skaven

OK here's some actual advice geared toward what you're looking for. Obviously you don't have the funds to send the drive off, so if you really want to try to "clean room" the drive, here's what I'd suggest doing:

1. buy an identical hard drive to the one that fried
2. try swapping the controller cards on the back (this does not require a clean room, but watch out for tiny ribbon cables and stuff). Usually if it was the controller that died, this will bring it back.

3. If that fails, then you're going to want to try moving your platters from the toasted drive into the working drive. This will require a clean-room. To prepare a decent clean-room, try the following:

a. move a desk/workspace into your bathroom
b. clean all of the surfaces above the level of the workspace thoroughly. Try to get as much dust as possible out.
c. shut off the air conditioning, and block off the A/C vent if there is one in the bathroom.
d. seal the window and door with towels
e. run your shower on hot for a few minutes to get a good steam built up in the room.
f. shut the shower off and let the mist settle out of the air. It is important that most of the moisture settle out of the air; the droplets will capture any dust still in the air and "stick" it to the walls.

4. So now you have a clean-room. While the room is still "wet", transfer the platters from your busted hard drive into the working hard drive. This will likely require quite a few tools, so have them handy in the bathroom before you start the project.

5. If your clean-room starts to "dry", cover your workspace with saran-wrap (seal it all up) and run the shower some more to keep the dust down.

Tips:
* have your tools ready to go ahead of time
* try to find out ahead of time what exactly to expect inside the drive
* try to minimize the amount of time either hard drive is exposed to the elements
* If you find that your parts are collecting moisture due to condensation, continue the hot-water cycles until your components reach ambient temperature and don't get condensation on them before opening. This can take a while.
* Wear latex gloves (the kind without the dust on them) during the whole procedure to keep skin cells and oil off of the components
* clean all your tools thoroughly with alcohol before use -- just in case you slip and hit something, you don't want metal filings or rust or grease getting on your parts
* have rubbing alcohol handy in the bathroom to clean things should they get dirty.
* remember that you can't leave the cleanroom until everything is sealed back up. If you must leave, seal everything up with saran wrap to prevent contamination. Then re-run your cleanroom setup procedure when you get back to work.
* consider wearing a shower cap and no shirt during the procedure. You'll feel goofy, but keep most of the hair and clothing fibers away from your workspace.