[mdlug] Recovering damaged EXT2

[Aaron Kulkis]

Robert Adkins wrote:
> "They" like to say that you need a cleanroom setup to do this work.
> 
> If you have a relatively dust free environment and do not care whether or
> not you will ever be able to use the current busted or "recovery" drive, you
> can do this at home. (Granted the proper skills, steady hands, etc.)
> 
> I have heard of it being done and I have even seen the results of someone
> taking it upon themselves to open up a perfectly working HD by removing the
> cover, machining a window into that cover, cleaning that cover nicely and
> inserting a clear plexiglass window into the cover, adding led lights into
> the drive, putting it back together and then using the modded drive without
> problem... For a while at least.

"a while" to be sure.  "A long time" only with great luck.

Not something I would advise.

The "flying height" of a read/write head is LESS than the diameter
of even a particle of cigarette smoke, and many other airborne
contaminants that are too small to be filtered even by HEPA filters.

HEPA filters are good to about 3 microns (3 x 10^-6 m) wherease
disk head flying height is on the order of 5 x 10^-9 m.