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Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 15th, 2020, 12:51

Hello Everyone,

I hope you can help me or give me an idea.

I have a Samsung HD103SI HDD which i dropped a sometime a go. Although disk wasnt running when i dropped it and it was inside a case, It stopped working
and starting making the sound in the attached video below.

https://vimeo.com/user112899863/review/ ... 5e3ab72cf2

It sounds like head got broken to me but i dont know maybe other reason.
I have purchases exactly same model on ebay with the idea to replace head with the healthy one. When you see the picture below. head looks like normal. Above one is working, and below is the broken HDD in the image.

So my question is is it the good idea to replace the head? Can i achieve this? I am an IT person and reparied several hardware issues in the past but never done something with HDDs.
in the attached photo

Any idea or suggestion please?
thank you all
Attachments
20200415_180359.jpg

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 16th, 2020, 6:43

Are those drives opened in a lab clean room?

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 16th, 2020, 8:55

ShaneWard wrote:Are those drives opened in a lab clean room?


They laying on a carpet...

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 16th, 2020, 10:36

Hey Dmitris, you don't have a carpet in your cleanroom???? :shock:

pepe

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 16th, 2020, 10:48

So my question is is it the good idea to replace the head? Can i achieve this? I am an IT person and reparied several hardware issues in the past but never done something with HDDs.
in the attached photo


No, it is a really bad idea. Not as if i knew anything about your skills, but you would make things worse almost surely. We see enough drives after such attempts, believe me it sucks. It sucks for the client coz he/she has to pay more than for a clean recovery and it sucks for us coz we can't charge for the extra amount of labour it means for us, nobody would pay that (ok, most clients...). So it is a loose-loose situation.

Your drive needs proper evaluation (now that you opened it, cleaning as well), it might have severe surface damage on the surfaces you can't see, take care of those, etc. Replacing the heads is just the tip of the iceberg. Cloning it is rarely a walk in the park mostly a stressful process even with the best tools, when it comes to surface damage.

So consider what your data is worth for you.
But, at least you came here for advice, that's a really good sign :)

pepe

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 16th, 2020, 10:49

pepe wrote:Hey Dmitris, you don't have a carpet in your cleanroom???? :shock:

pepe

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 16th, 2020, 17:07

what can go wrong?
Attachments
tenor.gif
what can go wrong?

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 17th, 2020, 4:52

sawyer wrote:So my question is is it the good idea to replace the head?


Your head wth pepe's one ?!!
:shock: :shock: :shock:

Might help...

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 17th, 2020, 5:09

nah, that's too much :)

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 17th, 2020, 13:18

haha thanks for the answers.
this HDD is difficult and different than others i think. if you see the head attachements. there is only 1 screw under the head. How can i unscrew it? Does anyone have any experience with it? because if you turn the head off the bladders, it covers above the screw and you cannot just unscrew it when it is on the bladder? backside has a no possible access.
Anyone had any experience with this HD103SI model. that will be really helpful

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 17th, 2020, 13:45

This is one of the most amusing threads ever.

I'm here for the responses.

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 17th, 2020, 15:15

I get the feeling that this isn’t gonna end well :-(

I can read on YouTube how to replace the engine in my car, but would I attempt it? Hell no!!!

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 17th, 2020, 18:21

well, i must admit i did similar thing last year. My bike needed some repairs, front and rear shocks mainly. I called some repair shops and i was told it has to be sent somewhere out because nobody has the neither certificate nor the know-how to do it here. The rear one is a Fox with Brain, which is considered a hardcore stuff when it comes to rebuild, especially the refill with oil. Anyway, i checked out some sites and saw some people could successfully do it, so i began dismounting it one sunny sunday morning. It took me a while to take it apart coz the previous repairs turned out to be not so very perfect (they pressed the port of the high pressure tube and left out a ball that was supposed to seal the whole thing, instead they used teflon tape :shock: ) but it was prior i bought the bike 2nd hand. So i thought i can only to better job than this :). I had to machine some tools and parts too.
I have just talked to some guys at a local Specialized shop who do repair shocks, but they were just amazed it can be done. They never tried coz they've been told it is impossible.
It's not but it does require some skills and understanding.

So I'm also curious how this story will end with the Samsungs ... It's a bit more sensitive instrument than that Specialized Brain shock. IMO it's a lost game if you get stuck at taking the heads out...

pepe

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

April 18th, 2020, 0:20

sawyer wrote: I am an IT person and reparied several hardware issues in the past but never done something with HDDs.

Any idea or suggestion please?

My suggestion:
Stop consider yourself an IT person....

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

November 10th, 2020, 3:47

sawyer wrote:Does anyone have any experience with it? because if you turn the head off the bladders, it covers above the screw

You should NEVER turn the head off the bladder, that would be terribly painful! :-) (sorry, I couldn't resist)

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

November 10th, 2020, 7:00

yeah, good spot, but turning it in must be painful at first, if you don't have it in :P

Re: Samsung HD103SI clicking and spinning problem

November 10th, 2020, 16:57

See the PDF manual and the video:

https://hddsurgery.com/data-recovery-tools/hdds-sam-f1-f2-f3-p2-3
https://hddsurgery.com/pdfs/HDDS_Sam_F1-F2-F3_p2-3_4.pdf
https://youtu.be/kaBx2_zVzfk
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