1G11 KADJ 2 00006410 3416

 

[jagec]

well, I have a 1200JB, but it's a 00AUO or something. Sorry...

 

[beansbaxter]

Originally posted by: wacki
ebay baby, ebay

yep...ebay i echo this...

 

[Mday]

-.-

you cant fix it. you neither have the facility, skill nor tools to do so. this isnt "electronics" you're diving in to the realm of digital design.

if you get any dust on the platter, you will lose data. if you wipe off any dust from the platter, you will lose more data. if you bang the platter around, you will lose data. once you open the drive, you're pretty much screwed.