Stiction? WD Scorpio Black 2.5" makes hi/lo buzzes

[bryan.chandler]

Platters don't spin and the drive makes a high and low buzzing sound instead. (listen below)
https://soundcloud.com/bryan-chandler-u ... ding-3-wav

Wondering if I should open the drive & lift the heads off the platter with combs.

What do the guru's think?

Thanks.

[Cleanroom]

Stiction.... but the heads could also be bad at this point to. The drive will need to be opened to determine how bad it is inside. If you have never done it I would not recommend it. This is an easy fix for a pro if the heads are not damaged as well.

And before someone tells you to try a "Impact" fix by hitting the drive on the side of the table to get the heads to move back to the ramp... don't do that...

[pcimage]

Certainly sounds like it could be stiction, but I have also seen these where the heads are badly mashed into the landing ramp, and preventing the platter from spinning.

The magic "percussive maintenance" trick would do severe damage in this case.

[labtech]

@op
it really depends on how you interpret risk and how valuable your data is to you. Very much like all other repairs in our lives... however with HDDs most of the time is one wrong move and game can be over.

[bryan.chandler]

@Spildit
We are the data recovery firm. I just trained with Scott Moulton, so I've already opened a few drives. Even got one reading again! lol. We have DDI/PC3000/Clean bench.

Thanks for the advise. I'll open it up & take a look.

[dobrevjetser]

Remember the platters are made of glass!
To much percussion and you have a chinese puzzle

[data-medics]

Definitely stuck heads. Most often with a gentle touch the heads can be unstuck without destroying the heads, but certainly must be done in a clean room. I charge $750 for this procedure at my lab, but will take $100 off if it's a personal drive not used for business.

Anyone asking more than that is just ripping you off for a simple procedure.

[data-medics]

Oh yeah, by a gentle touch I'm referring to how you spin the platters. You really should use an unstuck tool not your hands. And if you try something stupid like pulling at the heads themselves your sure to ruin them.

Just a really gentle yet firm counterclockwise pressure on the spindle can usually get it spinning, then just keep it spinning until the heads come back to their resting position. (I didn't notice your earlier post about having a clean bench before).

I wouldn't generally use the combs unless it's really really stuck. You'll cause less damage by spinning the platters.

Best wishes with it. Let us know how you make out.

[bryan.chandler]

Opened it up and stiction was the right answer.

http://i.imgur.com/7TPPBV6.jpg

Moved the heads to the parked position via good old plastic pill wrapper "combs" and got it reading.

Thanks for the advise!

[Keatah]

I undid stiction with some gentle temperature cycling. Cool the disk to about 40F and heat it to about 130F. Nothing extreme and little risk of condensation.

Just be sure the foil sticker has no wrinkles.

[Keatah]

A disk in transit from mfg will experience excursions more "extreme" than that..

[thatdellguy]

I have my doubts with this recovery mainly due to the scratch in the center of the platter.

[bryan.chandler]

UPDATE:
It was stiction. Lifted the heads and was able to image on DDI successfully.

Thanks for the help all!

[jono-ats]

I agree with thatdellguy. I don't see how it is possible that the top head survived after making that scratch. Maybe the top head isn't used, but I think it would be on a 160 GB of that series. Even so, there is a chance that contamination will cause cascading failure if it continues in its present condition.

Let us know how it goes, if you get most of it, or what percent images before it fails.

[pcimage]

We had a strange one in last week, a 160gb ZCT0 I think it was.

These are usually single platter two head drives, but this one was two platter and two heads!

H0 vacant, H1&2 used, H3 vacant.

But top platter had massive scratches on it.

As the drive was unopened and H3 was missing, then it MUST have been like that from the factory.

Of course we got it, but wasn't easy!!

[hddguy]

Opened it up and stiction was the right answer.

http://i.imgur.com/7TPPBV6.jpg

Moved the heads to the parked position via good old plastic pill wrapper "combs" and got it reading.

Thanks for the advise!

Hope you secured the HSA screw before moving the heads...

[hhddrec]

a clear case off sticktion.

as Spildit sais there are very big dust particules. Opening HDD case must be done in a clean room.

and as thatdellguy said is strange the center scratch in plattern.

But congratulations for bryan.chandler.