Would anyone know if it's still possible to just replace the platters and
clean the heads?
If the heads are really crashed, the only safe course is
to replace both the damaged heads and the damaged disk pack.
Anything else admits a substantial risk of carrying the
crash forward.
Cleaning the heads probably isn't an option; when they
crash, they don't just pick up material from the disk
platter, they may themselves be damaged enough that sharp
bits of the heads themselves are sticking out.
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON