[Discuss] WDC HDD data recovery redcommendations?

[tmetro+blu at gmail.com (Tom Metro)]

Nuno Sucena Almeida wrote:
> Stuart Conner wrote:
>> If you're handy, You could try to recover by transplanting the platters
>> into a similar HDD chassis and reading an image with a tool like dd.
>> This is what the pros do usually.
> 
> 	You probably want to do that in a clean room and copy the EEPROM
> calibration information though.

Is the "EEPROM calibration information" enough? Can you even obtain that?

My understanding is that without specialized calibration equipment,
transplanting platters in a multi-platter drive is a futile effort, as
the platters have to be precisely aligned to replicate how they were in
the original drive when the servo tracks were written.

With a single platter drive, a transplant might be possible, but there
may be other interplay between the calibration settings stored in the
drive's EEPROM. I'm guessing that's what Nuno is referring to.

Once upon a time, this trick worked. Not so much with modern drives.

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
The Perl Shop, Newton, MA, USA
"Predictable On-demand Perl Consulting."
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