ER-Tools And Acetoollab [ Experience With Headswaps/Platter Stucks ]

Amarbir[CDR-Labs] · Fri May 26, 2017 10:33 am

Hello Everyone ,
I wanted to ask you all a few questions regarding Your Experiences Regarding ER-Tools And AceToolLab Tools That Go Over the platter pick the heads up and go back to the outside either on the ramp if its was a head stuck case or a outside the platters if it was non ramp case and we are swapping heads or removing a head stuck condition .Yesterday I had a Western Digital 160GB Starling Drive With a Head Zero Failure .For the first time i was swapping heads of this series .Its 2 Platters a 4 Heads Drive .It Was Quite a Task To Take The Heads Under The Heads on The Patient Drive .After The Head Swap The Heads Just Clicked And Once i Reswapped Them Back To donor " They Were Still Not Working " . The Patients Heads Also did Clicking Once Swapped back to patient .Earlier only Head No 1 Was a Issue .My Questions Are ....

1 : Have You Folks Seen those Brakes They have In this HDD Starling 160GB .Those Are Very Different And I think A Little Misalignment Could Cause The Heads To Be Out Of Position In Parking Zone Or In The SA Reading Zone Once The Heads Are engaged .Can You Folks Shed Some Light

2 : I Am Sure That The Tools Both Of Them Make Do Indeed Scratch Platters ,How True Is My Observation .I have seen specially in Ertools That Getting Tool Under Heads Is a Impossible Task In Many Cases .Might Be a C Type Tools Like HDDSergury Is The Only Solution .As Far As acetoollab is concerned The Metal Tools Are a great concern for me ,But i Am Sure They Lift the Heads Better Due To these Being Metal

3 : I have Noticed that in Head Stuck Cases On 2.5" Drive Like even on simple drives like ST1000LM024 These Tools Do Spoil The Heads If not the Platters Once They Lift Them Up "The Heads Get Bend To One Side .

4 : Cases like ST1000LM024 works fine if we unstuck original heads and use new heads .Using The Classic Drag Method I Think the Heads Are Much Safer And Native Heads Do Work

Help you Friend in Despair

Fri May 26, 2017 11:10 am

I've really never used the tools for unsticking heads. For that, I much prefer to use the method of spinning the platters until they free up, as it has a much better success rate. I really only use them for swapping heads in drives that don't have ramps, and they work quite well for that.

As to scratching the platters, I've never experienced that. As long as the tool is rested on the bottom of the HDA it doesn't really make any contact with the platters. I will admit, I feel safer with the plastic ones than the metal ones.

Amarbir[CDR-Labs] · Fri May 26, 2017 12:02 pm

Jared wrote:I've really never used the tools for unsticking heads. For that, I much prefer to use the method of spinning the platters until they free up, as it has a much better success rate. I really only use them for swapping heads in drives that don't have ramps, and they work quite well for that.

As to scratching the platters, I've never experienced that. As long as the tool is rested on the bottom of the HDA it doesn't really make any contact with the platters. I will admit, I feel safer with the plastic ones than the metal ones.

Well Buddy ,
If i swap Heads off new seagates That are one platter citing you an example and use the old school method of getting the drive heads off the end and then inserting a plastic old school tool the success rate is much better ,If i use ERtools the success rate is much less .I have even discussed this point today with my best student Amol who too is a master in physical work and he has exactly the same viewpoint as i gave .Also for a example i have seen drive that have a bumb in the metal and that metal is a little raised up which does not let the tool to go freely all the way in leading to might be platter scratch .As far as metal tool are concerned i dread them going on platters if we have to use our hand and brain to get them to the heads ,If they are like hddsurgery then its a different matter .I have advised amol to invest in a tool from hddsurgery for single platter modern seagates for comparison .I will start documenting these head swaps so that i know whats going on .A bloody 160 GB with Data Spread on 4 Platters did not work after a head swap is simply a no go .For a Matter of Fact i Inspect And Swap heads of 2 To 5 Drives Daily in My Cleanroom

pclab · Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:48 am

Today I used the tool for Hitachi 2,5" to unstuck heads. Worked flawlessly.

LarrySabo · Thu Jun 22, 2017 12:56 pm

I used Ace Tool Lab's unstuck tool on a Grenada a couple of days ago and the damned tool tipped/slipped and ruined H0. :evil:

At least I think the tool did that and not the stiction. I find that the tool really separates the heads too much, as Amarbir mentioned. However, I have also previously caused as much damage just using the old-school method. At least with the unstuck tool, the media is less likely to get scratched, I believe.

Thu Jun 22, 2017 2:59 pm

I don't know guys, I have near perfect success rates just doing the old spin trick. The other day I had one get head stuck twice (first when it came in, then again after it was power cycled) and it was a 100% recovery w/o replacing heads. I think it's mostly just about technique.

pclab · Fri Jun 23, 2017 3:16 am

I have found that in some cases heads get really stuck and I'm afraid that doing the spinning of the platter might damage heads and media as well (it happened to me before).

Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:15 am

pclab wrote:I have found that in some cases heads get really stuck and I'm afraid that doing the spinning of the platter might damage heads and media as well (it happened to me before).

Agreed, I've seen this too. Obviously, you have to carefully judge how hard to force it before you're likely to detach the sliders. But, I haven't seen this really with newer drives such as Grenadas or ST1000LM024 like Amarbir was talking about. I've always been able to spin those free. Mostly I've seen that happen on older Hitachi drives.

LarrySabo · Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:44 am

pclab wrote:I have found that in some cases heads get really stuck and I'm afraid that doing the spinning of the platter might damage heads and media as well (it happened to me before).

+1. I figure it's better to risk damaging a head (because heads are replaceable) by using unstuck tools than ripping a slider off and possibly scratching the platter (thereby rendering data unrecoverable). It's a coin-toss.

ApexToolLab · Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:16 pm

LarrySabo wrote:I used Ace Tool Lab's unstuck tool on a Grenada a couple of days ago and the damned tool tipped/slipped and ruined H0. At least I think the tool did that and not the stiction. I find that the tool really separates the heads too much, as Amarbir mentioned. However, I have also previously caused as much damage just using the old-school method. At least with the unstuck tool, the media is less likely to get scratched, I believe.

I checked detailed that tool and can agree tools separates the heads more then enough. But also should say we used it repeatedly and always with success.
Nevertheless I modified the tool for will be sure on sizes 100%. Now it looks:

https://cloud.mail.ru/public/DTtC/avwoJUVS2

Near 1-2 months all owners of the first version of SEA GRENADA 3 will accept the new version absolutely free. I’ll try to find contacts from history of orders, to avoid skipping anybody please who has the tool please send me request by email.