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Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 Recovery

October 12th, 2018, 10:26

Hi guys, I believe this is the best place for seeking help relating to HDD recovery.

A friend has given me his HDD as a lost hope to see what I can do with it. The loss of data is more of an inconvenience to him rather than it being worth paying £100-£200 for professional recovery.

Basically all he's told me is one day it was working, the next it wasn't working. He didn't mention a power-surge which would be the usual suspect.

I've plugged the HDD into my dock and nothing shows in Windows or BIOS which seems obvious as the drive isn't actually doing anything, it's not spinning, it's not clicking, there's no sound at all.

I tried to do a bit of research so hopefully I could have a head-start before posting here.

Following the information on this forum Clicky and using this image Clicky, I checked the continuity of the TVS Diodes.

Results: Clicky
A = 1. No beep
B = 1. No beep
C = 0.4 Beep
D = 2.6 Beep
E = 1.5 Beep
F = 9.9 Beep

Not really knowing what to do with these results as it was a different from those on the thread, I continued my research.

I read that it was possible to get a replacement board with the exact same serial, and it should spin up, however it won't read anything until the 8 pin ROM chip has been swapped over?
So I found one on Amazon and it arrived today. I swapped it onto the HDD, plugged it in and... nothing.

Funnily enough I checked the continuity of the same Diodes on the new board and although the beeps where the same, the resistor numbers varied quite a lot.
C = 0.3 Beep
D = 1.4 Beep
E = 1.1 Beep
F = 1.1 Beep

However, that was all I was able to come up with, perhaps you guys can help me out?

PS. I have also purchased a USB to TTL adapter in-case this can help any way with diagnosing?

PPS. The date stamp of the HDD is 13057. The serial number of the PCB is 100687658 Rev B.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 Recovery

October 12th, 2018, 17:30

I would vote for a damaged/shorted PRE-AMP (inside the drive) requiring (expensive) clean room work.

Why ? Based on the reputation of this particular range of drives, or is there something specific in the description of the issue and fixing attempts that hints towards this kind of failure ? (I'm having a similar issue with a 2.5" Hitachi HDD, which suddenly no longer works and doesn't make any noise at all.)

Re: Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 Recovery

October 12th, 2018, 23:26

@JMCortinax, can you hear any faint sounds when you press your ear against the drive? If so, then you may have a stiction fault.

Are the motor windings of equal resistance, approximatley 1 ohm?

Re: Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 Recovery

October 13th, 2018, 6:14

fzabkar wrote:@JMCortinax, can you hear any faint sounds when you press your ear against the drive? If so, then you may have a stiction fault.

Are the motor windings of equal resistance, approximatley 1 ohm?

+1

Between any two pins of the motor it has to give the same resistance of just 1-5 ohms (the reading will vary depending on the motor and the calibration of the multimeter) ..
Attachments
Brushless DC Motor and part of motor driver..gif

Re: Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 Recovery

October 13th, 2018, 6:43

fzabkar wrote:@JMCortinax, can you hear any faint sounds when you press your ear against the drive? If so, then you may have a stiction fault.

Are the motor windings of equal resistance, approximatley 1 ohm?


There is no sound at all being made.


mhp666 wrote:+1

Between any two pins of the motor it has to give the same resistance of just 1-5 ohms (the reading will vary depending on the motor and the calibration of the multimeter) ..


After checking first with my spare WD HDD you were right and I was getting readings between 1-2 ohms from each of the motor wires? running under the HDD.

When trying this with the Seagate I was getting no readings at all.


If it helps, the dock I use has a white light that stays on when the WD has spun up. When plugging the Seagatte into the dock, the light just keeps flashing as if it's not recognised.


Spildit wrote:Based on the fact that on this model if you replace the native PCB with another one the drive should spin.

The fact that the drive didn't spin ruled out bad rom code or bad pcb.

Unless the drive have bad spindle or stuck heads (not very likely) i would say that the pre-amp is gone ... Either is shorted preventing the drive from spin or the ROM code does check for pre-amp version, can't get any reply from pre-amp and refuses to start/go further on the code making the drive not to spin.


I take it the pre-amp is not a DIY job then?

Re: Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 Recovery

October 13th, 2018, 8:38

Spildit wrote:Based on the fact that on this model if you replace the native PCB with another one the drive should spin.

The fact that the drive didn't spin ruled out bad rom code or bad pcb.

Unless the drive have bad spindle or stuck heads (not very likely) i would say that the pre-amp is gone ... Either is shorted preventing the drive from spin or the ROM code does check for pre-amp version, can't get any reply from pre-amp and refuses to start/go further on the code making the drive not to spin.
True
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