[Ham-Computers] Repairing hard drives

Frank Kamp fkamp at comcast.net
Fri Feb 24 16:11:11 EST 2006


On Feb 24, 2006, at 2:02 PM, Philip Atchley wrote:

> 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.
>

He does it all the time?!  Hopefully not to the same drive!

Sounds just crazy enough to work on the old 5-1/4 inch MFM drives.   
Trouble is, no one uses them any more.  At least no one serious about  
computering.

Regards,
Frank Kamp



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