I wouldn't say they are hard to do the head swap, they just rarely ever work afterward. The heads are super sensitive, so even the slightest woops moment is game over. And even when you think it all went perfectly, it often just doesn't work. That's been my experience.
Fortunately you're only dealing with a 500Gb so it might not be too bad. I find that the 2Tb+ is where the issues really start. 3Tb forget about it.