Swapping platters

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 5:31 am

Okay,
SO does anyone out there know how difficult it is to take the actual platters from a non functional drive, and put them in a functional drive to attempt some DIY data recovery?

This is for my own, personal laptop... NOT a client drive or something at the studio at all. Just a black macbook that has been around the world with me and bumped around one too many times.

Physically, how difficult is the switch? Like if I buy the exact same drive, and then open that up along with opening up my old one... put the old platters with my pictures and personal crap into the new drive's shell....

is that really difficult? I have never done it. I am going to try no matter what, but .. I guess I am asking if there is any general advice?

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 8:43 am

speaking as a former IT professional, this is clean room insect brain surgery stuff.

The Scum · Post by **The Scum** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:13 pm

My advice: don't pay too much for a second hard drive. Chances are very good that you'll wind up with two dead drives, but there's nothing to lose by trying.

You'll also need to find as close a match in the new drive as you possibly can. Not just the mfr, speed and size, but check firmware and hardware revision levels if possible. Every little difference is something that could render the new drive incompatible with the old platters.

You're going to need a variety of specialty screwdrivers...probably really tiny ones for a laptop drive. 3-bladed Torx and the like. I used to use vice grips on larger drives, but I was just grabbing platters for art projects, and didn't care about reassembly, or keeping metal shavings out of the works.

And all of this is under the assumption that the platters and the data on 'em is intact.

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 5:11 am

Thanks, gentlemen.

The data on this drive is totally NON crucial, but would be cool to have back.
I have not powered it up since the "clicking" noises and non bootable laptop.
Anything really important is backed up.

The cost of a drive exactly like the one in my macbook: 75.00 +- ~ as opposed to
a lot more than that for a data recovery service.

I have always fancied myself a renegade insect brain surgeon on my days off... so WTF? maybe I will give it a shot. There is no hurry, and i am in sessions, but if I feel the need to expand my jewelers torx and screwdriver collection, what a perfect opportunity!

A.David.MacKinnon · Post by **A.David.MacKinnon** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:50 am

Have you tried connecting it to another computer and starting it up in firewire mode (I can't remember the correct name for this, target disk mode perhaps?)? If it works the other computer will see your laptop as a firewire drive and you can transfer any data you need.
I've had good luck with this on computers that weren't booting up and were making the dreaded clicking noise.

dave watkins · Post by **dave watkins** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:28 am

+1
i know i have done something similar to what junkshop said. but in the desktop pc world, i'm gonna assume it might be possible with a mac, but i am certainly no expert.

but yeah, i have had two hard drives quit on me in my lifetime, both were the main/boot drive that the OS was on. and so i could power on the machine but windows wouldn't load. i was able in both instances to take the drive out and put it in another computer as a secondary (slave) drive and pull data off of it. i'm guessing just the boot sectors had gone bad but everything else was fine. i was even able to pop one of these hard drives in an external enclosure and access info off of it that way...

now i have know idea if they make external enclosures for the size/kind of hardrive that comes in your macbook, or if pulling this off with an external would work for you, but it might be worth looking into before the insect brain surgery.

vxboogie · Post by **vxboogie** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:43 am

RefD wrote:speaking as a former IT professional, this is clean room insect brain surgery stuff.

Speaking as a current IT professional, I totally agree with RefD. I don't see how you could even remotely be successful doing that. I have seen other techniques work such as the old "stick it in the freezer overnight" and even have heard of someone taking the circuit board off of an identical drive and swapping it, but not taking the platters out. I used to work on IBM drives(70's technology) that had removable disc platters and they would crash with very slight contamination. The current day PC drives are light years ahead in technology and the tolerances are vastly different(tighter).

I think anything other than cleanroom activity would result in the drive crashing immediately. Best of luck though if you try it!

RodC · Post by **RodC** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:51 am

I have done it before, but not on a small laptop HD. These were older 5.25" hds in some cases and 3" in some cases.

For the drive to last a long time you prob do need it to be clean in there, but to get some data off you may stand a chance.

The experieces I had was a bad head or the cable leading to the head. On more than one ocasion I was able to remove the heads and replace them.

I cant remember if I was trying to recover data or just a poor college student trying to salvage a bad HD.... So FWIW..

IF the platters are OK...
You may stand a better chance at removing the heads and the control board and move them from the functioning HD to the non functioning HD.

Its always fun to tear things apart!

sonicmook56 · Post by **sonicmook56** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:10 pm

Interesting.

Let us know how it works out.

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 7:42 pm

vxboogie wrote:
RefD wrote:speaking as a former IT professional, this is clean room insect brain surgery stuff.
Speaking as a current IT professional, I totally agree with RefD. I don't see how you could even remotely be successful doing that. I have seen other techniques work such as the old "stick it in the freezer overnight" and even have heard of someone taking the circuit board off of an identical drive and swapping it, but not taking the platters out. I used to work on IBM drives(70's technology) that had removable disc platters and they would crash with very slight contamination. The current day PC drives are light years ahead in technology and the tolerances are vastly different(tighter).

I think anything other than cleanroom activity would result in the drive crashing immediately. Best of luck though if you try it!

Speaking as a currently part-time and formerly full-time IT professional, and somebody who does work on tiny little electronic things now and then...

+1.

Try the freezer trick, also try the "unstick the bearings by shaking/rotating the drive in your hand" trick. If you really want the stuff back, hire a pro. Otherwise you're like the guy who bought "Protools M-powered" and is confident he can record his nephew's band well enough to make it sell platinum.

dave watkins · Post by **dave watkins** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:53 pm

damn, that sounds like a challenge, looks like Joel is going to have to both succeed in swapping platters and then record a platinum record using only protools m-powered on the macbook with the hand platter swapped hard drive.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:58 pm

dave watkins wrote:damn, that sounds like a challenge, looks like Joel is going to have to both succeed in swapping platters and then record a platinum record using only protools m-powered on the macbook with the hand platter swapped hard drive.

*sends over the documentary crew*

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 6:55 pm

Well,
I put the new drive in my laptop, and it is rocking... 7200 rpm, 320gigs... 70 dollars!

I have the other drive and NO time to try the insect brain surgery doomsday mission.
Soon enough. I will post about my glowing, amazing success with data recovery after I fail.

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