HHEELLPPP!! My 750 Gb Seagate harddrive fell from my desk

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July 21st, 2009, 10:55 PM
aryt

HHEELLPPP!! My 750 Gb Seagate harddrive fell from my desk

Hi everyone. I spent six months downloading files and documents and saving videos and pictures etc. etc.in a 750 Gb Seagate harddrive in a NexStar External 3.5" Enclosure eSata & USB 2.0 Interface; which when shaken the harddrive could have been heard moving a bit inside.

One day I shook the table a bit while downloading some files and everything mentioned on the first paragraph fell to the ground. When I tried connecting everything again my pc didnt manage to recognize the harddrive and all I could hear was a clicking sound every 2 to 3 seconds. I gave it to an IT friend of mine and tried to see if it was the wires on the enclosure but negative, nothing was found.

After several months of investigating how costly it is to recover data from a harddrive I decided to open it myself and see the defect with my own eyes. I opened the lid from the hard drive and saw that while spinning the read/write heads after 2 to 3 seconds gives a quick jump to the side of the platters and comes back and then repeats the same thing again.(the clicking sound)

I still have it connected to the enclosure wire when all this happens and once it is turned on from the enclosure and I turn on my pc...it starts spinning and clicking for about 5-10 minutes after being logged on to the windows desktop and then it eventually stops spinning and clicking and does nothing...:(

........any ideas??? At this moment I am willing to try and swap anything that you believe is faulty or damaged to that of another identical harddrive...platters?? spindle motor?? spindle?? read/write heads??head actuator?? control(logic) board?

I really dont know what Im doing but I am desperate and will try anything. So it would be very helpful if you would be very detailed on any precautions, procedures, do's and donts that you think might help in assisting me in recovering the data...pleaseeee :):p

Thanks alot guys....hope to hear from you soon...and have a nice day

Sincerely
aryt
July 22nd, 2009, 01:08 AM
Shinma

Opinion,
Type of damage described, self repair would not be a reasonable option.
July 22nd, 2009, 01:12 AM
Midknyte

Quote:

I opened the lid from the hard drive and saw that while spinning the read/write heads after 2 to 3 seconds gives a quick jump to the side of the platters and comes back and then repeats the same thing again.(the clicking sound)

Wrong move. Opening the casing can allow dust or other contaminants to get onto the platters.

Did you try removing the drive from the enclosure and connecting it directly to the motherboard?

Quote:

........any ideas??? At this moment I am willing to try and swap anything that you believe is faulty or damaged to that of another identical harddrive...platters?? spindle motor?? spindle?? read/write heads??head actuator?? control(logic) board

Unless you have a "clean room", you have more chance of messing up your drive than actually recovering data. The more you mess with, the more expensive it will be to get the data recovered from a professional company.

Why is the data on the external your only copies? Externals are for BACKUPS, meaning they are DUPLICATES of your original files.
July 22nd, 2009, 02:20 AM
aryt

thanks shinma

Thanks for the advice...but I have no $$$$ to try any thing else. If you figure out any other way or know of someone who could shine some light on this for me I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
aryt
July 22nd, 2009, 03:07 AM
aryt

Thanks shinma and midknyte

Hmmm, I know im not supposed to take off anything if its not a dustfree or "clean room" especially without the appropriate tools. I have no back up of the data and I dont have any other choices as to wear to send it to get fixed due to having "holy pockets" :) (no $$$). I have read online of hooking it up to Linux based OS or Ubuntu but I have no idea where I would get those. I saw one guy spin the platters without any motor using like a brush drill or something and his pc actually started reading it...weird.. and another guy changed his damaged control board from an 80 Gb harddrive to that of a 40 Gb hard drive. Thus, the 40Gb control board ending up passing the 80Gb harddrives data to his pc....even more weird... I was hoping I could just do something like that...but I dont know....it seemed to have worked for them... but in reality I dont know whats the Diagnosis to begin with... :( ... what do you think midknyte??
July 22nd, 2009, 06:04 AM
Midknyte

I think that's complete BS. You might get something, but the data wouldn't be intact.

For a controller board swap, it would have to be from the same model and same firmware, if anything.
July 22nd, 2009, 04:18 PM
aryt

thanks midkyte

yeah...the guy in the video did say that it was from the same model and firmware...check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUnmcb***LA

and here is just one more I would like you to see aswell and tell me what ya think...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIPZtJyrVPw

....What do you recommend on doing first considering the options I have??:cool::eek:
July 22nd, 2009, 11:10 PM
Midknyte

The first link got filtered out. I looked at the second link and I would not recommend it either. He said it was done in a "clean room" anyway.

In any case, I think you have a greater chance of ruining the drive than you do of recovering data. The more you tamper with the drive, the less likely you'll be able to get the data off and the more expensive it will be to get data recovered professionally.