Swapping the Platters

[Blunderbuss4000]

Hi,
I am new to posting on forums, but have resorted to this due to the lack of help over the telephone with Toshiba (as they took over Fujitsu).

I bought a MacBook Pro laptop early 2010 and the 2.5" internal Fujitsu 320gb hard drive has now failed. And I didn't back it up. Yep, I know, very foolish. Well here is what I would like to do. Due to the expense of recovering files, I wish to change over the platters myself from a similar hard drive.

The question is, just how important is it to get a new drive (probably on eBay) with the same product numbers?
My drive:
Model: MJA2320H
Type: FFS G1
Part No. CA07083-B63600AP
Date: 2009-12-10

Now I could just buy one with the type number 'G2' at a mere £25 but will this cause an issue when trying to recover files?
Or I could get one that was made literally a day or two later, but at a cost of about £200!

So, do I need one with the same part/type number if I am just swapping out the platter (I might also swap the PCB across)? Or can I get away with one just fairly closely related?
I am really intrigued to know what the physical difference is between the types, 'FFS G1' (my one) and 'G2' so if anyone in the trade that knows could pass on this info I would be eternally grateful.
Could it be that the FFS G1 was just approved for Apple (as they have an Apple logo on)?


I'm well aware of the dangers of swapping the platters across myself, so please refrain from comment on this detail. I've seen a few comments on old posts about how it's not worth it, but I want to give it a go.

Thanks in advance.
Greg.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

I'm going to comment anyway. Unless you have a clean room and the specialized tools required to do the job then take the drive to a professional recovery service, otherwise you reduce the chances of recovery to very close to zero (close enough to just call it zero). There's also much more than simply swapping platters (do you own the necessary equipment for realigning the heads and platters?). You also have to transfer the contents of the flash on the controller as that's where the information relating to bad sectors lives (no two drives have the same map). However, if you are dead set on doing this then the donor drive must be an exact match, right down to the firmware level and board/chip revisions.

 

[Blunderbuss4000]

I'm going to comment anyway. Unless you have a clean room and the specialized tools required to do the job then take the drive to a professional recovery service, otherwise you reduce the chances of recovery to very close to zero (close enough to just call it zero). There's also much more than simply swapping platters (do you own the necessary equipment for realigning the heads and platters?). You also have to transfer the contents of the flash on the controller as that's where the information relating to bad sectors lives (no two drives have the same map). However, if you are dead set on doing this then the donor drive must be an exact match, right down to the firmware level and board/chip revisions.

Thanks,
This goes some way to getting me to the answer. I have however read countless posts elsewhere of people achieving this without the perfect environment that a clean room gives. I also read some answers elsewhere saying that the type numbers don't matter too much as long as the platters and PCB are changed over to the similar HDD. I'd really like to know what the 'FFS G1' difference is from the 'G2'

When you say "controller", are you referring to the PCB? Because I will be swapping this over too to keep the original one. I can't afford to take it a recovery professional, and am doing this as a bit of a project. If I lose the files, it's not the end of the world.

I have the 'click-of-death' and a high-pitched whistle/alarm from the harddrive, so I guess the problem is with the mechanics and not the PCB.

Thanks again for your reply.

 

[rkzhao]

I'm a bit confused, what are you trying to achieve by swapping platters? Your data is on the platters and the platters are damaged. Even if you were successful at swapping the platters to a different drive, you still have a bad drive.

 

[Blunderbuss4000]

I'm a bit confused, what are you trying to achieve by swapping platters? Your data is on the platters and the platters are damaged. Even if you were successful at swapping the platters to a different drive, you still have a bad drive.

I was under the impression that the issue was with the heads or some other mechanical part. How certain can you be that the issue is definitely with the platters?

 

[rkzhao]

Most hard drive drive failures will have a platter component to them. Bad sectors are physical locations on the platter that the head has trouble reading.
Now there can certainly be head problems as well, but it's very unlikely that only the heads are damaged.

You mentioned clicking and whistling noises. This sounds potentially like a head crash, where the head makes contact with the platter. This will result in physical scratching on the platter as it spins. Clicks happen when there is only a brief contact between the head and the spinning platter. In the case of a catastrophic failure where the head remains on the platter while it spins, it could create a whining, whistling noise from the constant scratching.

 

[Blunderbuss4000]

Thanks for that.
So it is worth opening up and checking for scratches before buying a 'donor' then?
I'm pretty sure the whistling was an alarm from the motherboard, but I can't be certain. I've heard the head can bounce off of the inside of the hard drive casing, without damaging the heads, which is what I was hoping it was. I've heard about the ability of resetting the heads but most of the time they get damaged, and a platter swap could be the answer. I guess I'm being optimistic.

 

[rkzhao]

Yeah, I'd say you're being very optimistic with this whole thing.

To your original question, that's really hard to say without underlying knowledge of what Toshiba used for their internal model numbers and configurations. You obviously want to be the same if possible. Hardware compatibility is certainly a concern but even if the hardware is compatible, and you manage the swap perfectly without damaging anything, you still have to hope that the firmware is compatible in order for the drive to access the existing data. Being an Apple OEM drive, it's highly likely that they have an Apple specific firmware on it. Whether data from that is going to be compatible with any none Apple firmware is again, hard for anyone to say without that exact experience or insider knowledge from Toshiba.

Any ways, the more you expose the platters, the more you run the risk of something going wrong. If the data is that important to you, and professional data recovery is out of the question, and you don't mind potentially wasting your time and money, I'd say it's safer to buy the donor and just try it.

 

[Blunderbuss4000]

Thanks, this has helped a lot towards my final decision. Does the 'click-of-death' tend to point to a platter/head issue, or has it been know that a PCB change can fix this?

 

[rkzhao]

It kind of depends on the click.

Most commonly, the click is simply from head assembly seeking around due to read errors. It tries to read a location but cannot so the head then moves else where and then moves back and retries or what not. Generally, read errors like this are due to damaged sectors on the platter. However, it's not impossible for the entire head reader to be damaged so it can't read anything.

Something like a head crash will typically cause this type of failure mode, but it could also just be from an aging platter and weakening magnetic signature. It's unlikely for the PCB to be related but it's not impossible since it could be due to a problem in the circuitry that lead to the failure in the first place.