Hard drives store data as magnetic fields, and also contain powerful magnets to allow the read head to move around quickly, so there’s a decently high risk of damaging data when transplanting a platter to a different drive or replacing components within a drive. Also, even if that doesn’t happen, modern drives really need to be opened in a clean room as the head floats a very small distance above the platter so the tiniest bits of dust can wreck the surface of they end up in the gap. For some drives, even that isn’t enough as they don’t contain air, they contain helium. Of you want to be sure data remains intact, opening the drive should not be part of your plan. It’s only a good idea as a last resort when you don’t have a more conventional way to recover something.
i didn’t realize it was such a delicate process. I knew catastrophic failures could cause data loss. Especially while reading or writing, but I didn’t know that could be the case just opening and repairing the drive. TIL
Yup. Shit has to be aligned perfectly. Just a head transplant has someone putting a specialized comb into the diner drive to hold things perfectly in place to be moved.
And some drives or even filled with inert gasses to pump back in.
The process is specialized and to non-trivial for the average person.
Hard drives store data as magnetic fields, and also contain powerful magnets to allow the read head to move around quickly, so there’s a decently high risk of damaging data when transplanting a platter to a different drive or replacing components within a drive. Also, even if that doesn’t happen, modern drives really need to be opened in a clean room as the head floats a very small distance above the platter so the tiniest bits of dust can wreck the surface of they end up in the gap. For some drives, even that isn’t enough as they don’t contain air, they contain helium. Of you want to be sure data remains intact, opening the drive should not be part of your plan. It’s only a good idea as a last resort when you don’t have a more conventional way to recover something.
i didn’t realize it was such a delicate process. I knew catastrophic failures could cause data loss. Especially while reading or writing, but I didn’t know that could be the case just opening and repairing the drive. TIL
Yup. Shit has to be aligned perfectly. Just a head transplant has someone putting a specialized comb into the diner drive to hold things perfectly in place to be moved.
And some drives or even filled with inert gasses to pump back in.
The process is specialized and to non-trivial for the average person.