What does this failure sound like (video)?

[memberasd]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrtjZne-mLk

Can someone tell me what this failure sounds like?
And if it might be worth a try to buy the same model and replace the what-ever-is-defective-element?
(I know that data might be probably lost on this way. But as I don't want to spend thousands of money for recovering private stuff - which would anyway be nice to have it back - I see this almost as last resort).

The external drive has been going very loud, and has been shut down after 10s or so. Since then the only life sign is the one in the video. It is not recognized by any pc, neither external nor internal...

Thanks for you aid

[labtech]

bad news - internal components are damaged
need pro assistance with this issue if it is not too late already

[memberasd]

hm that's what I suspected...
Could you specify what "internal components" means in this case? Or couldn't it be specified just by the sound.
I mean - if it's a component I might though trying to replace it, as I woun't be able to pay for professional recovery, but also don't want to trash the hdd without even trying to recover myself.

[labtech]

The drive's motor is stuck or the heads are stuck on the platter. If you do not have experience with this, which is the case with most non-data recovery users, it is really easy to mess things up. Very tedious work and really have to know what you doing.

[memberasd]

So I guess it is worthless to just trying to replace the PCB Controller, because intern components are stuck?
When I'd try to replace the motor: can this be done by replaceing the whole inner components, or is it possible just for the motor itself?

If some1 has any manual replaceing the hdd motor please give me a hint (I did not found anything for this so far)...

[dmarques]

Hi,

And you will not find anything.
And who knows how to do it is because they bought expensive tools or developed internal processes to do it, and of course will not share.

That's not a job for a newbie. If you really need your data I can recommend good pros in London.

[Nick_CT]

As mentioned by others, you don't want to try and fix this drive yourself as you will only worsen the problem. If you need to contact a professional recovery company in the UK then try the forum member on here called pcimage

[fzabkar]

If the heads are stuck to the platters, then it's usually a very easy fix.

See viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19595#p132081

Also see this thread, but heed the warnings:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/FreeAgent- ... 242#M11384

If your drive has a seized spindle motor, then a platter swap is a major job requiring a special clean-room and special tools. When swapping the platters you must maintain their precise alignment.

Head replacement and platter swap demo:
http://www.datarecoverytools.co.uk/2010 ... swap-demo/

Alternatively, there are ways to free the motor:

http://www.acelab.ru/dep.pc/pc.tech.sup ... cuda4.html
http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... cuda4.html

[memberasd]

Very interesting links, than you so much!

By now I found out that it has nothing to do with stucking heads (there are placed aside of the platters), but a stucked motor!
I cannot spin the platters by hand (which would be the normal behaviour). So I made myself a little tool for beeing able to trying rotate the platters. What I can say so far is that it's really hard rotating. I don't here any noises, so there might be nothing in between that blocks the platters.
It seems as if the motor bearing itself is stuck somehow.

I'm afraid there is no way to disassemble and replace the motor without removing the platters?

[fzabkar]

Very interesting links, than you so much!

It seems as if the motor bearing itself is stuck somehow.

I'm afraid there is no way to disassemble and replace the motor without removing the platters?

I'm not a data recovery professional, so I wouldn't even contemplate doing anything like that unless the drive and data were of no value. In fact I posted those links to show you that DIY is an impractical proposition.

I'd help you if I could, but I can't think of any plausible DIY solution. Good luck to you, whatever you decide to do.

BTW, some newer WD models will have alignment issues after removing the cover. AIUI, this is because the head stack is held in place by one of the cover screws. So even if you succeed in freeing the motor, you will then most probably have a clicking problem, even if the drive is otherwise OK.