Introduction

We disassembled a hard drive to show you the main components you will find on a hard drive.

Hard drives have two kinds of components: internal and external. External components are located on a printed circuit board called logic board while internal components are located in a sealed chamber called HDA or Hard Drive Assembly.

click to enlarge
Figure 1: A Hard Disk Drive.

You cannot open a hard drive or you will make your drive unusable. Hard drives are assembled in clean rooms (cleaner than surgery rooms) and then sealed. Any particle of dust inside the HDA can destroy the surface of the discs, because the discs spin at a very high speed (at least 5,400 rpm nowadays). This would not only lead to data loss, but also the physical destruction of the disc surface.

So, there is no serviceable part inside the HDA – at least for the regular technician. Only data recovery companies with clean rooms can open and replace components inside the HDA.
 
Anyway, before exploring the components located both the logic board and inside the HDA, let’s take a look on the connectors found on a regular hard drive.

Total or partial reproduction of the contents of this site, as well as that of the texts available for downloading, be this in the electronic media, in print, or any other form of distribution, is expressly forbidden. Those who do not comply with these copyright laws will be indicted and punished according to the International Copyrights Law.

We do not take responsibility for material damage of any kind caused by the use of information contained in Hardware Secrets.