[Ham-Computers] Repairing hard drives

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Phil,

Make sure you put a disclaimer! "Use at "your" own risk! Author shall be 
held harmless." Or whatever. As crazy as it may seem, people actually do 
attempt such things nowadays. Yea, I know ...

Those fun days of telling some stranger who was new to CB to turn his radio 
on the side, then he too could work sideband are gone! Now you get sued!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Philip Atchley" <Beaconeer at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Computers Ham" <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 2:02 PM
Subject: [Ham-Computers] Repairing hard drives


> Hi,
>
> My brother sent me the following instructions and, since defunct hard 
> drives are easy to find and cheap to buy (sometimes free)  I thought that 
> I'd share them with you <grin>.
>
> There have been several instances reported lately of hard drive crashes, 
> so
> I did some research and found the following information on fixing it
> yourself...enjoy
>
> It's really not too difficult fixing your own hard drive, if the problem 
> is
> a head crash, or the infamous Seagate "stiction" problem, if you know what
> to do. You will require #4/0 steel wool, paint thinners, WD-40, a few hand
> tools, and about 45 minutes.
>
> First, you need a clean room, so make sure the garage door is closed 
> before
> you begin. Move those old lawnmower parts off the bench. Disassemble the
> sealed unit and carefully wash all parts with paint thinners. Bend the
> read/write heads out of the way, and then disassemble the platter stack.
>
> VERY CAREFULLY buff the platter surfaces with the #4/0 steel wool. This 
> will
> remove any existing data, level out any surface defects, and help to
> redistribute the magnetic media and fill in those pesky "bad sectors" that
> most drives have.
>
> Reassemble the platter stack, and using a .015" feeler gauge, bend the
> read/write heads back to the platter surface, using the feeler gauge to 
> set
> the gap. This is slightly higher gap than the factory uses, but it reduces
> the chance of head collisions with any debris you neglected to remove.
>
> Give the heads and platters a good shot of WD-40 and reassemble the unit. 
> If
> your drive has a filter, replace it with a clean section of gauze pad.
>
> All that's left is to low level and DOS format the drive, and you're back 
> in
> business. I haven't tried this myself, but my friend's wife's
> sister-in-law's husband knows a technician that does it all the time.
>
> 73 de Phil,  KO6BB
> DX begins at the noise floor!
>
> THE BEACONEER'S LAIR:  http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/
> QSL GALLERY: http://photobucket.com/albums/y123/KO6BB/
> Merced, Central California,    37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh
> ______________________________________________________________
> Ham-Computers mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/ham-computers
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html
> Post: mailto:Ham-Computers at mailman.qth.net
>
>
>
> -- 
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.15.12/267 - Release Date: 2/22/2006
>
>