Data Recovery from Seagate ST1000LM024 (PCB Issue?)

[Ghost of the Forum]

I am attempting to recover data from a Seagate ST1000LM024 (HDD P/N: HN-M101MBB/AVN) Rev. A hard drive that was inside of a 1TB Seagate Backup Plus USB 3.0 external hard drive. Note that there are both Samsung Spinpoint and Seagate Momentus insignia on the hard drive sticker, so I am unclear if this is actually a Seagate or Samsung drive.

I am not very experienced in hard drive repair and it is not clear to me what is the source of the problem, so I was hoping that the knowledgeable posters on this forum could point me in the right direction.

Below is a detailed description of the events leading up to the drive failure in case it helps identify the problem followed by a few short notes from my initial troubleshooting.


Background:

The last time the external hard drive was functioning, it was interfaced with a laboratory computer for temporarily storing/transferring experimental data. In retrospect, the failure may have been foreshadowed by peculiar behaviour the time it was used just prior to the failure. In this session, the computer did not detect the drive when it was plugged into the usual USB port and the light on the external caddy blinked several times at a regular interval. However, when it was connected to a different USB port, the hard drive was recognized without any issue and seemed to work properly. At the end of this session, the hard was "safely removed" from the computer.

The next time the drive was used (several days later), it was once again connected to the same laboratory computer. At first, the computer did not recognize the drive when using any of the USB ports. Eventually, the drive, which was being held by hand while changing ports since the USB cable was short, by chance happened to suddenly become recognized by the computer when held at a specific angle. The connection was very temperamental and if the orientation was altered, the device would once again lose connection with the computer. However, it seemed to reconnect if it was returned to the "proper" orientation.

While carefully positioned at this working orientation, an attempt was made to transfer any important files over to the computer. However, during the file transfer, the drive disconnected (possibly due to a slight change in orientation) and after that it has never been properly recognized by any computer. At first, Windows could still find that a device was connected and prompt the user to format the drive, but eventually it stopped recognizing that a device was connected at all.

Notably, shortly after this issue, another external hard drive failed after being plugged into the same lab computer, so this may have been caused by an electrical issue with the USB ports.


Symptoms/Troubleshooting Notes:

- When in the external caddy, the hard drive sounds like it spins up properly (no clicking, grinding, or other unusual noises) and the light comes on solid. However, the device is not recognized in any operating system.

- When the hard drive is removed from the caddy and connected using internal SATA, it is not recognized by BIOS or in any operating system. Diagnostic software (e.g., TestDisk) also fails to find the drive.

- I don't have any dedicated tools for hard drive repair, but I do have access to a high level clean room if opening the drive is necessary. However, it seems most likely to be an electrical/PCB issue rather than something like stiction.

- The files are important enough to attempt recovery and even if it fails it will be a good learning experience, but not important enough to pay hundreds/thousands of dollars for professional recovery. I don't mind purchasing a replacement PCB or similar part if that may fix the problem though.


If any of you could advise me as to the likely source of the hard drive failure and how to go about recovering the data (if possible), it would be greatly appreciated!

[oliverpowell]

Try replacing the connective media or hard drive jack you're trying to connect as i strongly suspect that any of them has been damaged. Your drive won't be readable unless the steps said earlier has been followed.

I'm also afraid that due to frequent improper ejection (removal) of the drive may leads to damaged file system (such as RAW hard drives) or permanent failure due to which, the drive becomes invisible from the BIOS itself.

I'd better recommend you to seek professional service to evaluate the drive (even if you have highly equipped enthronement) as professional services knows the right way to do it which you might take over months to learn.

Hope it helps!!

[Ghost of the Forum]

Try replacing the connective media or hard drive jack you're trying to connect as i strongly suspect that any of them has been damaged. Your drive won't be readable unless the steps said earlier has been followed.

I'm also afraid that due to frequent improper ejection (removal) of the drive may leads to damaged file system (such as RAW hard drives) or permanent failure due to which, the drive becomes invisible from the BIOS itself.

I'd better recommend you to seek professional service to evaluate the drive (even if you have highly equipped enthronement) as professional services knows the right way to do it which you might take over months to learn.

Hope it helps!!

Dear Oliver,

Thank you for your suggestion. Just so I am clear, by "connective media or hard drive jack" do you mean the USB/SATA cables and connection ports that are being used to interface the hard drive with the computer? If so, one of the first troubleshooting steps that was attempted was to change the USB ports and cables (as well as the computer the disk was connected to) while the hard drive was still in the external caddy. Then, when that did not help, the hard drive was removed from the external caddy and connected internally in two different desktop PCs using an SATA connection. Note that neither of these desktops were the lab computer that was involved with initial failure. Multiple SATA cables and ports were tested on one of the desktop computers, including those known to be working with other hard drives, in order to ensure that they weren't at fault for the lack of hard disk detection in the BIOS. Unfortunately, the hard drive was not detected in any of the configurations tested.

I agree that the way the drive failed gradually and with intermittent connectivity that seemed to be correlated with its physical orientation made it seem like it could be some sort of cable/connector failure, but the aforementioned tests do not indicate that this is the only issue at least. Unless it has to do with the SATA interface built into the hard drive itself, but I am not sure what I could do about that anyhow.

If I am misunderstanding what you are referring to or there is something that I have overlooked in my testing, could you please explain with a little bit more detail?

Ultimately, I fear that you are correct that professional service would be much better than my own amateurish attempts. The problem here, as is often the case, is a matter of cost and whether it is worthwhile. However, perhaps it is worth at least getting a diagnostic done in case I am overestimating the expense.

Do you, or any other forum members, have any suggestions for reputable hard drive recovery professionals located in Canada (preferably in Ontario or Quebec)?

[lcoughey]

I recommend RecoveryForce .com in Ontario, but my recommendation is biased.

[lcoughey]

We offer free assessments, but we do require clients to pre-approve our minimum price when they submit a job to us. The sole reason for this is to prevent clients from wasting our time by looking for a free assessment without any intention of using our services. So, if we assess the drive and confirm that we can recover the data at our minimum price, we just do it.