Dead hard drive?

[thevan]

Hey all, I've been out of the computer loop for awhile but the other day my 1.5TB Seagate of 4 or 5 years (and full of precious data) was dropped from around a foot or two. This was in a 3.5" Nexxtech enclosure so I imagine this to have softened the blow somewhat.

So anyway, now the drive no longer spins up, but instead makes a beeping noise every 2 or 3 seconds. Would anyone of experience care to shed some light on this? Am I out of luck or are there ways to try and fix this myself (and/or for <$100)?

 

[JAG87]

You're probably SOL.

You can try dropping it from a foot or so again to see if the motor un-sticks, but you might even do more damage if the heads crash on the platter. Either way, if you're not considering professional data recovery you have nothing to loose. Hit it a few times.

 

[thm1223]

I accidentally voted yes to the poll, but the real answer is most likely not.

Whether the data is recoverable or no is potentially a different story.

 

[jolancer]

I would... Test it Out of the enclosure first.

if still not working. and you dont want to pay to have data recoverd from it. so notihing to loose? I'd take the top off... theres not that many moving parts, just to check see if maybe the the arm's for the head's became undocked or something, perhaps theres a safety mechenism that stops the disk from spinning up if the heads become undocked to save them from scratching up your platters... I would not hit it again as einstein's grandchild above suggested... perhaps his mother forgot to drop him on his head the 2nd time to try and unstick the motor in his head :/ EDIT: Yea just FYI if not clear... no way the 'motor' is stuck.

EDIT: apon quick google of the enclosure, it looks like a cheap encloser with mediocur ratings? if so the encloser is perhaps the only thing that got damaged. I'd be saprized if the driver is actually dead from such a short fall?

 

[Blain]

...the other day my 1.5TB Seagate of 4 or 5 years (and full of precious data) was dropped from around a foot or two.

Am I out of luck or are there ways to try and fix this myself (and/or for <$100)?

* Can the drive be "fixed" and put back into reliable service = no
* Can the data be extracted from the drive = yes
* Can you do that extraction yourself for less than $100 = probably not
If the precious data is worth $300-$800 you should send it off to a data recovery company.
The only situation where you should open the drive (the actual HD), is if you are absolutely NOT going to spend any money on it for data recovery.

 

[bryanl]

This will likely require nothing short of transplanting the platters into an identical but working hard drive and backing up those platters from there. Then that drive must be copied to a brand new drive because any hard drive with physically damaged platters cannot be trusted.

 

[JAG87]

I would... Test it Out of the enclosure first.

if still not working. and you dont want to pay to have data recoverd from it. so notihing to loose? I'd take the top off... theres not that many moving parts, just to check see if maybe the the arm's for the head's became undocked or something, perhaps theres a safety mechenism that stops the disk from spinning up if the heads become undocked to save them from scratching up your platters... I would not hit it again as einstein's grandchild above suggested... perhaps his mother forgot to drop him on his head the 2nd time to try and unstick the motor in his head :/ EDIT: Yea just FYI if not clear... no way the 'motor' is stuck.

EDIT: apon quick google of the enclosure, it looks like a cheap encloser with mediocur ratings? if so the encloser is perhaps the only thing that got damaged. I'd be saprized if the driver is actually dead from such a short fall?

Good luck opening the drive outside of a clean room. Opening the hard drive is a 99% guarantee that it will never work again.

OP, another trick you can try is putting it in a freezer. If you lower the temperature enough, you will slightly affect some physical dimensions of metal parts, that might be all is needed to get it to spin again. But make sure that before you freeze it, you insulate the bottom of the drive where the circuit board is with non conductive duct tape , otherwise condensation will kill it.

 

[jolancer]

for the love of god. if this is the kinda help people get now, i cringe at the thought after world population triples and a higher percentage also get availability to online access.

If im the only one here who can disassemble a HDD and put it back together without breaking it... where do you genius's get your information? JAG87 im gana try and ask this as nicely as humanly possible, do not comment on anything i say unless you go see a doc for down syndrome.

for the rest, way to keep things in perspective.... Do you all seriously think, The op was asking if the drive is recoverable for reliable long turm operation? All he needs is for it to spin up so he can extract the F'n data. And some how i doubt the CIA would come to this board for advice so if he looses 1 out of a trillion bytes of data i doubt he's gana cry over it.

I feel like a special Ed teacher for having to explain this( Op this isnt for you this is for them).. On a good working drive do you want to physically unscrew and open it? NO, Will physically opening the Drive Kill it? NO, Will opening the drive expose it to the elemants if not in a clean room and shorten its life span? YES... if your not a clutz with common sense can you open a drive and still beable to extract data from it if its operational befor the "air" kills it? YES

Personal attacks are NOT acceptable in the technical forums
-ViRGE

 

[Blain]

Mr. Special Ed,
Do you agree or disagree with the following advice?

The only situation where you should open the drive (the actual HD), is if you are absolutely NOT going to spend any money on it for data recovery.

 

[JAG87]

for the love of god. if this is the kinda help people get now, i cringe at the thought after world population triples and a higher percentage also get availability to online access.

If im the only one here who can disassemble a HDD and put it back together without breaking it... where do you genius's get your information? JAG87 im gana try and ask this as nicely as humanly possible, do not comment on anything i say unless you go see a doc for down syndrome.

for the rest, way to keep things in perspective.... Do you all seriously think, The op was asking if the drive is recoverable for reliable long turm operation? All he needs is for it to spin up so he can extract the F'n data. And some how i doubt the CIA would come to this board for advice so if he looses 1 out of a trillion bytes of data i doubt he's gana cry over it.

I feel like a special Ed teacher for having to explain this( Op this isnt for you this is for them).. On a good working drive do you want to physically unscrew and open it? NO, Will physically opening the Drive Kill it? NO, Will opening the drive expose it to the elemants if not in a clean room and shorten its life span? YES... if your not a clutz with common sense can you open a drive and still beable to extract data from it if its operational befor the "air" kills it? YES

Rofl, considering I work in IT for a large enterprise and probably come across more dead hard drives in a month than you did in your entire life, I can certify for you that success rate is far higher by giving a slight concussion to a drive than opening it.

 

[taltamir]

Do you all seriously think, The op was asking if the drive is recoverable for reliable long turm operation?

That is clearly what he is asking for. Why do you assume the op is an expert and knows better? It is unfair to give him misleading advice by excluding the basics because you assume he already knows them
Even if he didn't know it isn't stupid to repeat the basics just in case.

All he needs is for it to spin up so he can extract the F'n data.

There is nothing he can do to make it work again just by opening it. He would need actual spare parts to replace the damaged components; taken from an identical drive.

I feel like a special Ed teacher for having to explain this( Op this isnt for you this is for them).. On a good working drive do you want to physically unscrew and open it? NO, Will physically opening the Drive Kill it? NO, Will opening the drive expose it to the elemants if not in a clean room and shorten its life span? YES... if your not a clutz with common sense can you open a drive and still beable to extract data from it if its operational befor the "air" kills it? YES

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, but you seem certain that you know best and everyone else is "special"...

Air doesn't kill HDDs, they are full of air. The problem with opening the HDD is that even very small dust particles will get inside and then will trapped between the heads and the platters and will scrape up the platters ruining them. In so doing creating more dust to get trapped in the drive. A cleanroom environment is critical.

Furthermore, opening it only gives you access to the platters. It does not let you extract data unless you have a working unit to use for spare parts.

 

[WilliamM2]

I feel like a special Ed teacher for having to explain this( Op this isnt for you this is for them)..

Your spelling, punctuation, and advice, makes you look more like a student.

 

[Shmee]

Let's cool down a bit and move back to trying to help the OP, civilly, and the best we can. No more personal attacks, trolling, or baiting.

Moderator Shmee

 

[jolancer]

[redacted]

(1) That is clearly what he is asking for. Why do you assume the op is an expert and knows better?
(2) He would need actual spare parts to replace the damaged components; taken from an identical drive.
(3) Air doesn't kill HDDs, they are full of air.
(4) Furthermore, opening it only gives you access to the platters. It does not let you extract data unless you have a working unit to use for spare parts.

1) He asked maturely, no reason yet for me to believe he lacks 'common sense', look around theres a million threads with people posting clearly without any common sense, you wont see me post in those topics for few reasons but mainly 1-you cant teach 'common sense' and 2-im not a post hore
2)you clearly did not even read my post, and forgive me i must have missed the part where he described the drive being in a car wreck, that part must have gotten sucked up by a webhole and replaced with "dropped a foot" from a comment somwere on the far side of the web.
3)interpretation is going outa style? 'air' as in everything it encompases dust, moisture, etc, If everything was written without common sense or interpretation 'WilliamM2' would be having a wordgasm
4)you seem like you know how to read and write very well, yet you clearly did not read my previous post

(1)another trick is putting it in a freezer. But make sure that before you freeze it, you insulate the bottom where the circuit board is, otherwise condensation will kill it.
(2)Rofl, considering I work in IT for a large enterprise. I can certify that success rate is far higher by giving a slight concussion than opening it.

1)So better to drop a sealed drive's temp down to unanticipated arctic operating temps and hope they had all the air pressure removed by a vac chamber when sealed so it has no chance of forming condensation inside, and dropping an unseizable fluid dynamic or grease bearing to slugish temps... Thx ill keep that one in mind when the day comes i loose my sanity. OH yeah not to mention, your advice for condensation is reversly wrong. Just FYI condensation goes from warm>cold, not the other way around.
2)Thx for explaining that, i know a guy who does exact same job, usually comes to me or someone else for help when his computer doesnt give him the answer for him. Good for u though, with your job and experience i am FULLY convinced of your certifiable drop testing abilities
[redacted]

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here since you were probably in the middle of writing this post when you received your infraction. But your attitude sucks and needs to improve, quickly.
-ViRGE

 

[taltamir]

1) He asked maturely, no reason yet for me to believe he lacks 'common sense'

If electronics were common sense, our ancestors would have figured them out millions of years ago.

2)you clearly did not even read my post, and forgive me i must have missed the part where he described the drive being in a car wreck, that part must have gotten sucked up by a webhole and replaced with "dropped a foot" from a comment somwere on the far side of the web.

Drive works -> Drive dropped of foot -> Drive no longer works
There is only one possible explanation and that is physical damage.

It doesn't need to be smashed to pieces, if the drive got physically broken you will need spare parts and cannot just open it up, fiddle with its internals using "common sense electrical engineering", and have it suddenly working again.

 

[rsutoratosu]

http://www.hdrconline.com/platter-exchanger-tool.php

If you are doing the transplant method, they have these platter tool to help you move the platters. You may need to find one thats specific to your 1.5tb platter size