First post here, and i'm not Englsih, so please bare with me.

Spent most yesterday evening with reading through your forum here, reading alot about older posts, HD problems, DR, etc.
First to the point, and below the backside story.

Problem: Hard disc was in a laptop at a festival here in The Netherlands. Friend said (and i take her word for it, she's obsessively neat with things) there has been no drops or fallen with her laptop.
She came after the festival to me with her laptop complaining she didn't see the secundairy drive in her laptop.
I checked and the drive actually was loose, unplugged in the drive bay. behind the drive was a crappy plastic that couldn't hold the drive in place.
plugged the drive in, better piece of thingy behind the drive so it should stay in place and turned laptop on.
No problem at all, checked the drive, checked the surface-test, etc. all came out as Pass.

She came home, copied all 40gb of her photos to the drive and started working on them.
a week and a half after she came to me she rang again, could'nt see the drive anymore.
so i took it from her (she can't drive) and checked.
drive motor starts, but then click-click-bzzz-click etc etc. disk management can't see it.
My first thought was stuck heads, and after reading through alot of your posts i checked it.
Have a clean room, gloves etc. i unscrewed the screws and opened up the case, heads were in normal parking position and that was it for me, so i didn;t touhc it further
Screwed it back again and my story ended, i'm lacking tools and knowledge for further investigation.
My guess is that the heads have had a poke or anything because the motor runs but it won't get in normal position.
YES i am a newbie with Drive hardware and hardware DR, BUT i'm not a child anymore i'm 43 yrs old.

Backside story (for those interested):

Friend: She's an adorable person, have had alot to cope (?) in life. constant pain so she can't have a normal job, but a real heart of gold. Briliant photographer and she gave me lots of tips for better photographing. Fact, she doesn't have any money, with her last few bucks she bought this 1TB disc so she could work on the photos from the festival.
Sometimes she has a paid photgraphy job but that's nearly enough for her normal expences. (houshold, groceries etc).

Myself: 43 yr old with two kids and a lovely girlfriend, dutch, work as an Engineer on luxury yachts. been involved into computers since i was 12, began with commodore 64, Amiga, 286 Cyrix, etc etc.
keen to learn new things and not afraid to ask or admit that i lack the knowledge.
Mostly i don't want money for the things i do, in alot of cases i help people with computer problems who are on the low-kind of society. without work or illness etc.

Fact:
- she has no money for a professional DR
- my salary also doesn't cope with it for Pro-DR
- keen to learn Professional DR, because i think it doesn't exist here in The Netherlands, at least only for companies
- i have a great deal of respect for the pro's here both software AND hardware, because it is not an easy job. therefore i am fully aware that "freebies"are not handed out.
- If you came to this line i'm gratefull that you read my very long post, my apologies.

Does anybode have ideas of what to do?

Thanks in advance,

RITS

where did she copy the photos *from*? it may be possible to go to those drives and use Data Recovery software to undelete or recover from a raw image of those drives. of course your hard disks are not sympathetic to humans and the fact that we dont have money or are adorable does not present a cheap or easy solution. I would be contacting a DR pro, or putting the drive away and saving up.

Last thing you want to do is kill the remaining chance for her. This feeling of obligation to fix hard disks for people I understand, but can be a real issue and even cost freindships. It comes down to being honest with yourself - and client/freind.
contradictions to the post title and the content about dropping.

also
"heads were in normal parking position..."
and
".. but it won't get in normal position."

If we are assuming a dropped drive, then I really don't think a DIY. PS.. whats the cleanroom for?

Thank you for your reply HaQue, her photos were copied from the SD card from her camera, and she has already taken alot of photo's over it, i'm not sure (by my knowledge) if there is anything to retrieve from. i'll have to look into that.

I understand what you say about not touching the disc any further, so i don't f&ck up more then i already perhaps did. i see the same in my line of work so yeah i see that.
Saving for a DR pro to look at the disc is in her situation not possible so i guess she takes her loss and move on.

Perhaps i can have a go with recovery software on her SD -cards when she comes to retrieve her laptop, will check it out.

By the "normal" position i mean it will not read or anything, it buzzes and clicks, as if the heads are trying to read the disc but can't get onto it and the spring is pulling them back in the park position.
That's what i hear from it anyway.

(Client/friends word) She had her laptop with her the whole time and nothing unusual happend to it. BUT a hard drive doesn't disconnect from it's socket all by himself, from what i saw there had to be a bounce or fall for that situation. Anyway, i think i say goodbye from the disc and move on.

Thanks again for your kind reply HaQue. good day to you.

I forgot, the "cleanroom" is at my work to maintenance navigation equipment from Simrad, B&G and Raymarine and such. not a really sofisticated cleanroom as some of the Pro's might have but it will do the trick.

@Rits73, did you actually observe the heads unload from the parking ramp? Was there any sign that they may have "mashed" into the ramp?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

No fzabkar, i did not start the drive while it was open. It was a "closed observation" but since the heads are at start in Park, the motor starts and spins the disc, and then i hear this sound followed by a click of a spring, i assumed it. i did not see it actually because imho you don't run a drive while open. but correct me if i am wrong.

I also had contact with HGST and they said they will send a new disc for her for free under warranty, on the bright side

#edit: Mashed in the ramp? no i don't think so.. that's not the idea what i get from this, looks and hears like the get on and off the ramp good, but when near the disc the heads sort off collide with the side of the discs... like the offset is wrong. but again, only a closed assumption.