We crossed posts.
Those screws are Torx type - most hardware shops have the drivers.
Does sound a bit more like a controller problem now though. Well worth trying.
As I said, don't open it up. It will have two or three discs in it, with inter-leafed read/write fingers so that you can only see one head anyway. They are now so tiny that a decent breath would move them. There are no parts that can be changed without disturbing the disc and heads, and if you were to disturb the discs there will be no chance of recovering anything!