spindle seizure seagate 7200

[yair25m]

Hello,

I have a beeping problem with a seagate 7200.11 dirve. The motor is stuck even if I use a special tool to help him spin.
There are tools on the market to solve this issue but they are too expansive for me. I already found a Seagate 7200.12 donor drive and I'm interested in transplanting the motor. Now, what should I check to know for sure that the motor can be indeed translanted correctly? They both have the same RPM and looks similar on the outside chasse but is that enougth to ensure that the motor can be transplanted?

Also, does anyone can adivse me on some chip tool to replace to Seagate head? the ~500$ too much for me.

Thanks!
Yair

[Cleanroom]

You will NEED pro help if this is the case.

Two options... Free up the motor to spin to speed and hope the reading mechanism is still good. ( Less then 1% chance you can do that)

Swap the platter into a good enclosure... which if you have never did ( Which i am sure is the case), you are not qualified and you will end up losing your data forever. as far as i am aware the internals of the .11 and .12 are different and will not work for what you want to do.

If you value your data, stop what you are doing and see help. you are trying to do brain surgery

The fact you opened the drive you will not find anyone to do a seized motor job that is previously opened for under 500....

you would be hard pressed to find someone to do ti for 3 times that.

Good Luck

[yair25m]

Why should the reading mechanism be defected? the hard drive got no hit.
In general I know what should be done, the question is if a motor replacement can be done between seagate 7200.11 and 7200.12? they have a different number of platters but same RPM.

[Cleanroom]

when the motor seized up it could of damaged the reading mechanism. You do not know at this point since the drive is not spinning. You need to be prepared for this failure because it could of happened.

Just because the have the same rpm and same number of platters does not mean they are identical. The bases may be a little different, but to a platter swap that is a big difference.

They are two different families.

I know you said it did not have any kind of hit, but my experience with these is that a motor seize is 95% caused by some sort of impact. small or big. and i have a big pool of experience to base that number.

Like I said you do not have a lot of options...

free up the motor or swap the platters. But i have a feeling you do not know how to swap the platters correctly, nor have the tools to do it.

Platter swaps on these families are even difficult for the seasoned pros out there.

Your data, your risk...

[yair25m]

cleamroom thanks for your responce.

I do have a professional clean room and a special tool for exchanging platters but I admit I have no experiance in doing this swap (but I do have experiance in replacing heads). From whay should I afraid when doing the swapping procedure? I know the platters must stay in their exact places but is that such a big problem if you have the right tools?

[Cleanroom]

One wrong move and your data is gone.

It is not a simple of a procedure as some of the older drives due to the platter spacers

Your first time should not be on the data drive.

When people say they platters need to stay together as one stack, they mean , it. if you budge one of the platter in the wrong direction interdependent of the others,it could be game over.

buy a Bunch of 7200.11 and try it.

There are tools out there to assist in the procedure, but none of them are risk proof.

cheapest one that i know works is by DTI called base replace. i think it is a few hundred bucks.

But as always, your data drive is not the drive to try it on....

[yair25m]

Of course I'm going to spend a few days in experiancing the swapping procedure before I will first try it.
Do you know if the following tool can be used: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-5-Laptop-Hard ... 19c6d45d05

[yair25m]

I meant http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-Desktop-Har ... 19d552ed61

[mr_spokk]

cleamroom thanks for your responce.

I do have a professional clean room and a special tool for exchanging platters but I admit I have no experiance in doing this swap.

Of course I'm going to spend a few days in experiancing the swapping procedure before I will first try it.
Do you know if the following tool can be used: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-5-Laptop-Hard ... 19c6d45d05

Are you for real?
You have a cleanroom and all the tools for platterswap....BUT don't have the knowledge!
And the point to a link for 2.5" drive platter exchange tool for your 7200.11.
This post has so many wrongs in it, hopefully the drive is yours and not any client or "friend"...because your going to screw this badly!

[lcoughey]

I sure hope that this is not for a client drive.

[Cleanroom]

no those tools will not work, your drive has spacers in them... just look and you can see those tools will not work.

i would never use them anyways even for drives without spacers..

there is a motor swap tool sold by helpdisc, that is very good, but expensive and will take some tries before you know how to use it properly.

If this is your drive, then i do not care what you do with it. if this is for a client. STOP and send it to someone that already has experience.

no offense, You are not ready to risk this for a client drive. and 99% chance you will make the drive 100% unrecoverable by any means.

Messing with platters even for experience folks is very scary.

[yair25m]

for other good guys, I'm not working for any customer, this is just for self learining. I can't see why are you discouraging people from learning new things.

cleanroom, can you elaborate a little bit on the requirements for the swapper machine due to spacers? Why did you decided the above tool will not work, and what should I look for when buying one?

[Cleanroom]

since you opened the drive you can see that there are spacers in between the platters. The device you linked to is used for drives that do not have spacers. meaning the tool will slide all the way down. With spacers the tools will not slide past the top platter.

i think they are metal spacers.

either way... some pros have designed proprietary devices for them selves to circumvent this issue. or like i said, there is an expensive tool

http://www.hddsurgery.com/tools/categories/2

that can help

or dti's Base replace

http://www.dtidata.com/basereplace.htm

both will take a few tries before you get the hang of it

i have the base replace and i must of tested with about 5 different junk drives before i was confident on trying it with a clients drive. so far it has worked well

Platter swaps are not for the feint of heart and before even attempting them you should be well versed in head swaps as well.

[yair25m]

Alright, thanks man!