This is all nonsense! I've had an opened drive running just fine for an
hour or two, with the heads and platters exposed to the "poisoned" air. I
opened the drive just to see how it worked. That's how I aproach most
technology, it's the only way to really find out what your up against. but I
must say I wouldn't like to try to replace the voice coils or heads, whether
you're in a clean room or not, this is going to be close to impossible
without damaging something. But don't forget, once the drive spins up, the
dust that will undoubtedly settle on the platters, will be thrown off by the
centrifugal forces and kept off by the layer of air that's dragged round
with it. Another thing, I have it on good authority (someone who works in
the data recovery bussiness) that WD drives are undergoing some problems
right now, and Seagate are the clear favourites.


With best regards, 3T39. E-mail: