During hard drive assembly processes, hard drive assembly tools may use locating pins to engage hard drive components for aligning the hard drive components with the hard drive assembly tools. However, contact between the locating pins and the hard drive components may result in abrasion and the shedding of particles from the locating pins and/or hard drive components during the hard drive assembly processes. These particles may contaminate hard drives during their assembly, which may result in reduced reliability and/or failure of the hard drives. Thus, it is desirable to minimize the amount of particles that hard drives are exposed to during their assembly, particularly during the alignment of hard drive components using locating pins.