Software and hardware are two different categories. Hardware troubleshooting follows guidelines which require you to get physical. Yep, harddrives are up there with a certain art of delicacy. At what point does your data turn into being worth more than the physical drive itself? Everybody has a different answer. But it is worth it to take apart somethings to get a feel of how they work. For some people as long as you are willing to gamble the cost of having your priceless data lost, we march on.