UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post

ortek_service · 21st Mar 2023, 12:03 am

I've certainly taken the lid off similar-capacity (low 10's of MB) PC MFM/RLL 5.25 & 3.5" HDD's, back in the 90's in a not especially-clean environment, and they still worked afterwards.
I think I may have also tried cleaning the top surface with IPA, as may have getting 'stiction' where heads were sticking to surface, preventing spin-up.

I doubt a modern much-higher density 10's/100's of GB's HDD would be so forgiving / if you accidentally get a fingerprint etc on surface, it probably can't be resolved with a bit of cleaning with IPA. So these are no doubt a job for (expensive) data-recovery specialist, with clean rooms who have equipment to replace heads / transfer platters to a good mechanism.

I've also swapped-over the HDD's main control board, when there seemed to have been a fault on one of those. But it seems more-modern HDD's have parameters stored in the HDD's controller, and can''t swap these anymore.

21st Mar 2023, 12:03 am	#3
ortek_service Octode Join Date: May 2018 Location: Northampton, Northamptonshire, UK. Posts: 1,440	Re: Micropolis 1304 HD repair I've certainly taken the lid off similar-capacity (low 10's of MB) PC MFM/RLL 5.25 & 3.5" HDD's, back in the 90's in a not especially-clean environment, and they still worked afterwards. I think I may have also tried cleaning the top surface with IPA, as may have getting 'stiction' where heads were sticking to surface, preventing spin-up. I doubt a modern much-higher density 10's/100's of GB's HDD would be so forgiving / if you accidentally get a fingerprint etc on surface, it probably can't be resolved with a bit of cleaning with IPA. So these are no doubt a job for (expensive) data-recovery specialist, with clean rooms who have equipment to replace heads / transfer platters to a good mechanism. I've also swapped-over the HDD's main control board, when there seemed to have been a fault on one of those. But it seems more-modern HDD's have parameters stored in the HDD's controller, and can''t swap these anymore.