Seagate ST3500320AS Not spinning

[ishafiqi]

I have a Seagate ST3500320AS hard disk. It is not recognized by the computer. I can touch and feel that its not spinning up too.
I want to revive the disk back. I hope the gurus here can help me with this.

If i need to diagnose the type of failure i.e. PCB, TVS, Motor, Stiction..What would be right way to start with.

Thanks
Shafiq

[dmarques]

Hi,

Do you want to revive the drive or recover data?

I would check TVS first of all.

[ishafiqi]

Just did a TVS diode swap from a working Seagate HDD..The HDD still doent power up..

Any suggestion what to look for next? Will a PCB swap work?

[Vulcan]

What is the history of this drive?
What happened shortly before the drive stopped spinning?
Where was the drive being used before - external, or inside a system?
Is this your drive, or from a friend?
What is your level of electronics knowledge and skill?

[ishafiqi]

What is the history of this drive?

The Drive was being used in a DELL PC for the past 2 odd years

What happened shortly before the drive stopped spinning?

The disk just died and it couldn't be recognized by BIOS nor load the OS. Because the PC was under the table, the operator couldn't hear whats happening inside the CPU box. But it seems there has been no audible noises before it stopped working.

Where was the drive being used before - external, or inside a system?

The Drive was installed internally, never used as external drive, and the system partition was installed in this drive.

Is this your drive, or from a friend?

This a drive from colleagues computer, as we are from same office.

What is your level of electronics knowledge and skill?

I am an average skill level regarding electronics. I am Material science major. I work at an IC packaging research center at University. Have access to electronic manufacturing/Clean room/Testing equipment.

Thanks for your time and effort helping me out!!

[dmarques]

Well, if you have electronics knowledge you can check also capacitors and check where power is going by and where does it stop.

A simple PCB swap is not a solution for your case. ROM contains unique information needed.

[Vulcan]

@ishafiqi,

Thanks for your answers to my questions. In short, I can see 3 possible approaches - if your friend accepts the risks of your DIY attempts, since you might make the problem worse... If the data is valuable, you should consider sending the drive to someone who is experienced in this work.

Those 3 approaches are:

(a) Investigate the original PCB, using your electronics knowledge, if necessary by comparing the various voltage regulator outputs with an equivalent PCB.
or
(b) Swap the PCB with a compatible replacement (and perform the extra work that dmarques mentioned).
or
(c) Check the terminal output to see if that gives any clue about the situation (e.g. in case this is not really an electronics problem).

Note: Even if the original problem is with the PCB, some PCB faults can also damage the pre-amp inside the HDA, so you must be aware that after some PCB faults, a PCB replacement will not fix the drive.

[UzY3L]

Does the drive spin up just a little and then dies? I just revived my ST3500320AS which is from the 7200.11 series of drives. It suffered from the BSY bug. If that is the case, just google : Seagate 7200.11 fix

edit : didn't see "Vulcan" say the same thing, sorry for the double-post.

[x_orange90_x]

When the drive is plugged in do you hear a sort of beeping sound from it?