Hi All,

I have a Maxtor OneTouch 4 500GB external HD which has stopped working. The actual drive, however, is:

Seagate
Barracuda 7200.10
ST3500630AS
P/N: 98J146-568
Firmware: 3.AFM
Date Code: 08215

The unit makes a nice humming sound when powered up, but we were able to determine that the disk isn't actually spinning. I understand this means one of two things: 1) the board is fried, or 2) the motor is shot. We have a number of other Seagate 500GB drives around here, and the first thought was to replace the board and see if that solves the problem, but the controller boards are different on the other drives, as is the firmware version. A coworker, more knowledgeable than I am, said that replacing the controller board with anything at all different could cause irreparable harm. Any thoughts / suggestions?

Thanks much!

It's most likely you have a bad motor bearing. This is a job for a pro. The platters will have to be swapped. Not an easy thing to do with this model.

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Sorry, but this is probably a seized motor. You are looking at a very high price to fix this. This is most likely not a board issue.

Replacing PCB will make no difference, the constant humming you can hear is a clear indication of spindle motor siezure. Is data important to you? It can almost certainly be recovered, but only by a professional. Attempting anything yourself will surely end up in a permanent loss of data.

Agreed.

Seized motor or HSA stiction... or both. Ouch!!

If your prepared to pay, your data will be saved. If not, bye bye data.

Totally agree with spaz. You need to evaluate the value of your data, and pay a professional to get the data back you need or you will lose it forever.

-_-...man, i keep reading people's problem on hdd, making me scared of buying a new hdd.
buy a new hdd is costy but then again, if problem show up, it cost even more...

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Human brain = CPU? That's what I Believe...

I have a solution. It is called backup