[Pc_Support] Help Request: HDD parts to revive dead drive

[Max F Lang]

On Wednesday 08 February 2006 07:06, Derek Konigsberg wrote:
> > But, one caveat on the bit set, is that they insert into a
> I'm still amazed at how we got into this whole long discussion of
> torx screwdrivers, and no one actually bothered to mention that
> circuit-board-swapping may actually not work.  The two drives may
> not be 100% identical.  Even if they are, the electronics are
> bound to have some unique information on bad sectors,
> sector-remapping, and the like.  In other words, the
> logical-to-physical mappings of the two drives may not be
> identical in any case.

Derek's right, even if you match the bad drive with another drive 
from the exact same model (even from the same lot), the swap still 
might not work. So don't be disappointed if it doesn't. I've done 
this kind of swap on at least two dozen drives, and had it fail in 
maybe a fourth of them. All you can do is try and hope for the 
best. "If you break it, you get to keep the pieces"...

I've seen at least three different screw types on WD hard drives. 
Old drives seemed to use a tiny regular screw, newer ones used a 
bead head that a regular hex key worked on, and then the newest 
drives have a head with a star and a shallow indention. This last 
screw is the one I'm talking about. And the bit I was referring to 
is Torx-like, but isn't a Torx. It has a shallow point to it. Not 
flat, no very pointy, just enough that a regular Torx won't work. 
It's like the bit needs to exert a large degree of downward 
pressure on the head before you try to twist the screw off. I tried 
a number of bits, and wound up stripping the heads before they 
nudged. That's where I figured that a tiny ViseGrip wrench I got 
from Sears worked fine, and was cheaper than any bit set.