hard drive Head cable?

[zenophryk]

So I'm tearing down a pile of hard drives. Old and new. and I'm looking at the plastic coated ribbon cable that goes from the head armature to the controller board. it's encased in what might be a copper colored mylar. and some of the traces are very tiny. was wondering if anyone has tested those for any PMs? Sure, a bunch have little gold plated pads for grounding, but I'm wondering if there may be silver in them. Since the traces are so small and critical I was hoping they used more than just copper. Anyone test any of these?

 

[Jimbriese]

I worked for a company that made the readheads for many of the hard drive manufacturers. The traces on a lot of them had platinum and gold plating the whole length of the ribbon but it is a plasma coat plating so I have no clue if it’s enough to try and recover other than the very ends for the contact surface.