Hi all,

Somebody at work has come in this morning with a dead portable hard disk. Connecting the PHD to a computer gave no response apart from "bzz bzz bzz bzzz..." for a few seconds, so I cracked it open and took the hard disk out. Details of the disk are:

Samsung
Model: ST320LM001
P/N: HN-M320MBB

PCB: BF41-00354A 00

I hooked up the drive to a PC on the bench with the SATA connector, but it wasn't detected in the BIOS and the "bzz bzz bzz" continued.

I removed the PCB from the disk, and connected the PCB up to the PC - again not detected in the BIOS.

From my non-expert fault finding, here is my diagnosis:

Heads are stuck (hence the "bzz bzz bzz"), which has caused a fault on the PCB. I think the TVS diode/circuit protection are all intact else the drive wouldn't attempt to spin up, and that the fault on the PCB isn't going to be a DIY fix.

Before I go back to the user and tell him the PCB is a goner and therefore outside of my ability as a sysadmin to fix, does anyone have any tips I might try? I'll burn the bridge of the stuck heads if/when I get a working PCB...

Thanks,

Chris.

It would be unusual for a stiction fault to damage a PCB. The motor controller IC has all sorts of built-in protections. The fact that you are hearing a buzzing sound would suggest that the PCB is working.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

PCB is fine, heads are stuck to the platters and possibly damaged. Contact forum member pcimage (pcimage.co.uk) for an idea of lab pricing so you can give an educated price idea to your customer.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Donor Inventory: 5,000+ Fully Cataloged HDDs & Growing

As already said, PCB is most likely fine, given that the drive attempts to spin.

Happy to take a look and see what we can do, maybe with some "hddguru discount"

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Thanks very much for the advice, one question though - if the PCB is fine, wouldn't it be detected in the BIOS?

No, because the firmware isn't loaded to allow the drive to initialise.

There is only tiny fraction of FW on the PCB, just enough to get the drive to read the main FW on the platters, which in your case it can't do!

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

OK, thanks for the info. I took the lid off the drive, moved the heads off of the platter, reassembled and sure enough it was detected in the BIOS. It's now copying the data off, so my user will no doubt be forever in my debt, and I'll hold his data to ransom until he's given me some biscuits.

Before you all lynch me, yes I'm well aware I was likely to do more harm than good by taking it apart outside of a clean room etc, but it wasn't my data, and the budget for repair, as always, was £0

Thanks very much for all your advice!

[quote="chrisund123"]but it wasn't my data,/quote]
So therefore you're alowed to do sutch stupid thing?!? And if it not had going well???

_________________
Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
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well you obviously know that no-one would suggest doing that, especially to someone else's drive.
I would say you are pretty lucky. I guess if the budget is really 0, then why not...

after you are sure you got all the data, and have verified that the data is safe on the new drive, I would never ever use that drive again. I am not sure if I would destroy it to make sure no-one used it, or wrap it up and put it away as a "emergency backup" that may still be able to provide the files again in case of a disaster to the new one. (though a backup plan is advised so this isn't needed).

now go buy a lottery ticket!

The guy had already given up the data for lost, and was unwilling to spend any money on getting it recovered. I'm not a DR guy, I'm a systems administrator - I have enough technical know-how to "give things a go", but it's not my job to recover data (it was the guy's personal HDD, nothing to do with work even!). I informed the user of the risks, and he was happy for me to proceed.

If the data was too important to lose, he would have taken it to a DR specialist, and not given to me

I've told him his data is backed up safe and sound, and that although his PHD is "working" again, that it could fail at any moment. I'd certainly never use a drive that had been opened.