hi all

I have recieved a drive for repair HTS541060G9AT00 for recovery that has been in to another recovery company, one of the larger well known ones.

the customer has advised that he has been told the platters are scratched. Upon opening the drive i found some finger prints on the platter but no visible scratches on the top platter. I am not sure about the other platters however.

the drive has a bad click when powered on, after backingup the nvram, finding an exact donor drive ( eact board numbers, model numbers, just different MLC numbers ) i replaced the board, and was able to get the drive to only have 1 click at power on, then it becomes ready, still does not id,

I did a SA check with the results posted below.

My questions are
looking at the reports attached is there any way of actually saying if there would be some platter damage somewhere?

should i look at replacing the heads, i dont really want to loose a working set of heads to this drive?

if i replace the heads wil i need to match the exact MLC number for this drive or can i assume that the above donor with identical board will be ok?

i have inspected the chamber in detail under a microscope and found no traces of anything that would indicate any kind of platter scratch on there.

1st log


Selected family......................... : HTS541
Model by ID............................. : <ID IS NOT READ>

Techno mode key......................... : Ok
NV-RAM reading.......................... : Ok

Module not read (RESF)
Error : Device error detected (ABR)
Loading modules table................................................. : Error
Error :............................................................... : Module not read (RESF)
Error : Device error detected (ABR)
Loading the table of "open" modules................................... : Error
Error :............................................................... : Error executing loading "open" modules dir command
Module ZONE is not found!
Module is not loaded (RESF, Main module table)


Test : Start SA checking

Module is not loaded (RESF, Main module table)
NV-RAM reading.......................... : Ok

Module checking
Module RSVD Copy 0...................... : Error
Module RSVD Copy 1...................... : Error
Module RSVD Copy F...................... : Error
Module RESF Copy 0...................... : Error
Module RESF Copy 1...................... : Error
Module RESF Copy F...................... : Error
Module RAM0 is not found!

Module not created! RAM0
Module OVR0 is not found!

Module not created! OVR0
Module OVR1 is not found!

Module not created! OVR1
Module IDNT is not found!

Module not created! IDNT
Module CNS1 is not found!

Module not created! CNS1
Module MLBA is not found!

Module not created! MLBA
Module PIDM is not found!

Module not created! PIDM
Module ZONE is not found!

Module not created! ZONE
Module RDMT is not found!

Module not created! RDMT
Module MFGP is not found!

Module not created! MFGP
Module RAM0 is not found!

Module not created! RAM0
Module OVR0 is not found!

Module not created! OVR0
Module OVR1 is not found!

Module not created! OVR1
Module IDNT is not found!

Module not created! IDNT
Module CNS1 is not found!

Module not created! CNS1
Module MLBA is not found!

Module not created! MLBA
Module PIDM is not found!

Module not created! PIDM
Module ZONE is not found!

Module not created! ZONE
Module RDMT is not found!

Module not created! RDMT
Module MFGP is not found!

Module not created! MFGP
Module RAM0 is not found!

Module not created! RAM0
Module OVR0 is not found!

Module not created! OVR0
Module OVR1 is not found!

Module not created! OVR1
Module IDNT is not found!

Module not created! IDNT
Module CNS1 is not found!

Module not created! CNS1
Module MLBA is not found!

Module not created! MLBA
Module PIDM is not found!

Module not created! PIDM
Module ZONE is not found!

Module not created! ZONE
Module RDMT is not found!

Module not created! RDMT
Module MFGP is not found!

Module not created! MFGP
Module RAM0 is not found!

Module not created! RAM0
Module OVR0 is not found!

Module not created! OVR0
Module OVR1 is not found!

Module not created! OVR1
Module IDNT is not found!

Module not created! IDNT
Module CNS1 is not found!

Module not created! CNS1
Module MLBA is not found!

Module not created! MLBA
Module PIDM is not found!

Module not created! PIDM
Module ZONE is not found!

Module not created! ZONE
Module RDMT is not found!

Module not created! RDMT
Module MFGP is not found!

Module not created! MFGP



report

Selected family......................... : HTS541
Model by ID............................. : <ID IS NOT READ>
ROM ID.................................. : A60A
NV-RAM ID............................... : A61A
RESF version............................ : <ERROR!>

===


NV-RAM parameters
-----------------

NV-RAM report
Loaded.................................. : Yes
Checksum................................ : Ok
mu-code................................. : A61A
FW Ver Code............................. : 0x1E602135
Head map................................ : 0 1 2 0
FW boot flag............................ : 0x01
SA top cyl delimiters (by heads)........ : 0x8093; 0x8093; 0x8093; 0x0

Used module table
-----------------

Report on module RESF, "Main module table"
ABA..................................... : 7FE20000
Length (sectors)........................ : 2
Loaded.................................. : No




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ID : Copy : Importn.: ABA : ABA : Size : Read : Size : Address in : Read : Hdr : Description
: : : original): (sect): (sect): (byte) : RAM : : :
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVD : 0 : B : 7FD20000 : 7FD20000 : 3 : 0 : 1536 : 00000000 : No : : SA marker
RSVD : 1 : B : 7FD21000 : 7FD20000 : 3 : 0 : 1536 : 00000000 : No : : SA marker
RSVD : F : B : 7FD00000 : 7FD20000 : 3 : 0 : 1536 : 00000000 : No : : SA marker
RESF : 0 : B : 7FE20000 : 7FE20000 : 2 : 0 : 1024 : 00000000 : No : : Main module table
RESF : 1 : B : 7FE21000 : 7FE20000 : 2 : 0 : 1024 : 00000000 : No : : Main module table
RESF : F : B : 7FE00000 : 7FE20000 : 2 : 0 : 1024 : 00000000 : No : : Main module table

Modules checking completed


Information about copy 0
------------------------

Module not loaded! ID = RSVD Copy 0; SA marker
Error : Module is not loaded (RSVD, SA marker)

Module not loaded! ID = RESF Copy 0; Main module table
Error : Module is not loaded (RESF, Main module table)


Information about copy 1
------------------------

Module not loaded! ID = RSVD Copy 1; SA marker
Error : Module is not loaded (RSVD, SA marker)

Module not loaded! ID = RESF Copy 1; Main module table
Error : Module is not loaded (RESF, Main module table)


Information about factory copy
------------------------------

Module not loaded! ID = RSVD Copy F; SA marker
Error : Module is not loaded (RSVD, SA marker)

Module not loaded! ID = RESF Copy F; Main module table
Error : Module is not loaded (RESF, Main module table)


Information about common modules (Open+Spec)
--------------------------------------------


thank you for all your help

ok for a start it looks like your drive is beyond recovery point

service area has gone bye bye

as it can not pickup the service area of the drive.
this could be down to possible to other problems

1)logic board is damaged (which is possible not)
2)possible underside of platter is damaged which you can not see. (remove the headstack and see if its bent upwards
3)service area is damage (inner rings which would normal show platter damage)
4)service area of the drive aka Module are destroyed
5)the bottom platter has shifted


i would not waste any more time on this problem

as for opening a drive up and finding finger prints tell you that the company who had it before is not a pro
and is a novice.

Hi thankyou for the reply

With the original board there was always clicking and did not reach ready state.
At least the donor board gets to ready state with no click.

I suspect it isbeyond recovery as you never know the history especially since finger prints were found on the platter so you can imagine what else may have been done.

Looking at the heads under microscope they look perfect and not bent in anyway which is why I didn't want to give up just yet.

As with other cases I have found in the past that sometimes these larger companies have no clue and I have found this accross of repairs and with 2 cars I owned.

After you swapped the PCB, did the heads move out of the ramp?

I've noticed that with the Hitachi J9SA00 series, drives can come ready but nothing is actually read from the platters.

I'll bet you'll see a difference in head behavior upon start-up when you use the original PCB vs. the donor board.

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

Hi jono ats

It sounds like heads are moving of the ramp I will double chech this to confirm
When I replaced the board with a donor board I did reapply the nvram from the patient board so I currently have donor board with original nvram from patient drive
If I install the original patient board to patient drive there is severe clicking

Thx for reply will keep you posted

hmmm if the head stack is no damaged that means that it wont have any platter damaged
unless the company who had it to begin with has done something to it.
possible shifted the platters out

did they say to the client they can do the recovery or not possible.

this sounds like dirty tricks