newbie hard drive tech question

[axeshredder77]

Hey guys newbie here, I just have a quick question. Could i take an old hard drive which the motor isnt working and solder a new motor to the existing connections and make it work long enough to retrieve my data. I appreciate any input

[bicostp]

Nope. The hard drive platters are bolted directly to the motor itself, there's no way to swap the motors out without precision equipment in a perfectly clean environment. (And even if you did get to the point where you can get the platters off the motors, they have to be torqued down and balanced properly on the new motor because there's less than a hair's width of space between the platters and heads.)

Have you tried putting the drive on its side? If that doesn't work, connect the hard drive with some long-ish cables and give it a few quick shakes and turns in parallel with the way the platters spin. This might loosen the motor up one last time. It worked for old 40 MB SCSI hard drives back in the day, and they haven't changed much since then, so you might be able to salvage some of your stuff.

When you start the drive up, do you hear the motor trying to turn the platters? If so, the bearings are seized and you might as well throw the drive away. If not, there might be a problem with the logic board, which is possible to swap with one from an identical hard drive.

[axeshredder77]

I will try that. What about soldering wire from a new motor the old on connections without removing the dead motor?