So far I haven't had to muck with head alignment. I *have* resurrected several drives by thoroughly cleaning them though. In one case it was so gunked up I put the entire drive in a ziplock bag, filled it with 99% isopropyl alcohol and gave it a good vigorous shaking. Took the drive out of the now muddy looking liquid, shook it out and left it to dry over a heat vent for a few days and it has worked perfectly ever since. Compressed air and a cleaning disk would probably be a less risky approach to the same result.