Okay guys, I hope i'm welcomed with open arms to this community

Well my friend came to me today with his laptop hard drive, it's a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 and the platters just dont spin.
The noise it gives off is exactly like the ones in this topic here on hddguru:
momentus-5400-spindle-stiction-t15206.html

Would it be possible to get the platter out and pop it in a new replacement drive to get what he needs off. We really cant afford full on data recovery.
All we want is like 5-10 minutes to pull what he wants off.

It's not entirely the end of the world if it is lost but it would be nice to get it done.

I have tried the freezer trick but it hasn't done anything. I'm now going to leave it in there overnight and try it in the morning. in 1 sealed bag inside another sealed bag. please tell me if this is not a good idea and i'll get it out.

Hi,

Firstly the freezer trick is bad idea, components expand & contract with heat or cold + you could end up with water condensation in the drive.
You mention about removing the platters? If your drive has multiple platters then you would need specialist tool to remove them all at the same time keeping their allignment & that cost a lot of £'s + you need a lot of practice removing the heads without them touching (+ more tools & £'s) or them touching & damaging the platters + you would require a cleanroom to open the drive in (yet more £'s).
As you say its not the end of the world if the data is lost then I'm assuming that they are accepting the responsability of a DIY route? otherwise they would use a DR company.

If it is a stuck head on the platter their is a slim chance (via DIY) you could unstick it & if its not damaged then you might be lucky in recovering the data if so get the data off asap & bin the drive.

Loki

there is a fair few instances of people swapping the platter into a Duplicate drive with the exact same firmware and having some limited time to grab stuff off.

All we need is a good 10 minutes.

The drive is single platter I think.
It's a seagate ST9120822AS. I "Think" its a single platter drive. Been reading up a lot today and it all seems do-able if we're careful.

Would taking the new spare drive apart and finding out how to disassemble it enough to get the platter out unscratched be a good idea? Becuase the second drives platter is of no importance.
How would one pull the platter out? Would a nice clean ziploc bag inside out with my hand inside picking it up be a good idea?

Really not recommended that you do this...

Keep in mind that upon examining the drive and you do find out it is stiction, you will not need to swap the platter as the motor should be fine.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

I don't think it's stiction. But obviously i'm not entirely up to knowledge as you guys on here.

What is a cause of stiction? force on top of the drive?
How can it be fixed easily?


Would a quick cleanbox creation and a quick opening of the drive to have a look be a bad ideA?

Any of this can be a bad idea when one does not have experience.

_________________
Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

This is something that gives experience.

There's no way you learned how to do everything you know now without practicing.
Would you mind keeping the un-helpful comments to yourself and giving some input?

If you really think about this, stiction is the heads being stuck to the platter. So, if you go the route of moving the platters, you have to do the following:

1. Remove the PCB from the donor drive
2. Remove the heads from the donor drive
3. Remove the platter(s) from the donor drive
4. Remove the PCB from the damaged drive
5. Unstick the heads from the damaged drive
6. Remove the heads from the damaged drive
7. Remove the platters from the damaged drive
8. Insert the damaged drive platters into the donor enclosure
9. Insert a working set of heads into the donor
10. Connect the PCB from the damaged drive onto the donor
11. Clean up any mess you left behind
12. Power the drive on and hope that you didn't damage the surface or the heads and the platter(s) is/are balanced and aligned. (you may need PC3000 or equivalent tool in order to get the drive to detect, even if the transplant went smoothly

Or you could do this:

1. Free up the heads and move them back to the parking ramp
2. Visually inspect the heads to ensure that they aren't damaged
3. Visually inspect the surface to ensure that it isn't damaged
4. Power on the drive and hope that you weren't wrong with steps 2 & 3

That all being said, if you get the drive to detect, you would be wise to avoid trying to access the file system and get a full sector-by-sector clone of the drive first. By targeting the file system, the odds are higher that you will cause the drive to completely crash before you copy one or two files off.

Assuming that you haven't opened the drive already, a simple case of freeing up the heads by a lab is likely to be fairly cheap. Once you start at it, the price jumps and the odds of success goes down.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

thanks for the input!

A couple of questions:
-Whats the best program to do a full clone of the drive?
-Moving the heads back to the parking ramp would be done by moving it at the actuator arm axis point?
-how much are we talking for the PC3000?
-By the heads being "Stuck" to the platter. What exactly does that mean? Is there some sort of magnets in the head?

thanks agan

I have the feeling that NOW the words 'youtube' , 'I heard that...' , 'I saw that...' and 'percussive maintenance' can make an appearance...

that's the reason i'm here...
To hear from people that do stuff like this first hand.

Heres what I did on a Hitachi drive with head stickion:

I took the lid off the drive & found the heads were parked on the platters & not at the inner or outer edge where they should be depending on the drive. I used a desk fan to keep a constant airflow across the drive to try & keep dust particles to a minimal as I dont have a cleanroom. I used a very small flat screwdriver to see if I could very gently lift the arm for the top head from the platter (do not touch the platter or head). Mine was stuck but with a very lite pressure (dont bend the arm) it came free. The head was still intact on the arm. I then checked the motor wasn't seized by rotating it anti clockwise. Their was a slight mark where the head had been on the platter but there's nothing you can do about that. I then rotated the the platters as i moved the heads to the outer edge. Then I replaced the lid & was surprised that when I booted it up it was recognised by windows & was able to access the data.

Remember you will probably only get one chance at doing this!!! screw it up & bye bye data.

Loki.

PS:
seagate ST9120822AS has 2 platters / discs, see link below 2.1
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/supp ... 98882d.pdf

I cracked the lid open for a quick peak underneath and the head was actually parked half way accross the drive. Like the same distance from the middle and the side.

So it seems to be sticktion?

Should I try lifting the actuator arm up the furthest away from the platter to help prevent potential danger?

I used a very small flat screwdriver (placed near to the head but not toching it ie on the arm) to see if I could very gently lift the top head from the platter. Mine was stuck but with a very lite pressure (dont bend the arm) it came free. Once free I rotated the platters using the screws. If the arm points left you rotate the platters clockwise if right then rotate anti clockwise.

Loki

I apologize if the message appeared to be unhelpful... it was actually helpful in the fact that I was trying to convey to you that you, like many others, will likely not be successful in dealing with a stiction issue. Was trying to save your data...

As far as practice, you can definitely practice on another drive if you have any... but that again can be tricky as stiction can come in different flavors.

_________________
Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

What is the actual details of stiction?
Like whatt can be the cause and what does it actually mean? Is there some sort of magnet in the arm that's stuck to the platter?


if Loki is right then couldn't I quickly open it aand put light pressure to detach it then quickly chuck the lid back on in a clean environment?

I don't see any damage I am causing other than potentially bending the actuator arm. but obviously I may have missed something

in short:
The stiction caused by the air pressure in the atmosphere.
without knowledge you can only bend the arms, and do more damage of the platter wich have allready under the head.
If you force to free up the head, the head will stuck again because the arm will press out the air again on another location, and the platter will have another damaged area and so on....
(And you can break the head-holder spring of cours.)
(And you have more than just one head what you see...)

Janos

but how is the head staying stuck on to the platter? By a magnet or by force?

No, there is no magnet in the arm. But the slider containing the actual read/write component is stuck to the platter, like "glued" so to speak. This can occur because of various reasons: high temperature, wear and tear, drop, etc. can be anything or a number of things.

The problem is: without having experience with how to "unstick" if you will, you can cause media (platter) damage as the magnetic coating surface is sensitive to scratching or whatever. Once the scratching is severe enough, access to data is more than likely not possible.

You also said yourself, that bending the arm's ends is possible, so that just complicates things, a lot.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

just noticed this, sorry.

Would it still be do-able even if it has 2 platters?