Fixing A Hard Drive Actuator Arm?

[HecticArt]

Anybody ever do that before?

I finally got myself a RAID hard drive, and found out that my portable hard drive has quit hard driving. It spins, and the arm moves, but it doesn't go all the way to the center of the platters. I think it's the control board or the coil for the arm.
I have most of the important data backed up, but it's spread out over a couple different computers, at work, CD's etc. I'd rather try to fix the drive than search for everything.

I'm getting a goofy vibe at work, and most of my portfolio/resume stuff is on there.

 

[Manco]

I've done it through a 3rd party, but it's expensive. You send them a drive, and they return a USB drive with the data on it. No guarantees though. I think it cost me around $800 to recover 1 laptop drive and they did get the data off of it.

 

[HecticArt]

I've done it through a 3rd party, but it's expensive. You send them a drive, and they return a USB drive with the data on it. No guarantees though. I think it cost me around $800 to recover 1 laptop drive and they did get the data off of it.

Thanks Man. That's about what I've seen so far. Since I think I have most of the data, it's not worth that much to have someone keep me from having to piece it all back together. If it was stuff I couldn't find again, I'd heavily consider it.

I watched a couple of youtube videos, and it doesn't look too tough. I think it's worth the gamble.

 

[jef]

The pragmatist in me says you could actually screw things up worse if you open the drive case. Dust, cat hair, dandruff or some such could get in there - and even though you fix the mechanical problem, you now have another one in the making when the head drags something across the platter and sends your data to oblivion.

If the contents are most likely available elsewhere, I'd spend my time getting your data together from those other sources and just toss the drive. If things do go pear shaped, you'll have to do it anyway. Either way, you'll be spending some time that you might not have if things are getting dodgy at work.

The nerd in me wishes you luck on your adventure!

 

[memebag]

I figured drives are so tiny now that a human can't really fix them like they used to be able to. But I haven't cracked the seal on a hard drive for 15 years or so.

 

[HecticArt]

The pragmatist in me says you could actually screw things up worse if you open the drive case. Dust, cat hair, dandruff or some such could get in there - and even though you fix the mechanical problem, you now have another one in the making when the head drags something across the platter and sends your data to oblivion.

If the contents are most likely available elsewhere, I'd spend my time getting your data together from those other sources and just toss the drive. If things do go pear shaped, you'll have to do it anyway. Either way, you'll be spending some time that you might not have if things are getting dodgy at work.

The nerd in me wishes you luck on your adventure!

I think the nerd has taken over on this one. I figure if it works (I know its a MIGHTY BIG IF) that it will not cost me very much time compared to hunting down all the data from the dark corners of my various bits of storage.

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