1. This is nothing new, not a bad article though. :) BTW freezing is really effective.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by polobunny

2. I am in the process of performing data recovery on a WD 160GB drive and came across this post. The drive was originally mounted in an enclosure, saw some rough use, started making the dreaded clicking sound and generally became unrecognizeable. So I stuck it in the freezer - didn't work. Sent it to 3 data recovery companies. 1-Iomega, the enclosure manufacturer's service via ActionFront - who quoted me $1800, 2-Gillware, who in reality only performs software recovery as a front for a high-dollar invasive service which quoted me $2000, and 3-Nationwide Data Recovery, who also advertised inexpensive services, but failed to deliver and gladly offered to refer me to their super-expensive 'partner' company. Next, I obtained a refund from the manufacturer which was used to ebay an identical drive for the electrical system. This didn't work either. So I set up my 'cleanroom', opened the drive and found that the post which the heads pivot on had snapped in half. It looks as though this post is unreplaceable, therefore I am left with two options; supergluing the broken post back into place, or transplanting the platters to my fresh drive (last resort). Never trust drives.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by drrty byl

3. Yep, I've run a drive with the cover off before and it's not like they die instantly. A similar disc was dropped and began failing ... what happened in the dropping instance is a tiny amount of oil was squeezed from the spindle bearing and began it's vertigal journey to the outer edge of the platter; colliding with the heads. While I've never swapped the platters themselves and attempted a recovery like this one it sounds feasible since you only need the drive in it's new home to function for an hour or two ..about the spindle alignment, maybe it's impossible with some models I generally take the motor/platters out in one piece by sacrificing the heads, this could probably be done without scratching the disc.... how does it help to disassemble the spindle anyway? That's just unnecessary.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by mike

4. Maybe this freezing gamble seems to work because of a temporary faliure. U might as well wipe the enclosed drive on a donkeys a** twice and then try it again unless u get a kick in your face for being gullable.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by drmoo

5. #2 " Data is more important than hardware" yes, yes. #39 Thanks #41 Will look into the "Grown Defect List" and changing the "head assemblies", I did try to change the logic board a few times. # 43 I plan to get some drives and test the alignment issue. The platters have no "key slot" or holes for screws so I never thought about alignment. I do plan to test the alignment issue on laptop and full size drives. # 49 I tried to use dd but the disk had errors and it took to long. tried dcfldd on another drive and it worked better (FoRK cd disk). Thank you for your input, tests on the alignment issue, "head assemblies" and "Grown Defect List" will help me to learn. Thank you hackaday and all your comments.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by anonymous Gort

6. Can someone tell me where to get a guide of openning hard drives? I know that it is self explanatory, but I am stuck at the platters, with strange screws. I need to know what they are called, and where I can get bits for them. I know the danger, but it is a 12 year old drive and its just for experience. Thanks!

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Solomon Herscovitch

7. I am in the process of performing data recovery on a WD 160GB drive and came across this post. The drive was originally mounted in an enclosure, saw some rough use, started making the dreaded clicking sound and generally became unrecognizeable. So I stuck it in the freezer - didn't work. Sent it to 3 data recovery companies. 1-Iomega, the enclosure manufacturer's service via ActionFront - who quoted me $1800, 2-Gillware, who in reality only performs software recovery as a front for a high-dollar invasive service which quoted me $2000, and 3-Nationwide Data Recovery, who also advertised inexpensive services, but failed to deliver and gladly offered to refer me to their super-expensive 'partner' company. Next, I obtained a refund from the manufacturer which was used to ebay an identical drive for the electrical system. This didn't work either. So I set up my 'cleanroom', opened the drive and found that the post which the heads pivot on had snapped in half. It looks as though this post is unreplaceable, therefore I am left with two options; supergluing the broken post back into place, or transplanting the platters to my fresh drive (last resort). Never trust drives.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by drrty byl

8. I have a US logic (USLO60U) external HD that doen't spin. I'd really like to get the data off. How should I proceed? Is this someting a novice can do? If not, who can I take it to & how much (a range) will it cost me? The HD has always read ok, but occasionally has "startup probs" i.e. doesn't spin. Thanks for the help.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by blluesman

9. If the allignment truly is a problem, might there then be a way to raw-copy the entire drive with respect to the platter indexes? Thereby creating separate raw image files for each surface, copied sequentially from the outer to inner track (or vise-versa, I forget the proper order). And when it finishes, let some custom software examine the individual platter structures looking for inter-sector gaps and other physical properties of the drive that would have been copied as data to effectively re-align the platters and then produce a functional disk image.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by ziekrage

10. This is such a load of horseshit. Um, there's no way to realign the heads on the platter so they start at the correct sectors. I'd say you could have recovered the info if you had bought an identical drive and swapped out the pcb on top of the drive. That works a lot of the time, but, there's no way in hell you took apart a drive and recovered the info by swapping the platters to another drive.The platters themselves spin at thousand of revolutions a second. What do you think would happen to your alignment if there was the tiniest piece of dust that impacted the head, that microns above the surface of the platter. Why the hell do you think they're assembled in a green room to start with? Sorry, but this kind of misinformation pisses me off. And no. Freezing the drive will do doodly squat in reviving it. Most times that clunk you hear in your HD is the sound of the drives head tearing itself free. Unless the pcb itself is gone, there is virtually no way to ever recover the information outside of a professional setup.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Tercero

11. he says there were 2 platters in the article, not one.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by chris

12. When removing the platers from the disk, how do you stop the head from touching / scratching the disk. I have found that the "clean room" does not have to be so clean if you work quickly. I ran a 6GB disk with the cover off (running a contious scan disk) for a whole weekend before bad sections of the drive started showing up. What does the cold do to the drive that helps recover the data?

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Joez34

13. In response to #5, the drive in question was a laptop HD which I take only consisted of one platter in which case the operation was not fake. I suspect your alignment concerns are valid for multi-platter drives.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by hwyman

14. I have done this many times throughout the years. My nick name actually comes from doing it in high school for a principle that was so excided to get his data back goofed up some words and said I reversed the corruption on the drive… I regress… One thing you must be careful of is each current day hard normally holds a bad sector/track list on a chip in the drive when it is tested during production. This is a method of the manufacturers to use flawed disk platters as good ones. If a sector of data is located on one of these areas of the drive, It will never be able to access it. There are also a few instances where I found that platters need to be perfectly calibrated to the heads of the drives. If they are swapped out, the data tracks can be off and scramble the data when you try to read it. As far as the question about how to know if it’s a bad component, If you drive makes a “Wining” sound (kind of like a refrigerator) all of the time, it’s generally a bad barring in the drive motor. If it clicks during the boot time with very little to no wine, it is normally a head problem. If the head is damaged badly enough, it can scratch the platter, in which you’re completely screwed. All other components are electronic, and yes I have had to try this method on someone who dropped there laptop in the tub. This method is easiest to do on older drives that have larger magnetic disk properties. It is very difficult to accomplish this on current day 200+ gigabye drives.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Reverse Corruption

15. As anyone who has taken a hard drive apart knows, the platters are held together by physical force of a top mount clamp held by torex, there is no key to keep them aligned, so if one platter is out of allignment with the other, then the bottom of the last platter's sector loction information should not be in allignment with the other platters, and all but the one platter with the sector alignment data should be unreadable. There is no way to take all the platters out as a single unit. OF COURSE there could be a newer standard of sector location data prefixing each sector on the disk, in which case, this _might_ work. Either way, the screws that hold the platter bobbin and spindle motor to the case are found under the platters, and necessitate their removal (with consequential misallignment). Given the lack of real specifics on this treatment, I think that this operation is fake. In addition, what went bad on the drive... the spindle motor? the actuator mechanism? the platter surface? Freezing the drive seemed to help me once, a better idea is to put the drive on a linoleum (sp?) floor covering concrete, and put a heavy block on top to stabilize the drive against vibration (if that is the mode of failure).

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by joe

16. Often (well, in my experience at least) the internal platters, read/write heads, motor, and solenoids etc. of a "fried" hard drive are all perfectly fine, but the logic board on the bottom will have had a component fail. Luckily - these can be removed and replaced with identical logic boards from a good drive without exposing the platters. In the past I've saved hard drives from the trash this way. I assume however, that in this case you knew some internal mechanism (though not the platters themselves) had failed?

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by smilr

17. how much would you charge to do this for me?? anonymous.spammer AT gmail.com

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Chris

18. Wow. Thats like a computer surgery, i had no clue that this sort of data recovery adventure was even feasable. Good Job!

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Josh

19. First, this is a good thing. Data is more important than hardware. Remember that. Always. Second, I've been thinking what one could still do with old (damaged) drives. Indeed, practice, reconaissance (learn from how details stick together before taking action) and swapping parts. If you take it the way it is stated, it looks pretty simple, but messing with valuable data is indeed tricky. The last (7th) statement should be repeated endlessly: it might be your last option/chance/attempt... - Unomi -

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Unomi

20. i've also had alot of success with freezing the hard drive. take care not to let ice crystals form on it (...or inside it). it usually has a reduced read speed and it eventually stops working again, but freezing the drive gives you plenty of time to get the data off, or even boot from it if thats what gets you happy. i've tried this three times with success each time.

Posted at 3:09PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by jamil