Stuck heads (or locked spindle)

[fjpickett]

The drive in the photo is a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 with 2 platters (500Gb) from a Sony laptop that was dropped on the corner next to the drive, while working, by the look of it!

I have carefully tried rotating the spindle, but the head I can see seems stuck down, so it's difficult to know if that is the main problem, or if the spindle is itself locked. Even if I could separate the visible head, there are three more to deal with, and I'm not sure what to try next.

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. The data is, ultimately, expendable, but it would be nice to rescue some of it!

Attachments

[jono-ats]

1. Remove the head stack without damaging the platters;
2. Inspect and replace as needed;
3. If bearing is bad, perform a platter transplant without moving platters relative to one another by as little as 0.01 mm.
4. Decontaminate the drive
5. Pray.

[fjpickett]

Thanks for quick replies. I have been to church already!

"Remove the head stack without damaging the platters"

My initial problem is unsticking the heads. Is there a way of prising them off the surface without damaging it, or should I just apply more torque to the spindle?

Or are you, perhaps, suggesting that I should just give up and hand the job to an expert..

[DR-Kiev]

Thanks for quick replies. I have been to church already!

Or are you, perhaps, suggesting that I should just give up and hand the job to an expert..

Best option.

[ShaneWard]

since the head arm is located in the middle of the drive, it would need a little more force to spin the platters around. However, it depends on how stuck the heads are. Sending the drive off would be a good option unless you have a tool that can lift the heads off the platters when you do a head swap.

Shane

[thatdellguy]

Any force to the spindle and the heads will detach. Send it to a professional if the data is needed.

[unknown]

Contact PCImage from this forum. He can handle your case with reasonable price.

Good luck.

[jono-ats]

Many folks come to this forum and receive the advice to "send it to a pro," particularly when there are mechanical issues. This is usually misunderstood as self-serving, even mean.

But people who do this for a living know that the odds of doing something complicated as removing heads from a Seagate laptop drive; replacing them if necessary (even finding a suitable donor); and dealing with whatever comes are completely stacked against the "casual" experimenter. It's almost always suicidal, insofar as your data is concerned.

Success requires a combination of knowledge, experience, troubleshooting skills, and judgement. An analogy is to list the surgical steps required for a hip or heart replacement. It's quite obvious that there is a lot more to it than knowing what needs to be done, and so it is with data recovery. You need the right tools; the wisdom to understand what the problem is and what is the best practice for resolving it; steady hands; donor drives; and LOTS of practice and experience. None of which are obtained overnight.

Best of luck to you. I'll also recommend pcimage – they are good folks, known here across the pond, too.

Jono

[BlackST]

Thanks for quick replies. I have been to church already!

"Remove the head stack without damaging the platters"

My initial problem is unsticking the heads. Is there a way of prising them off the surface without damaging it, or should I just apply more torque to the spindle?

Or are you, perhaps, suggesting that I should just give up and hand the job to an expert..

We use the appropriate tools. If you think it is so simple and safe (assuming this thread is real) without them, you can try to find homebrew methods and publish the entire procedure. You and some other people will become very popular (forget any merit when you publish it...)
So said, opening the drive has already reduced the chances of a successful 100% recovery, then you need to know if the spindle is still ok (don't think so) . In that case, if unsticking the heads can be relatively easy, what then ?

[BGman]

My experience with a similar drive:

1. Opened the drive
2. Slightly rotated the platter to detach the heads and returned them to the ramp
3. Closed the drive

Result:

First and last thirds of the drive are readable and usable. In the middle part data is unreadable

[BlackST]

33% overall data loss, it is not exactly a succeful recovery. And it was stiction only.

[fjpickett]

This a real thread (that is my own photo) and I appreciate that professionals may well roll their eyes at amateur attempts to fix a delicate problem, but I did say that the data was expendable, although obviously any recovered would be a bonus.

I'm also doing it to satisfy curiosity. The stiction force is surprisingly large, but then not many things are made to those tolerances. Can anyone identify the landing ramp or area? There appears to be no visible difference on the disc surface, and a gentle push of the arms meets resistance when the heads are 8-10mm from the inner edge of the platters. I'm guessing that there is a latch of some sort to keep them parked - is that mechanically accessible? I'm just trying to get the heads into a position where the whole thing will restart...

TIA again.

[jono-ats]

The landing zone is the ramp, which is the orange thingy.

[lcoughey]

Once you get the heads off the platter back to the parking ramp, make sure you inspect all the heads to ensure that they look 100% healthy before powering the drive on.

[unknown]

Unstucking heads for first time is not recommended if data is important.

[fjpickett]

Thanks, Jono. Not sure why I thought it was in the middle!

[fjpickett]

Unstucking heads for first time is not recommended if data is important.

I'm sure it isn't, but the data isn't important enough to warrant much expense, and what's the alternative - leaving them stuck?

[BGman]

33% overall data loss, it is not exactly a succeful recovery. And it was stiction only.

It wasn't a data recovery , just an experiment....and an example what to expect when missing a proper tool.

[fjpickett]

Thanks to all for (mostly!) helpful comments. Drive is now spinning again, and visible to the BIOS, although it doesn't appear in Acronis True Image or my live Linux distros. Windows gets about halfway through booting, but then gives up, so I think I may, too.

It's certainly made me aware how fragile the whole process is. I know HD's have a good MTBF these days, but it doesn't need much to go wrong...

[waqas_ali766]

see my video of head unstack . but it need very care
http://www.mediafire.com/download/cvo59 ... 20head.zip
thanks