HDD preamp?

[oakfield]

I have had some trouble with my HDD.

one day, my computer wouldn't boot up properly.
the windows (XP) loading screen appeared briefly and then it rebooted itself.

it came to the message saying windows didn't shut down properly and had various options of how to restart, but none of them worked.

I removed the drive and plugged it into an external HDD reader - it appeared, but i couldn't access it at all.
it was also making some quiet clicking noises while i was trying to read from it.

I gave it to a local company who told me :
"The logic board preamp has blown. This is causing the MHA (Mechanical Head Assembly) reading of the platters to become erratic and unpredictable."

They have since fixed it and recovered all of My Documents for me and put them onto another HDD for me.

I presumed the drive would now function properly so before discarding it, i thought i would plug it back in and get some of the Program Files from it to save having to find some of the programs again.

Unfortunatly it behaves in exactly the same way as it did before.
Does this mean it wasn't the problem that was claimed?

Thanks,
Mark.

[Nick_CT]

"The logic board preamp has blown. This is causing the MHA (Mechanical Head Assembly) reading of the platters to become erratic and unpredictable."

The preamp is on the HSA, not the logic board, so their statement is confusing to me.

http://www.southbit.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Hard-drive-preamp.jpg

It's probably best to just phone them and ask for more technical detail relating to the job, that would be the most simple solution.

[jono-ats]

They probably returned your bad drive to "as originally failed" condition.

It's not wise to use a drive that has failed once before, so this helps the user to avoid the temptation . . .

[oakfield]

Thanks for the replies.

They probably returned your bad drive to "as originally failed" condition.

It's not wise to use a drive that has failed once before, so this helps the user to avoid the temptation . . .

Is that a common thing to do?
i thought it would be considerably more work to do that for very little benifit.

Thanks,
Mark.

[northwind]

Does this mean it wasn't the problem that was claimed?

No.
We too return clients' drives in the same condition as they were upon reception.

Have they opened your drive? Do you see the stickers on top cover broken?

[oakfield]

There is no evidence that the top label has been disturbed.

I only paid £200 to have the data recovered, which i am very happy with, but some of the programs i had are no longer available and were very useful.

I don't want to offend the person that did the work for me by questioning his work unneccesarily, but i also don't like being mislead.

Thanks.

[jono-ats]

I think your experience is "normal" and you haven't been misled, unless they promised to return a working drive to you (there are no data recovery companies that I know of who make this promise, unless the drive is covered under warranty).

You paid them a fee and they recovered your data.

[dick]

I only paid £200 to have the data recovered

To be honest I don't think they carried out any form of 'mechanical intervention' for such a low charge. Maybe if you are concerned you have to ask exactly what they had to do.

[Cleanroom]

I agree. Most likely the logic board (PCB) failed, and they just swapped a new one on with a firmware copy and recovered your data. Especially since it seems they never opened the drive.

We returned clients drive in the same condition as they arrived. Since if we sent them back repaired it may mean that we need to give them one of our parts too.

Most data recovery companies do not repair drive for customer re-use since it could cause further issue sin the future. that is why it is called Data recovery and not Drive Repair

Glad you got your data back.

[sathyan]

In all probability, a clone of your drive would have been made and files recovered from the clone. Check if the company still has the clone copy (if it has not been too long since the recovery job) and request for the additional files(if the files are that important)

[labtech]

@oakfield

What is the drive's full model? See the front label on the drive for MDL.

[oakfield]

It is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.8
ST3250823A.

Thanks again for all the replies.

[labtech]

*We too return drives in their original failed condition. We do not want to release the new parts used to bring the drive back to life. It's like giving money away. The service is that of giving customers the data, and not the parts. Plus, then we are talking about the whole "I want to use it once again" temptation like Jono explained earlier.

In my experience, these drives rarely have a bad preamp. The fact that they did not open the cover likely confirms my theory.

I think the statement is a bit misleading because of miscommunication of the failure explanation. Not sure if on purpose or not.

Either way, what you paid is a very good price for what was wrong with the drive and the recovery service.

[Keatah]

Well.. in the communications process from tech/engineer to customer - there could be some dumbing down and simplification. Or perhaps there are canned answers being given.

[BlackST]

I think your experience is "normal" and you haven't been misled, unless they promised to return a working drive to you (there are no data recovery companies that I know of who make this promise, unless the drive is covered under warranty).

You paid them a fee and they recovered your data.

sometimes it is possible, i.e. It was only a failed firmware or successful repair of pcb or successful clone and then the customer asks for drive recertification after confirming that all data was fully recovered . It is a service offered.

[SAjunky]

It could be simply firmware lockup, for PCB operation companies charge more.
They did a job, but customer received confusing information. They lied about preamp, as they didn't open the drive. So I guess, it was 5 minutes firmware fix, then cloning was unnecessary, they could ask customer whether to clone and charge $200 or return drive and charge $50. But they wanted to collect more monies, it is why lies came out.

[sathyan]

Unfortunatly it behaves in exactly the same way as it did before.
Does this mean it wasn't the problem that was claimed?

They lied about preamp, as they didn't open the drive. So I guess, it was 5 minutes firmware fix, then cloning was unnecessary,

After that did they undo the firmware fix and get the drive to its original condition ?

IMHO more likely a successful clone job.

[oakfield]

Well a quick update.

I mentioned that as they only supplied me with 'my documents' folder, i didn't have the folder where all my emails were stored and they told me to drop the drive of to them and they would have another look.
A few hours later i had an email saying the full contents of the drive has been copied for me.

I must stress that i dont have a problem with the price i paid, the work completed or the service i recieved.

I am a very curious person and i like to know how things work, how things are mended etc

However, i don't think confusion was caused by 'the tech guy dumbing down for the client' In fact, i think it was quiet the opposite - i was given some technical terms in the hope i would swallow them and pay up.

Thanks again for your comments.

[sathyan]

"The logic board preamp has blown. This is causing the MHA (Mechanical Head Assembly) reading of the platters to become erratic and unpredictable."

Maybe Just to Sound more technical and make the problem look difficult ,than to tell that the drive had bad sectors (or firmware problem).

I must stress that i dont have a problem with the price i paid, the work completed or the service i recieved.

Whatever said, they got all your data and at a good price. A successful recovery.
Be happy for that.

[northwind]

Whatever said, they got all your data and at a good price. A successful recovery.
Be happy for that.

Exactly.