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
November 2nd, 2007, 16:39
Hi Guys,
I got a Fujitsu MHT2060AH here, knocking.
Sounds like bad heads.
Two platters, 3 heads.
Don't have any 2060AH, so opened up a couple of 2060AT's (as I've used AT heads in AH drive before and they've worked fine). But head configs for all three drives are different.
So... Got a 2080AH (all four heads in place), swapped heads. Now drive does not knock, but just stays BSY.
PCB is OK, as one of AT's is exactly the same f/w and works with patient PCB.
Any ideas?
Cheers
Sean
November 5th, 2007, 10:19
AT is 4200rpm, AH is 5400rpm.
I believe headstacks should be different - maybe different preamps, frequency characteristics, etc...
November 5th, 2007, 14:43
Hi pcimage,
If headswap from AH to AT or vice versa don't work,
this is no fault of the heads, but some other reason.
MHT very sensitive to scratches and particles from media.
Sometimes head swap gets just once chance to detect and extract
to destination and after that chance won't detect again, even with
another set of donor heads.
Always examine MHT and later with strong microscope to check
native heads for particle adhesion, if there is too much particle
collection on just one head then head swap mostly can fail.
Success!
November 5th, 2007, 20:13
Starling wrote:AT is 4200rpm, AH is 5400rpm.
I believe headstacks should be different - maybe different preamps, frequency characteristics, etc...
Hi Pepe, thanks for the reply.
I've just done another AH, using AT heads. Rattled a bit to start, then imaged and got 99.9% recovery
November 5th, 2007, 20:16
coffeebean wrote:Hi pcimage,
If headswap from AH to AT or vice versa don't work,
this is no fault of the heads, but some other reason.
MHT very sensitive to scratches and particles from media.
Sometimes head swap gets just once chance to detect and extract
to destination and after that chance won't detect again, even with
another set of donor heads.
Always examine MHT and later with strong microscope to check
native heads for particle adhesion, if there is too much particle
collection on just one head then head swap mostly can fail.
Success!
Thanks for the reply coffeebean,
I'll take a look at the native heads tomorrow, see what I can see.
Are you saying that the heads collect debris from the platters surface, thus damaging them?
December 21st, 2007, 6:23
Hi,
I have the same model drive here (FUJITSU MHT2060AH) with the same "knocking" problem you describe Sean. I swapped heads with another FUJITSU MHT2060AH drive I got off ebay for 30 euro and got 20% of an image done with Media Tools Pro, but now it's knocking again.
It was my first attempt at a head swap and during the transplant my little paper separator fell out from between the bottom set of heads causing them to touch briefly so I'm guessing that this did not give the transplanted heads much of a chance
I want to give it one more go but I can't find another MHT2060AH at the moment on ebay. Sean, are you saying the heads off any MHT20X0AX drive will do? The data is not really important, I just really want to do this for myself.
Thanks,
John.
December 21st, 2007, 6:36
Hi John,
You can always use heads of a drive with greater capacity, like the 80G, but i would stick to the same extention (H). You can use a BH for an AH however.
Best regards,
Dobre
December 21st, 2007, 6:56
Many thanks for the info Dobre.
December 21st, 2007, 10:45
dobrevjetser wrote: You can use a BH for an AH however.
Do you have positive experience in this?
December 21st, 2007, 11:06
Hi Doomer,
I tried allready several times and it always worked.
Dobre
December 21st, 2007, 11:34
dobrevjetser wrote:Hi Doomer,
I tried allready several times and it always worked.
Dobre
Thank you
That is precious information
January 25th, 2008, 13:19
A MHT2060BH finally arrived today but it has 3 heads, not 4 like the AH. Are you saying I can use this 3 head from the BH as a replacement for the 4 head in the AH? Surely this will not work?
January 25th, 2008, 14:30
OK, just tried it anyway and surprise surprise, it did not work. Swapped the 3 head system back into the BH so at least I have a spare 60 GB laptop drive...
Found another MHT2060AH on ebay there so ordered that. 3rd time lucky?

Once again, just to confirm MHT2060BH heads are NOT compatible with MHT2060AH.
January 26th, 2008, 13:08
Hi Gumbo,
Unfortunately there are different versions of the 60G around, both AH and BH. Some have 3 heads and others 4.
Therefore i'm using 80G drives to recover 60G's because these have four heads, so it will always work.
Best regards,
Dobre
January 29th, 2008, 9:21
Thanks for your advice. Hopefully the 60GB I ordered has four heads, if not I will order an 80GB model.
January 31st, 2008, 6:45
dobrevjetser wrote:Hi John,
You can always use heads of a drive with greater capacity, like the 80G, but i would stick to the same extention (H). You can use a BH for an AH however.
Best regards,
Dobre
Hi dobrevjetser
is this applicable to only the fujitsu hard drives or also other brands of hard drives,
thank you
January 31st, 2008, 6:49
Hi Crecomp,
I think i also did this allready for toshiba's, but i am not sure.
It should be possible however, i think.
Perhaps other members can tell their experiences.
Best regards,
Dobre
January 31st, 2008, 17:50
hi dobrevjetser
thx for the reply.
January 31st, 2008, 20:29
Hi,
In general U can use MHAs with more heads only in families using preprogrammed head map.
pepe
February 26th, 2008, 15:29
Partial success with new donor heads from a MHT2080AH and Media Tools Pro software. It reads from around 45% in to 98% no problem at all. However, when I try read from 0% up or from 45% back it just seems to struggle over each sector, with many read "retries" before moving on to the next bit of data. I have even tried from random points in between like 15% or 25% both forward and reverse. All show the same read problems. I cannot see any dust or other contamination on the top platter.
Is it worth leaving this s-l-o-w-l-y cloning overnight?
Your thoughts would be much appreciated!
Thanks.
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