Hi Folks,

I just got a Segate 7200.11 500GB with motor running very fast.
It starts up and the motor goes ballistics, it sounds much faster than the normal and because of that i assume the FW can't be read properly.
So it stays busy and motor stops than try again - stuck in this loop.

I connected to terminal and i can't see any startup lines, it gets directly to T level.

Any advise would be great as this is the first time i see this behaviour.

I tried to spin down and up manually and got the following spin error:


F3 T>

F3 T>/2

F3 2>Z

Spin Down Complete
Elapsed Time 0.150 msecs
F3 2>U

Error 1009 DETSEC 00006008
Spin Error
Elapsed Time 16.011 secs
R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180
F3 2>/1

F3 1>

Check servo framing with a DDA and you have the answer and possible cause in 30 seconds. What was the 'story' of the drive ? (* cough! *)

Hi mate, the customer says that he just happened without anything special, but you can never know if that's the truth.

Sorry but the terminology you are using is not clear to me, what do you mean by chcEk the servo framing with DDA?

Thanks,
Oded

Forget the DDA then... Do heads MOVE and pcb match ? I have a certain feeling...

the PCB is the original one there is a match, the heads are moving.

I just tried it few more time with DC:
1. Power up.
2. the motor spins very fast and the head trying to read.
3. after around 10-12 seconds it moves to ready state and motor spin down.
4. when i try to read HDD info, i can read model number and serial number right with LBA 0.
5. Motor stays spinned down and no access to data.

It seems to me that heads are toast and you will probably have to move platters to another chassis due to servo problems.

This is going to be a tough one.

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Same thought. That's why at first glance I suggested to check the servo framing (with that error). That's what I do.

Thanks for the advise guys.

Just for my understanding as i am not familiar with servo framing but it sounds interesting:
when you are talking about servo framing, you mean that the servo area in ecapsulated inside some frame with a header similiar to network protocols? and does this servo frame has some sync stream of bits which the heads waits to find in order to find the location of the servo?

And based on this assumption if i guessed right, if the sync stream of bits is not found, this is the result, fast motor?

How is it possible to check if servo framing is corrupted?
And why moving the platters into a new chasis may solve this? alignment issues?

Thanks,
Oded

TMQ

Oded,

I reckon you are familiar with this link: http://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_Tracks_and_Zones.html
Info about the servo system is found halfway down the web page.

DDA: http://teledynelecroy.com/oscilloscope/ ... series=343
Slightly expensive piece of equipment. Older used DDAs can be found for roughly 3-4k USD. Unless you are lucky to get one supplied with the DDA, you will also have to buy a differential probe. Which is not cheap either...

Differential probe sometimes is comparable in price with an used dda. I KNOW

You forgot to mention the flux capacitor.

Thanks Eleg i'll have a read in the sources and reserach it more.

Regarding this case do you beleive there is a chance for recovery if i'll replace the heads or its not worth the try?

No promises but thinking about how speed regulation is done, and with the behaviour you describe, then personally I'd try a suitable replacement PCB first (easier than a head swap ). I suspect the servo error may be "effect", not "cause"...

Thanks for the advise i also believe that the servo is not the cause as from the start of the spin it does a weird noise, i replaced thw pcb with identical one without rom transfer just to see how it spins but it was the same, do you think rom transfer can change something in this case?
Thx

The motor controller energises each pair of motor windings in sequence, while using the third winding for RPM sensing. Place a card underneath the preamp contacts and spin up the drive. Is its speed any different? Do you still believe that the speed is too high? If so, then the problem will have nothing to do with the servo data or the heads.

BTW, if you don't have any proper equipment, you can still determine the actual speed of the drive using a microphone, sound card, and Fourier analysis software.

See http://www.silentpcreview.com/article786-page2.html

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@odedshankar,

Check your PM

Hi Guys,

I opened up the drive in a clean room and it looked like Europe after world war 2 - a big mess
The heads crushed ans curved deeply all the top surface an I assume the lower one to of the platters, that is why the speed sounded different as while motor was spinning the heads were scratching the surface.

That is by the far the worst hdd condition that i have seen, all scratched deeply, filter is all black of the fragments.

No chance in hell to recover that.


Thanks for your advise.
Oded

Thanks for the update. As you explain, now it's unfortunately clear that the unusual noise wasn't the motor going too fast, so I was looking for the cause of a different problem, sorry.

Where are the files? In the filter...

Yep unfortunately the all file system is sucked into the filter