Lubricating HDD motor bearings - possible?

[da na]

Long story short, got two WD1200 drives from an old server, one did not work, one did (the one that did not work wouldn't even spin up). Noticed the motor control IC looked burnt on one, so I swapped controller boards and then the other worked. Both have OK SMART, the bearings on the motor are old though and make a terrible sound. Is there any way to lubricate them? Since data density is so low on IDE drives I've been able to do repairs on them in an improvised clean room, as long as I don't keep it open for too long it should be fine. And I found a replacement controller board IDE 3.5 HD Controller Board (PCB) for Western Digital WD1200JB | eBay for an identical model, but is it worth it? I mean, if the motor isn't saveable then... should I just use one of them until the motor dies, then swap the working board to the other one and use it until it dies?

Any help would be appreciated!

[Zando_]

Given the board costs as much as some of the used drives themselves uh... no, not worth it unless you're determined to fix the HDD as a pet project. Unless you can replace the motor, I doubt there's much you can do for the bearing thing. Usually once bearings start making horrid noise, that means they've ground up part of themselves due to losing lubrication, adding more won't fix that. 

[da na]

38 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

Given the board costs as much as some of the used drives themselves uh... no, not worth it unless you're determined to fix the HDD as a pet project. Unless you can replace the motor, I doubt there's much you can do for the bearing thing. Usually once bearings start making horrid noise, that means they've ground up part of themselves due to losing lubrication, adding more won't fix that. 

Thanks, good to know. Yeah I'll just use these drives as an emergency last resort

[Blue4130]

4 hours ago, Mel0nMan said:

Long story short, got two WD1200 drives from an old server, one did not work, one did (the one that did not work wouldn't even spin up). Noticed the motor control IC looked burnt on one, so I swapped controller boards and then the other worked. Both have OK SMART, the bearings on the motor are old though and make a terrible sound. Is there any way to lubricate them? Since data density is so low on IDE drives I've been able to do repairs on them in an improvised clean room, as long as I don't keep it open for too long it should be fine. And I found a replacement controller board IDE 3.5 HD Controller Board (PCB) for Western Digital WD1200JB | eBay for an identical model, but is it worth it? I mean, if the motor isn't saveable then... should I just use one of them until the motor dies, then swap the working board to the other one and use it until it dies?

Any help would be appreciated!

Is this for a retro project or something? Or it this for a daily use pc? I would say it is only worth it if the system it is going into has sentimental value or is extremely rare.

[da na]

11 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Is this for a retro project or something? Or it this for a daily use pc? I would say it is only worth it if the system it is going into has sentimental value or is extremely rare.

It's not rare nor has sentimental value. But IDE drives are getting a bit less common compared to SATA and I'd rather keep a few around as I only have 4 others. (Not counting these 2 WDs.)

[Blue4130]

9 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

It's not rare nor has sentimental value. But IDE drives are getting a bit less common compared to SATA and I'd rather keep a few around as I only have 4 others. (Not counting these 2 WDs.)

It's a 20+ year old drive. There are better, newer options if an ide drive is needed in my opinion. 

 

If it's working now, great. Keep it, but don't toss money at it. 

[Needfuldoer]

12 hours ago, Mel0nMan said:

It's not rare nor has sentimental value. But IDE drives are getting a bit less common compared to SATA and I'd rather keep a few around as I only have 4 others. (Not counting these 2 WDs.)

A 120 gig mSATA SSD in an adapter will max out the storage on most machines that lack 48 bit LBA, for around $40.

 

The only old drives I've successfully lubricated were old drives that used an external stepper motor to actuate the read head arm. (The steppers sometimes need a drop or two of light sewing machine oil to free themselves up after decades of sticktion.)

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

A 120 gig mSATA SSD in an adapter will max out the storage on most machines that lack 48 bit LBA, for around $40.

 

The only old drives I've successfully lubricated were old drives that used an external stepper motor to actuate the read head arm. (The steppers sometimes need a drop or two of light sewing machine oil to free themselves up after decades of sticktion.)

I was thinking more along the lines of a cf card in an adapter if it's a retro machine. 

[Needfuldoer]

1 hour ago, Blue4130 said:

I was thinking more along the lines of a cf card in an adapter if it's a retro machine. 

That's kind of the old school way to get an "SSD" in an IDE machine. Problem is, reliability and longevity are entirely dependent on which card you get (since the adapters are all passive). Plus, CF cards are much more expensive than small SATA SSDs, especially on the used market.

[da na]

2 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

I was thinking more along the lines of a cf card in an adapter if it's a retro machine. 

 

4 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

That's kind of the old school way to get an "SSD" in an IDE machine. Problem is, reliability and longevity are entirely dependent on which card you get (since the adapters are all passive). Plus, CF cards are much more expensive than small SATA SSDs, especially on the used market.

I usually do that but they're sloooooow. Done that in my Windows 98 laptop and it takes a while to boot. XP off those must be terrible. Plus, a 120gb HDD and 120gb CF card is like a 10x price difference

[Blue4130]

5 hours ago, Mel0nMan said:

 

I usually do that but they're sloooooow. Done that in my Windows 98 laptop and it takes a while to boot. XP off those must be terrible. Plus, a 120gb HDD and 120gb CF card is like a 10x price difference

I guess my idea of a retro machine is different... I was thinking more along the lines of 4gb card. $5 and you are set.