Well if you have a working one, and to keep it working... removal of the warranty stickers is necessary.. I'm sure someone will chime in saying "but it's way out of warranty".. but I know where you are coming from.. to keep it original.. The problem is that goo needs to be removed as techknight has said and tried himself on drives... before it starts spitting all across the platter... If you can catch it before it does you should be in good shape.. I think the goo issue is the main reason these drives fail.

And the drive should be removed from the machine if you don't do it.. I really have seen boards with it dripped on it and have ruined traces.. It plops right down on the solder joints of one particular chip... Also then it get's on the plastic and slowly destroys the integrity and strength of the plastic...

I haven't really screwed with the drives till now but now I have to do all the portables I have... before it kills the original drives... I do have a machine with the scsi to cf adapter but again to try to keep machines in as original condition as possible it is cool to have the original drives working..