[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Do you mean taking the hard drive itself apart? I wasn’t doing that as I just mean removing the hard drive from the laptop and upgrading to a larger drive."

That (not disassembling the drive) is what I was referring to.

Having said that, if you ever have a drive that is really and truly borked, with no hope of resurrection or replacement under warranty, then go ahead and open it up. They're exquisite little mechanisms, like jewelry. They amaze me, not least that they can be manufactured for a profit, considering what they do. And the stators for the head-arms make great refrigerator magnets!

[Blue Highway]

Yeah my friend disassembled an old 540mb Compaq drive from an old old old desktop system probably a 386sx and the magnets are great!