If you aren't going to bother describing the full symptoms of the drive, how can you expect us to help diagnose them? Please tell us exactly what the drive was doing when you first received it? Is it clicking? Does it spin down? What shows in the terminal log?
1. if the drive doesn't need a head change, there is absolutely no reason why it would be a 4 figure number to recover by a professional. In fact, it should be less than $500...that said, it doesn't appear to be such a simple case 2. if a Seagate drive clicks and then spins down, it means that the h...
when compared to the drill press, it isn't much different in effort...2.5" drives are stupid simple. Some models of desktop drives are a bit tougher. But, they'd both be a breeze with the hard drive crusher I linked to above.
For future reference, a 2 tonne arbor press is just as effective, yet quieter and less messy. But, one of these days I'll take the time to order an actual hard drive crusher (http://purelev.com) which isn't very expensive at all.
Kind of ironic that you post this question now. I have an 80GB Sabre53 cloning now. Yes, if you have a 40GB patient with failed heads, you can use an 80GB donor with 2 heads. In fact, it is recommended to go that route. You may need to make a minor change to the headmap in the ROM to mention that th...