Hard Drive Repair

[Steve]

For those who are up for it...

HARD DRIVE REPAIR (http://www.flyinglizard.freeserve.co.uk/)

[Whyzman]

If it wasn't for the 3 year warranties on the Maxtor drives that have failed me over the past two years I would have kept them and taken care of them myself...

Your informative link to fixing a harddrive will go into my favorites.

In my wildest dreams I would not have thought so much could be accomplished with just a couple of standard toolbox items...

Thanks Steve for the link! ;)

[pave_spectre]

ROFL:D :D :D :D .

Thats what I like to see, correct usage of precision tools. The proper care must taken with such finely tuned devices.:p

[Whyzman]

Just for the fun of it, I experimented with one of the standard 5 1/4 CD drives I had that malfunctioned.

With the same simple tools I've nearly been able to adapt it to fitting into a 3.5 bay...

I realized in advance that inserting CDs would become a problem, but I wanted to see if miniaturizing the drive would work first...

The drive was dead anyway...so I'd lost nothing but a little bit of time with my experiment... and the warranty was up on the drive... :)

It was actually quite a feeling of accomplishment...and after all, isn't that what computer building and repair is all about?! ;)

(edit) I thought I'd best qualify my use of the phrase, "Nearly been able to adapt it."

Actually, getting the drive to fit the 3.5 bay was a snap. I don't consider the experiment a complete success as the motor will not spin up. It seems to be binding a little bit...I can't wait for another one to go bad so I can work on fixing the motor glitch... :cool:

[Steve]

I've found that by using a higher temp. on the torch I can end up with a 120gig WD. :D

[Whyzman]

Originally posted by Steve
using a higher temp :D I would think that a temp increase would be in direct proportion to data lost...not just to come out of the deal with a larger harddrive... ;)

Same goes for the wooden handled "encourager," size would be dependent on data lost. So, the recovery tool would be in proportion to data lost...And, perhaps related to size of the drive and proximity to warranty expiration... :)

[Steve]

Ahhh...data loss! Now I've got it. :)

[Whyzman]

Yeah, if you start messing with the storage capacity of the drive, I would suspect that you're going to have problems...

Thermal expansion of the platters, unrelated to normal operation of the drive, might soften the blows of data loss... ;) But, the armatures wouldn't extend far enough any more...

However, the result would more than likely be that the fixed harddrive would now fit into a 5 1/4 bay with a similar motor binding problem as I experienced with my downsizing alterations...

I would say that the "seriousness" of the repair would at least need to factor in Data Loss and Warranty Expiration issues... :)

[mjc]

Umm.......so I have been going about this all wrong.

I guess I ws just not applying the torch to the porper location or something.

[Whyzman]

Originally posted by mjc
I guess I ws just not applying the torch to the porper location or something.Or, not frustrated enough! :mad:

[Budfred]

It is really nice to finally see a tutorial that helps you do some major technical repairs without having to have an engineering degree to do it. I wonder if I applied these techniques to the old SCSI drive I have sitting around if I could convert it to an IDE and increase the capacity???:p

[Whyzman]

Originally posted by Budfred
helps you do some major technical repairsI'm having difficulty with term "repairs." I think the operative word here would be better suited to be "fixed!"

As in, How to "fix" a failing harddrive

"Fixed," educes a truly colorful spectrum of emotions! I must admit, "fixed" as in castration, is definitely on the top of my list and is definitely cathartic!

"Fixed," as in, "I'll fix it alright!"

"I'll fix his wagon!"

I would say that the "repair" side of this has much more to do with the human element than with the actual "repair" of the hardware... :)