"Thorny" Refurbished Maxtor Headstack Replacement (6y160M)

[dubya]

Ok, have about 2 working Maxtor 6y160M0 drives and encountered a Refurbished maxtor 6y160P0042811 K, G, C, D (4 head, thankfully) I have replaced with a head stack from another 6y160P0042811 K, M, C, D but no still love. Original problem seemed to be a bad head on other than head 0 as it would show on bios, but after head stack replacment drive just clicks. Codes are identical YAR41BW0 on both drives.

Put the transplanted heads back in the original drive just to "be sure" and they worked fine. Re-transplanted AND moved PCB from the non refurb drive, still click of death.

I only have access to small university cleanroom (well, clean box, with rubber hand holes in the wall, really!) enviornment, and am a lowly tech.

I am thinking something in the firmware, maybe, since it is a refurb drive? Usually headstack replacement works just fine for me on these drives (non refurb) but this is the first refurb maxtor I have encountered that needed a headstack replacment. I have done this successfully on maxtor Diamond plus 8, 9, 10 about a dozen times.

I also have spare YAR61HW0 (6Y160M004725A) (sata DM Plus 9) and on a lark swapped PCB from known good DM9+ pata to this drive. worked fine. Also put the PCB from this on known good PATA drive. Worked fine. (I thought that was interesting.)

I guess I'm wondering if I should attempt another head swap, or send off to the big boys. I called one outfit and got the lowball quote then I gave them the "well, we had someone try a headstack replacement and because this is a refub drive, it is apparently "special"" and the quote was suddenly much more

Does anyone have any ideas out there? I'm suck and an unsolved puzzle drives me up the wall. Much appreciated.

[jono-ats]

It may have firmware damage which you can't gauge without special tools.

[dubya]

I'm more of an EE than anything. I have tools from other endeavours such as SOIC clip leads and eeprom/eprom/prom programmers. (I'm the go-to guy for when you've borked your bios and soldered-on is no problem unless it is BGA or something obscure.)

Is Q500 on this PC the eeprom? I could probably figure it out by looking but not in the shop right now..

The bios screen on the computer is consistently showing MAXTOR CALYPSO (something) now instead of the drive.

I may not have had it screwed down with the +1 Extra Torque earlier.

[BlackST]

Well, you don't need anything else, maybe.

[dubya]

I am not sure it is really working as I can't seem to do anything with it in linux. I have been playing with the "safe mode" jumper.

Where do I go from here? Sorry, I'm a bit lost.

[BlackST]

Re-read your post from the beginning and you have the answer. Sorry can't spoon feed more than this. Just curious : the drive is yours or from customer ?

[dubya]

In university we don't really have "customers" it is more like.. teachers/professors/faculty/staff. We aren't big enough to have recovery classes/specialists, though, so it falls to me to try to figure it out and save the uni money.

And I think in uni if we say things to "client" like we "spoon feed" we get written up by our bosses

So I should attempt another head swap, from another drive that was originally sata? or send it off?

I wouldn't know what to do with the eeprom once I had it, if that is what you mean. I have not read anything about drive firmware.

[harddrivespecialist]

Original problem seemed to be a bad head

Accurate diagnostics is about half of the work done during recovery process.
Guessing is a wrong approach.

Now that you have already replaced heads, which could have been fine from a start, you could have done more damages, at least one should not overlook it.

called one outfit and got the lowball quote then I gave them the "well, we had someone try a headstack replacement and because this is a refub drive, it is apparently "special"" and the quote was suddenly much more

That is why your drive became "special".

[BlackST]

But this is not your uni. If you send it to the "big boys" are they going to save uni money too ? Don't think so.

You should better document yourself BEFORE attempting headswap or other physical work on drives about part compatibility. And this is a refurbished drive maybe made from reworked excess inventory parts or reworked parts or modified drive forced to specs, that's why the quote for professional DR would be definitely higher. For me the problem is (or was) elsewhere. You AT LEAST should use a diagnostic tool like PC3000 UDMA or similar to check FW structure (that is not in ROM but recorded into the platters) and maybe you have to work out something tricky to gain access to the SA in these conditions.
For me, most probably the drive DIDN'T NEED to be opened at all.
However, get 2nd opinion from the other experts here.

[Zero Alpha]

Search for MAXTOR CALYPSO and im sure you will find your answer. It is listing the factory name for the drive, check the firmware it may need repairing.

[BlackST]

The problem is different and can't be solved without proper gear.