Hi all, new here

A friend dropped his hard drive in my lap - i've had successes with freezing drives - gone so far as to pack them in ice while they are running - swapping boards etc. This one is not the board and i'm wondering if anyone can offer some suggestions. He wants the data but not sure if he's willing to dish out for pro service. I haven't got the tools to change mechanics.

The drive does spin up but seems to do some heavy seeking before it'll recognize in my external USB cage. After maybe 20 to 30 seconds, the system will install the drive but it doesn't completely recognize. The weird part is that it's recognized as a ST250032 0AS with the space (there shouldn't be a space). I haven't taken the cover off cause I don't know if he wants to send it in.

I lucked out with the drive as I have an identical sata seagate (size, firmware, model) in my test linux box. It's hardly used and works fine. I plugged it into my external cage to confirm. Swapped that board into the bad drive and still the same issue - so it's not the board. Picks up as ST250032 0AS with the space again. Put the good board back on my good drive, all is good.

I don't know if the platters are scratched, head stack is shot or what but it seems to be something to with the mechanics.

Anyone have any ideas?

Heads and/or media damage, requires physical cleanroom work I'm afraid.

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That's what I figured... there's a known issue with the firmware on these drives as well but I think it's gone beyond that point as well. Thanks.

First of all, I know it's the catch phrase for this board. If your data is important, send the drive to a pro. Your stories of freezing drives and packing them in ice don't inspire a lot of confidence.

Secondly, USB is not the ideal way to access a drive. If you are determined to try this yourself or if the data isn't important enough to pay to have it done properly, start by attaching the drive directly to a motherboard (SATA or IDE). The fact that the drive is recognized in the external usb enclosure would give me some hope that I may be able to image the drive (or at least part of it). Assuming you don't have a hardware imager like DDI, use a good software program like ddrescue or Media Tools Pro. The first is free, the second you would have to pay for.

Again, if it's not something you can stand to lose, I wouldn't play around with it any further. But if you want to try, hope that helps. Good luck.

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Even when you exchange boards between two working drives, the result will be that neither drive will work. This is because each board has unique, drive specific "adaptive" data stored in a serial EEPROM.

That said, don't be tempted to try a ROM swap. Your drive has a HDA fault, not a PCB fault.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.