JB> Patient: Fujitsu 9.5mm slim HD MHR2020AT.

 JB> Symptom: Actuator tapping. SMART didn't like what it found
 JB> after KB/mouse freeze, and cold boot.

what did SMART report??

 JB> Prelim: Suspect actuator spring became loose/broken.

likely there's no spring inside... there hasn't been in many years since
"voice coil" actuation technology took over from gear driven
stuff... in fact, most of the drives that i've taken apart don't even have
voice coil actuation... they have a head motor with a metal
"push-pull" strip on it that is attached to a "wiper"
that carries the heads...

 JB> Trouble: Never been inside one, and hope someone might advise
 JB> of any pitfalls/directions. Couldn't even find the vent hole
 JB> right now.

there is very little inside one... i've one hanging on the wall, here, that
i made into a clock... it is an old Seagate ST-125 ;) i'll try to get a
picture of it up on my photo gallery on my site in the next day or two...

 JB> History: Manufactured 2002. Purchased new the same year.
 JB> Worked flawlessly 'til last night. Many Linux formats. Little
 JB> traveling.

 JB> I feel like I should now say, "Nurse, scalpel..."  I
 JB> suspect the non-PC board side is where I want to enter. After
 JB> that, I'll have one heck of challenge making a clean-room (Ya,
 JB> RIGHT!) for a bench. Anti-static mat is good.

i've opened numerous drives in my time without the benefits of a
clean-room... i just try to do it in a very quiet area with no air movement
and no smoking... haven't had any problems that i was aware of... the
drives worked until they were replaced years later...

one of the ones i did like this had lost a head due to sticktion... i
opened the drive and physically removed that bad head and reclosed the
drive... this was an old MFM or RLL drive so i had to use the (real)
lowlevel format to get it ready for use... i got lucky in that the bad head
was the last one and so i told the BIOS lowlevel routine to use heads 0-4
instead of 0-5 or 0-6 instead of 0-7 (can't remember if it was three
platters or four)... it worked great other than not having that one side of
the last platter as storage space...

 JB> In the event it's dead, does anyone here have experience with
 JB> or research on slim 9.5mm drives? I'm just kicking myself now,
 JB> as I've had problems with Fuji floppies before, but here I am
 JB> now...

not sure what you'd do with it if it is dead...

)\/(ark