Help with damaged ST3300620A (Seagate Barracuda 7200.10)PATA

[pipedevnull]

Have here one HDD ST3300620A (Seagate Barracuda 7200.10) PATA 300GB.

Attached and applied power.

Spins up and does irregular "whip-clunk".

HDD not detected.

Perusal of HDD shows damage on PCD, probably physical.

See image attached.

What part is this ? Is this a passive element (coil) ?
Can it be fixed by replacing or soldering.

Drive is only to spin for imaging and will be scrapped afterwards.

Thanks in advance, /pipedevnull

Attachments

Damaged section marked with circle/arrow.

[BlackST]

The PCB is fine , only some top part of the ferrite coil is cracked. Your problem is most likely heads or physical damage INSIDE. Call a pro.

[pipedevnull]

Part number of Ferrite Coil is unknown, no ST3300620A to salvage at the moment.

Is this an actual ferrite or just an air coil in enclosure ?

If it is a ferrite coil, the main section of the housing is still available.

So soldering should probably fix this, the housing itself appears to be commonly employed plastic/ceramic with no significant electrical properties.

CF: "internal damage" ... The drive was _NOT_ dropped, jarred, jostled etc.
The damage very probably results from a second drive's screw scraping over the element.
NO internal damage to be expected.

Any suggestions to potential problems related to specifically this PCB-component ?

/pipedevnull

[BlackST]

You are wasting time. If the coil was damaged or not working, the drive won't spin at all. Internal damage can happen anytime anyway.
Can't tell you more.

[pipedevnull]

Wasting time ? - Maybe yes, maybe no.
Internal damage ? - I will see.

Again: coil appears intact, the solder connection is ruptured.

What's the part number ?

What coil ferrite or air-coil ?

Thanks

/pipedevnull

[dobrevjetser]

These coils cannot be bought easily; you should take one from another Seagate.
Its a ferrite coil, not air-coil.

Dobre

[pipedevnull]

Ah ! Thanks.

Do you possibly know the number of the coil ? -
The "writ" on the top of it should suffice.

I happen to have quite a few dead Seagate's around,
just not specifically this ST3300620A 300 GB Model.

Thanks in advance.

/pipedevnull

[BlackST]

???

[Creator]

BlackST,

Let Pipedevnull do DIY and break the drive finnaly.
When he open the HDD he will call you

[BlackST]

Sit and wait... "yes we can"

[pipedevnull]

Haha. - Open Drive.

Yes, indeed. If it need be, I'll open the drive in the Clean-Box I happen to have here.
Probably just by accident it appeared at some time in the past.
I somehow cannot remember - maybe I was abducted by aliens, you know

I happen to have repaired quite a few things in my life ... not only harddisks,
but that is of no interest.

Coming back to the drive.

Coil reconnected, drive spins beautifully and is accessible via a Tableau eSata Bridge.

Addressing sectors etc. is no problem.

Data delivered is reproducible.

Next Question:

What actual function does this coil (cf. image at beginning of post) have circuit-wise ?
Does anyone have reliable information about the characteristics of this coil in operation ?

Any pointers to addtl. documentation, circuit-diagrams or the like are greatly appreciated.
Google or like ilk deliver too much garbage to get anything out of it.

Special thanks @dobrevjetser (too bad, you don't have a rating system here AFAIK)
for relevant information.

/pipedevnull


=====
P.S.:
I have frequently and repeatedly visited this board for years now.
Remarkably, though, the general attitude of some participants definitely changed over the last 1 1/2 years.
Seemingly the board appears to have experienced a notable increase of people exhibiting severe smugness, rather than a more community-like attitude, to which I personally am much more comfortable with.

Having valid, reliable and hard experience in HW, SW, IT, signal-processing, repairs, etc. for over 30 years now, this actually begins giving me a slightly negative impression.
Of the posted answers to this thread (six), only two actually were indicative, the others rather non-constructive.
This singular thread delivers an effectivity of 2/6 = 1/3 = 30% potentially helpful answers, but 60% were actually non-constructive.

1 was basically correct, but off the point
1 was a null answer (considered a bump)
2 were off-topic

Hm.

[Doomer]

There is no published docs on drives PCBs
I guess this coil is part of the power supply for preamp

PS: You got really lucky

[msurgeon]

P.S.:
I have frequently and repeatedly visited this board for years now.
Remarkably, though, the general attitude of some participants definitely changed over the last 1 1/2 years.
Seemingly the board appears to have experienced a notable increase of people exhibiting severe smugness, rather than a more community-like attitude, to which I personally am much more comfortable with.

Having valid, reliable and hard experience in HW, SW, IT, signal-processing, repairs, etc. for over 30 years now, this actually begins giving me a slightly negative impression.
Of the posted answers to this thread (six), only two actually were indicative, the others rather non-constructive.
This singular thread delivers an effectivity of 2/6 = 1/3 = 30% potentially helpful answers, but 60% were actually non-constructive.

1 was basically correct, but off the point
1 was a null answer (considered a bump)
2 were off-topic

Hm.

You're correct about the insufferable arrogance of some of the posters here. I used to visit this site much more often than I do now but have lost patience with the silliness. I am a big believer in Ockham's Razor: the correct solution is often the simplest one, viz. when you see an obviously burnt component on a PCB it would seem rather obvious to attempt replacement of that part before sending it off to a "pro". Good general rule of thumb: quality of advice offered is inversely proportional to total number of posts. There are a few exceptions here but it seems to hold true fairly often. Congrats on solving the problem.