Samsung HM641JI no more recognized, still spinning

[Evils]

Hi everybody,

My Samsung and main HDD sadly "died" a few days ago without having a backup of the data...

The HDD is still spinning and you hear the head still moving without any bad noise or so!
The HDD is just no more recognized by any pc/mac and it's definitely no connection mistake on my side, therefore no data is accessible anymore.

I changed the PCB already, as I had the same hdd but nothing...

Any ideas?

Thanks for your help!

[pcimage]

Hi everybody,

My Samsung and main HDD sadly "died" a few days ago without having a backup of the data...

The HDD is still spinning and you hear the head still moving without any bad noise or so!
The HDD is just no more recognized by any pc/mac and it's definitely no connection mistake on my side, therefore no data is accessible anymore.

I changed the PCB already, as I had the same hdd but nothing...

Any ideas?

Thanks for your help!

You say you've changed the PCB already?

I'm assuming you have the original PCB back on the drive now and the symptoms are the same (I.e. Spinning up and sounding normal)?

If this correct then you probably have a firmware issue. Meaning that part of the firmware has a problem preventing the drive from initialising, usually a defect list or smart problem with Samsung. To fix this needs specialist (expensive) equipment and the skills to diagnose and fix the problem properly.

You will need pro assistance for this.

I can help in UK, PM me if interested.

[Evils]

Hi there,

Thanks for your answer!

I changed the PCB, but I still had the same symptoms...

I'm from germany, so I'm not inside the UK.

Is there no way to upgrade the FW easy?

The thing I don't get is, that this problem came up after four months of using this hdd after my MacBook came up from hibernation....

Thanks

[pcimage]

I never said you needed to "upgrade" the firmware, you can only upgrade working firmware.

[Evils]

Oh okay got it ... Sorry!

So the firmware is not located on the pcb?

[pcimage]

That is correct.

The PCB only has a tiny portion of the FW on it, just to initialise the main FW on the platters.

It is there that the suspect firmware modules reside.

It is only an educated guess that this is the problem, based on sight unseen. To find out exact problem requires proper diagnosis using proper equipment.

[Evils]

Sorry to ask again, but is there any chance to get it work by changing the case or anything like that?

[dmarques]

Hi,

What do you mean by changing the case? Swapping heads? Platters?
Don't do it in any circumstance if your data is valuable.
You will only make things worse. And besides that, if you have a straight way to cross, why walking around? What I mean is that the solution might be easier than swapping anything, but of course it requires a proper diagnosis.

[Evils]

okay, so what do you think would it cost in the best case of a corrupted firmware?

[pcimage]

I would say that if it is a fairly straightforward (I.e. Not a nightmare!!), €300 should cover it.