No need to transfer the platters. No data recovery lab do that except for a motor fail. Only need to swap head assembly with a good and compatible one. And than use the right tools to fix firmware issues if any and image the drive. Good luck.

Hi alex. I'm 15 years engineer (unix System) and I started as an electronic technician. I worked a bit on the hard drives and also on the platter changes. It's ... complicated. The screws will be very strong and there is no room for error. I think, as you know, the heads float above the tray but do not touch it. If I may give you some advice, it is to practice beforehand on other hard disks of the same brand, of the same type. I follow your videos from France, you do a remarkable job.

You don't need to swap platters, actually it would be a very bad idea. The only reason why is needed to swap platters is when the motor is damaged. Very likely issue here is "faulty heads". When heads are bad, swap theme from donor drive. Further knowledge are needed to find proper head stack donor and of course practice.

Drive recovery work is a career all by itself Alex. You would need a vast inventory of mechanisms to truly be able to fix all drives that came your way. I think that type of work is on the decline with the advent of the SSD.

Wow, I would really like to see a complete data recovery process with platter swapping and / or motor or reading heads replacement. Thank you for everything you teach us!

HDD header got serial number burned into header, Since new pcb header got deffrent serial it will click, you need pc3000 tool to change header serial or patch the firmware.

Before attempting any mechanical parts swap I'd take a close look at the board ( chances are you've done this already :) ) - specifically the contact pads for the head actuator (the other set of pads would be the one for the motor). Any sort of liquid/condensation/oxidation damage would show up there. Some steel brush and IPA (plus a IPA swab on the contacts on the mechanical side) would do the job and in my experience this works way more frequently than it really should...

You need PC3000. Most of the time clicking even with a swap you need to check firmware and configuration on the hard drive. Expensive venture but it could pay itself off once you gain the experience in using the tool.

Love watching these videos all the way from AUS. Has given me the confidence to attempt a repair on my Creality Melzi motherboard (albeit, without success. Not complete failure, but it still powers on and does the same as before. Looks like I've got some more investigation to do!). Your "No BS, straight to the point" format is excellent and is thoroughly enjoyable. Keep it up!

Reading head replacement is a bit more painless, since all plates have to stay in the exactly same position realative to eachother after the transfer, even a small deviation can cause the data to be unreadable. I have the same issue, first I thought it was something on the board that caused the issue, but after testing with a donor board, I get the same results as you do. so I removed the head mechanism. But didn't find any matching one, and I'm not gonna buy a new one for this reason. + you'll need a head comb for the heads not to touch eachother while transferring it to the faulty drive. This is the least painless solution, but you have to cover yourself if you want to do this. Make sure you make the customers know that there's high possibility that the data could be lost even after doing this.

The really good thing about you Alex is your honesty with people properties. Big love from Egypt

I was under the impression that data recovery shops swap the Head Set, not the platters, due to it being difficult to get them seated with the correct tolerance. they use plastic clips to prevent the heads from being damaged during the swap, which i assume is a specialty part. Good luck with this endeavor.

That would be awesome seeing the process of data recovering in detail. Thanks for the knowledge you offer Alex kind regads

I really appreciate the diversity of content on this channel

Should call you " the welding surgeon" Another perfect scalpel job, Doc!

If a dropped hard drive is clicking and it isn't working anymore, it is likely that the platters, arm or hard drive head were damaged and misaligned from the impact. ... If the head is trying to locate data on the platters and cannot find it, the arm will move back and forth across the platters several times.

The 2.5" can click if it's not receiving enough power try a sata cable that has 2 usb ports and the clicking stops and usually works

Hi, Alex. Diagnosing the faulty part of the drive when these types of issues occur, is not that easy. Sometimes, a simple manual repositioning of the head is needed, as it can move from it's normal position if the hard drive has been hit or dropped. But, changing the platters, as many other people here have said, is a difficult task, as it takes perfect precision in reassembly. I would first try changing the head motor, then every other possible solution, before I'd go venturing into that territory. But, on the other hand, I would very much like to see you fix this hard drive. So, if all else fails, replacing the platters to a donor hard drive could be the only option left. You certainly have the skills and precision in your work to pull it off. And even if you fail, you learn something new...and also make an interesting video. So it might not be a bad idea to post the videos of you practicing the operation, because I'd watch it! :) Keep up the great work!

Thank you for everything you teach us! 😁

Thanks for the video. I've seen this problem before. Good to know why it's happening.

Do it! Love the mini clean room. Didn't want to devote a entire room at the shop so good alt.

جزاكم الله خير وجعلها الله في ميزان حسناتك

Considering that you have a large pile of graphics cards and other devices to be fixed, shoulnd't you leave hard drive recovery to someone else? If you additionally offer HDD repair, this leads to another queue of devices...

Thank you sharing the information its, I had the same issues. I kept the platter change the partial mechanical assembly and it worked and still working

Great attitude, don't let a problem beat you, turn it into an opportunity!

A great thing about you is the honesty... a very rare thing...

Oh that could be interesting yes. I would love to see how you get this harddrive fixed. That would be awesome. And yes your need the right tools for that. Thank you for the video. Greets

The laboratory has a special machine (it is like a CD lector) for reading the plates, it is time for the customer calling one of these laboratory… hello from Italy!

Alex it help you and us to learn new things and usage of new tools.

When transferring platters you need to keep them perfectly aligned by sticking some tape around the edges of both platters for perfect alignment otherwise it will nott read. Do not move any of the platters out of alignment from the other

Practice first, would be great to see you continue the data recovery on this 👍😀

It's easier to swap the head stack than the platters, you *really* don't want to remove the platters unless you have some very special equipment or have the sort of luck that wins the lottery twice, especially if there's more than one platter. Click of death usually means the drive can't read either the embedded servo data or the firmware which is written to the platters. Back in the days of MFM/RLL drives it was so much simpler but the flash chip you swapped has more capacity than many of those drives.

Yes practice away. We like seeing you demonstrate perfection. 😇🥰🤠

Wow.... I always got the clicking broken had, will be interesting to find how to fix it... If I were you I shall practice on the broken had first... Recovery lab trade secrets... Perhaps this is the most valuable video of you successfully showing how it is done... Good luck Alex. Watching your videos from Malaysia

I think you should learn this, and include it in your business; you already do so much stuff and with this also you will round up your data-recovery services very well. And we would also be glad since you may then teach us too in your videos ;).

For the education, I tear everything apart. Yes, try to fix a drive or two With the amount of repairs you have, getting into drive repair would require a proper work ROOM and a dedicated tech. Find a good shop for referral.

Good work my friend

its pretty doable, what you need is already in your shop, torx screwdriver, cleanroom, glove, mask, and thats it. the only things that make it hard, you need to be careful not to touch the platter face, if scratched could end up with bad sector/corrupted data/lost some data. With your skill im pretty confidence it could be done. keep up the good work

Offcourse u should start experiencing that im from lebanon thank u for all videos

Great video

Sir you are a master i watch every video laptop hdd related video

Transferring platters, you need to keep the readers separate, or you’ll bend them trying to separate them (magnets), then line the platters up exactly (down to the mm). I usually use tape on the edges to line up the platter to the next platter, makes it easier for dual platter hdds. Other than those two things, it’s really really easy.

This "feature" is called "click of death". In many cases you cannot restore the data then. If the plates get shifted, you might also lose data. You might try to swap the reading head instead of the plates. So no shame if you blow it, it is indeed a difficult job which is not always working.

thanx for great videos

i want to see the complete Data recovery process, go for it and Best of luck

Good work

good job mate.

Looks very tidious work. But do try. See if head assembly is replaceable. I used to do it for blur ray machines.

OMG THANK YOU, MY INSPIRATION IS SO HIGH RIGHT NOW, I AM ABOUT TO SEND YOU MINE WITH A DUPLICATE SO WE CAN GET MY FILES BACK

Good luck !

Hi Alex, this is complex business. I believe you can do it. But remember that you are dealing with microns. If the harddrive has been dropped the stylus arm will have been distorted. They probably use laser alignment at western digital or Seagate. I'm trying to fix a Panasonic video recorder that is studio grade and I can no longer get the heads. I'm going to use a digital caliper tool and record the measurements before taking it apart. It's precision work. So good luck...

Hell yeah I want to see More!

i was watching other video of you when this one notif 😊

Very nice tool 😳💖

Would love to see one. How it's done and if it's practical.

Practice! it would be awesome too see it applied

plz plz plz make more videos about this subject 🌹

in addition to changing the platters, in some cases you must also change the BIOS chip from the main HD to the donor HD.

good job alex

My guess is a dead head pre amp (the chip on the flat flex attached to the heads) so you could swap out the bad assembly and try again as a dead pre amp will result in the drive controller not having signal from the heads.

good job.boss

I recently got curious and opened up an hdd lol! So in this case did you charge the customer to look at it? Seems like a lot of work for a no fix/charge

i've been down this road before tried it once precision is the key, all it takes is for the head on the arm to touch the platter and it's 'game over'. The heads are very sensitive and have to be spaced perfectly. the reason the arm keeps jogging back and forth is it is trying to park itself but is not reading correctly so it keeps resetting, most likely because the head on the arm is likely damaged OR the sensor on the arm position is damaged and cannot detect the position so it keeps searching back and forth for the home position. At least this is my guess....

Good 👍

I have become half a professtional electronic repair person just by watching your videos

It'll be a very delicate process to replace the head or the platters. You'll need a head comb to replace the head and dedicated jigs to replace the platters. Without these, the failure rate is almost confirmed.

It's probably a reading head failure, transferring disk platters is a tricky job you need to keep them perfectly aligned as they were on the donner drive and it's a 50/50 chance it would work.

some of these external hard drives have a little screw that you need to untighten a little bit, maybe this one have the same thing?

Why not replace the read/write head/arm assembly from donor/sacrifice drive to intended drive? That seems to be easier to do than replace the platters from intended drive to the donor/sacrificial one.

nice Vedio ☮️👍

cool hdd plater replacement could be fun i guess tough some specialised tools need to be involved 👍

Hell yea go for it. One more skill to learn means one more job type to cover. I'd love to see you practicing and videoing the process through and through but I do understand that'd be way too much to fit in your very busy schedule. Keep up the great work.

This happens to me customers asking me for the old broken parts to give them back what crazy customers.

I love your stuffs

How would you go about repairing and then re-feeling a helium drive?

i have similar propblem with an hard drive and i suppose to swap plates, have you done it? and was it successfull?

What model of microscope do you use? Thank you

That would be awesome

Oooh, when you swap the boards, the clicking stopped. I thought you will say that it is something wrong with the firmware. Cause if it was something wrong with the reading heads, shouldn't it still click with the new board ?

Once i had to transfer the platter from a damaged HDD to another to transfer data, while still keeping the "donor" HDD intact and in working order after the procedure. I did it in my car repair shop with some basic safety precautions.

If the pcb is fine and only the issue is with the head, can we simply replace the head without transferring the bios? 2nd point: if we have to use the donor pcb then can we flash the bios using ch341a programmer and flash it with the old bios's data? Instead of soldering ans desoldering the pbysical bios chips and swapping

in 3:54 ... i can see a tiny solder ball in destination L350 component, below the "0", not present in the source board i am not experienced in soldering, i just have an acute vision, am a little obsessive and got luck

would be some nice thing to learn, and show.. im interested :D

Go for it Alex

I have a Seagate 2.5 inch 3 platter 1,000GB (not to be confused with 1TB) drive I'm working on and I've honestly replaced EVERYTHING physically. I've delicately placed the platters into a new drive shell to utilize a new motor, swapped the reading head, swapped the lower and upper magnets, swapped the motherboard. The drive spins up, the head reads to the center slowly and then goes back to the outer disk a total of 10 times and then spins down. The entire time the drive is not readable. Should I purchase a molex adapter to attempt a firmware flash or something?

Is there any advise on bios unlocking and uefi firmware update? Those videos would be nice.

Why transfer platters? Can't you swap the reading head itself?

I'm really curious of what failed in that hard drive. You're changing the board and the firmware which would be the fast, easy and economical way to do it, but this type of manifestation is more common than you might think. I personally am holding a 13 year old 320WD which failed in the same way due to easy mechanical shock. It wasn't even powered on and the fact that I have hdd's that suffered bigger shocks and still work just gives my brain a 404wtf moment. I've had numerous attempts to repair that hdd and can't find anything loose, cracked, burnt, or short circuited. Maybe it's something I'm missing. Manifestation is the same. spin, crackling, loud buzz

This is gotten very interesting 🤔

i would love to see it! i thought that just opening it, it instantly get damaged...

Go for it!!

Yes. In the "Time's Arrow" episode, Data had lost his head for 500 years, yet once reached to his body, he was up and going once again.

The problem is: not scratching platters while removing housing parts, It needs special tools as far as I know, but your level of craftsmanship is superhuman so It might be the perfect challenge.

Stick to what you are already so good at, no need to complicate things.

Great work i think you beable to do this job whit little practice it's will be new lesson like new experience

it's a good thing to improve your skills and do something new , i hope one day to see a video that continet a plate transfer.

I've done a few of these and just changed the head. It's not always successful. Practice is the key. If customer is indeed 100% needing data they have to pay the huge price data recovery centers pay. If they would like it but if it goes it goes then worth having a go to keep costs down. Needs to be from identical drive as changing head to smaller or bigger can have issues with compatibility.

Iv got a similar problem with my ps4 pro hard drive but when I took the motherboard off the gold connector plate was turning black so cleaned it now fine but wonder if u no if its a common problem? It reads fine was just when It started beeping once then I rebuild data base then started to beep more to open and fined black spec on gold pads

Isn’t this cleanroom device sucking air through the filter from above and blowing it out downwards towards the device? Otherwise the dirty air in the normal environment would contaminate the device on the working surface.

I've looked into platter exchange and it looks simple for as long as you do things in the correct order, including, how you put stickie tape around the platters and move it all over in one step. How to 'lock' the heads so they remain parked. All should be fine.