Final resort data recovery from a completely seized-up Hard Disk (extremely crude!!!)

As all my other attempts had failed at restoring this Miniscribe hard disk drive to a working condition, my main priority shifted to just being able to recover the data. The hard disk itself did not need to be reused, so this opportunity presented itself. My hope was unseize the hard disk by opening it, and actually manually turning the exposed platters. Yes, it's extremely crude and it was my final resort. I was happy to see the recovery effort was a complete success with all data recovered and zero data loss. After primary backup copies of files were made, I imaged the disk.

This computer, a Compaq Portable II, came with an ExceLan LANalyzer EX 5000 from 1986. It cost about $15,000 with the 16-bit ISA card and the associated software. The newest files on the hard disk are date stamped 1994, so it is possible the hard disk has actually been sitting unused for over 20 years.

Surprisingly the hard disk continued working a fair bit after this!!!

All files are uploaded to Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/excelan_l...