Hi All,

I have a Hitachi Travelstar DK23FA-140 that won't spin up. Prior to the total failure to spin up, the drive did NOT make any mechanical noises that I could hear (no clicking or whirring / buzzing / humming ).

The drive was probably repeatedly exposed to high temperature (see this post if you have a Toshiba A15-S129).

The drive used to only intermittently fail to spin up. When it would fail, OS would respond with typical "Non-System Disk or Disk Error" type message as a result of skipping the HD and trying to boot off some other device. I would just power off and back on again a few times, and eventually the drive would spin up and function flawlessly (and silently) for as long as the laptop was powered on. Once the laptop shut down (either as a result of overheating or user shutdown), the drive would require multiple power up/down cycles to spin up.

Well, now I got nuthin. I removed the drive and put it in an external enclosure, and it still will not spin up. Gently shaking the drive does not produce any strange sounds or rattles. Also, applying power to the drive in the external enclosure does not produce any sound or motion. There is definitely no 'torque' action or humming / buzzing. As far as I can tell, the motor is not even attempting to spin. Also, leaving the drive in the enclosure, the drive doesn't get warm at all.

I've gotten some estimates on professional help, but it's way out of my price range. Is anyone able to offer some suggestions? Is it worth my time to try and locate a PCB and replace it? I've also read some threads about a protection diode that I can test and potentially remove?

Thanks for your suggestions. I appreciate it.

Chis

Contact Jono-ats, he is also from Atlanta, GA.
He will be able to assist you for reasonable $

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Thanks Harddrivespecialist, I appreciate the referral.

I've sent a PM and will look forward to hopefully hearing from him.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations in the meantime about whether I should attempt to procure a second, exact drive or PCB to help the cause?

Thanks all. I really appreciate the advice.

Chris

Your stated budget limits the degree to which any pro can help you.

Nonetheless, there is no harm in swapping the PCB with an exact duplicate (same FW rev, etc.), then you'll know whether the problem is electronic or mechanical. Who knows . . . you might get lucky with just that step . . .

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Thanks Jono-Ats,

I genuinely appreciate your advice. I wish my budget were greater and I'd happily pay a professional to help me with this. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now I suppose.

I'll start scouring ebay and craigslist for a suitable replacement pcb. Hopefully I'll get lucky.

Thanks again. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Chris

UPDATE:

Ok. I ordered a PCB from Eric and it arrived today. I very carefully did the swap (cold). Unfortunately, all i got was the click of death. Which seems like good news and bad news. Bad obviously in that I wasn't able to just spin up the drive and get my data. But it was good in that at least the drive was spinning, which is way more than it did with the old pcb.

With the old board the drive never even attempted to spin up, so it seems reasonable to assume that the pcb is actually my problem? I suppose it's possible that the replacement pcb is not correct?

I would sure appreciate any suggestions or ideas. Should I just keep looking for another replacement PCB?

Thanks All,
Chris Hackett

Do the white stickers on the PCBs match exactly or not?

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Nope. Original, then replacement...

*2P00F6P4C50038ZD21005* SH334
*2P00F4M4171590Z031003* SH334

I even took a photo of the PCB that I was replacing. I guess I needed to be more specific with my posting in the "Buy / Sell / Trade" forum.

If anyone has a PCB they would be willing to part with for a reasonable $, please let me know.

Thanks,
Chris Hackett

The sticker that needs to match is the one marked A/A. You are matched there.

Also check the sticker on the front of the drive. Underneath the model number there should be a code like: A/A0A0 A/A. These should also match, IIRC.

IC5 on the PCB contains the firmware code.

If everything matches and you still have clicking, I'd conclude that whatever killed the PCB also killed the preamp.

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Thanks for the advice. I really do appreciate it.

I'll check the remaining numbers / markings that you mention when I get home this afternoon.

I guess if the preamp is bad, I'm looking at a head stack replacement huh? Is the "similarity requirement" for the head stack donor as strict as the requirement for pcb donor?

Thanks all. Many thanks ..

Chris

Thanks! The A/A as you mention definitely matches as you pointed out. I guess since I only got the PCB, and not a whole donor drive, there's no corresponding sticker on the PCB to correspond with the A/A0A0 which is printed on the front of the drive casing.

It's also interesting that the replacement PCB has "MC60" stamped onto IC5, where you mention the firmware is loaded, and on the failed drive it's stamped "MC62"

I guess we're onto trying to locate a donor drive so I can do a head swap. Any Donors?

Thanks again for all the help. I really am very appreciative of the assistance and guidance. Thank you.

Chris Hackett

Chris, you MUST buy 3 matching drives. Not having experience in replacing the heads there are so many things to go wrong. You need to take two identical drives and swap the heads between them first. IF you can do that, and still read the data from the drive I will raise the probability of your success.I cannot say it enough, if you want to "experiment" your way to a solution, you must do it on scratch drives. I suggest a few trys before you do it on the important disks. Start with 20-40gb Desktar drives. Everyone here can do them in their sleep. The do 2 x 80 gb Western Digital. If you make it through them, do two Seagate 2.5 momentus drives. If you succeed with these tests, move on to doing your precious drives. Ask some questions here along the way, and people will take note. Remember, you are attempting to adjust the fuel mixture on a top fuel dragster by nose alone. You are going to destroy a few spark plugs. You can do this, just don't expect it to be cheaper than paying a professional.

Well, the heads may be good. You've got a firmware mismatch. Need to find a PCB with MC62 on that IC, or else swap the MPU (hoping that it is good, because a bad one will cause the drive not to spin, too) or figure out the original problem with the original PCB.

Isn't this fun? Now can you see how DR people earn their fees?

Jono

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Hey Jono!

Thanks for the input. I really appreciate it. I'll shop around and see if I can find a local electronics house that will swap the MPU. I'm pretty handy and all, but I'm pretty sure this is out of my league.

As for DR folks earning fees .. I have no doubt whatsoever that data recovery fees are appropriate, given the complexity and skill required to do it right. Fortunately my data isnt' "critical" in that money or lives wil be lost if I don't get it back. It has tremendous sentimental value and that's why I'm trying to get it back.

I enjoy taking my time and learning all this stuff. It's very interesting to me. My decision to try and make a go of it myself it motivated by a lack of income and not at all from an inability to see how DR folks earn their fees. I'm 100% sure the fees are appropriate .. but I still can't afford them

This type of work reminds me of the story that's usually told about Thomas Edison and his printing press. He sold one to a large print house. One day the machine stopped working and they opened up the machine to see if they could figure out what was wrong. Inside they found hundreds and hundreds of tiny screws. Faced with that, they decided to call Mr. Edison who promptly took out a small screwdriver and gave a small twist to one of the screws and the machine burst back into life. Mr. Edison said "That'll be $1,000" which was at that time a huge amount of money. Outraged by this fee the press owner demanded and itemized bill be sent to him for this work. The next day the invoice arrived:

1. Turning screw: $1.00
2. Knowing which screw to turn: $999.00

I do realize though that data recovery is a tad more complex than just knowing which screw to turn. It requires specialty tools, environments, significant knowledge of component level electronics, critical problem solving skills, and lots of practice and experience.

Thanks for you help. You've been very friendly and helpful, and I appreciate it.

Chris

A retired, former service tech used to say, "look under the streetlight," i.e. go for what is visible first.

I don't see many of these drives, but I think they have SMT fusible links to protect the PCBs, and I'd locate and check those with a VOM first.

A SMT fuse may have a tiny 2 on the front. That stands for 2 amps, not 2 ohms.
If they have little 0's printed on them, they should measure shorted.

You'll need to find someone in the ATL area with SMT gear if a MPU swap is indicated. Norman's Electronics?? Don't forget . . . a bad MPU will cause your symptoms, too.

OK. That's all for DR 101.

Jono

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Hi All,

I hope I'm not wearing out my welcome here.

I have heard or read that even if I get a PCB match additional work may need to be done. I've read it referred to as "adaptive data." I'll obviously search the forums and see what I can learn on my own.

Is there a 100% chance that I need to swap the IC5 / Firmware chip and/or move adaptive data? Are there any free (or cheap) software tools available to help me with that?

I appreciate ya'lls patience while I tinker with this.

Chris

Do you still need one of these drives?

Let me know.

Would this still be true if I got my hands on a pcb that had the correct "MC62" on the IC5 chip where the firmware is?

I guess the question for me now, comes down to "Is there adaptive data on the chip that is going to require a chip swap no matter what?"

Thanks,
Chris

On the FA series, adaptive data is stored it the MPU. With some other Hitachis (AA, BA, etc) the adaptive info is stored on the platters.

Your best bet at this point would be to try swapping the MPU and hoping it's not shot.

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I'll work on that. If it turns out the MPU is shot is the recovery hopeless? Or only hopeless for an amateur?

Thanks,
Chris