HARD DRIVE REPAIR
 

It's really not too difficult to fix your own hard drive, if the
problem is
a head crash, or the infamous Seagate "stiction" problem, if you
know what
to do. You will require #4/0 steel wool, White spirit, or,
petrol, WD-40, a
few hand tools, and about 45 minutes.
First, you need a clean room, so make sure the garage door is
closed before
you begin. Move those old lawnmower parts off the bench.
Disassemble the sealed unit and carefully wash all parts with
White spirit,
or, petrol. Bend the read/write heads out of the way and then
disassemble
the platter stack.
VERY CAREFULLY buff the platter surfaces with the #4/0 steel
wool. This will
remove any existing data, level out any surface defects, and
help to
redistribute the magnetic media and fill in those irritating
"bad sectors"
that most drives have.
Reassemble the platter stack, and using a .015" feeler gauge,
bend the
read/write head back to the platter surface, using the feeler
gauge to set
the gap. This is a slightly higher gap than the factory uses,
but it reduces
the chance of head collisions with any flotsam you neglected to
remove.
Give the head and platters a good shot of WD-40 and reassemble
the unit. If
your drive has a filter, replace it with a clean section of
gauze pad.
All that's left is to low level and DOS format the drive, and
you're back in
business.