Chaos Master writes:

From a Brazilian hardware/electronics site:

If the problem is on the heads/motors, try opening the HD on a clean room (as
clean as possible), and "move" the heads to the right place, run IDE auto-detect
from BIOS, and cross fingers. This will not last too much, but it will be enough
to copy some data. (disclaimer: I've never tried that. If the HD quits working,
it was "doomed" already)

"Move" the heads to the right place??? There are several thousand
tracks on a modern hard drive. Does he expect you to guess at the
track location? Furthermore, any access sequence will start via the FAT
and directory structure (on unix, the Inodes or whatever), not the "right
place".

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Site Info: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: The email address in this message header may no longer work. To
contact me, please use the following email address: .

The Feedback Form at repairfaq.org is temporarily broken. Thanks.