Dear gurus, I posted my question on the Seagate board and a friendly member "fzabkar" directed me to this forum.
I am a complete HDD nood and I don't have the tools, nor the knowledge to recover the data on maxtor 1TB external HD.
This is the overview of the posts wich were posted on the Seagate forum:



Hello,

I need your help.... The motor of the seagate Barracuda 7200.11 in my maxtor 1000GB HDD stopped and there is no way to get the disk running again. As this HDD was the only storage of ALL my family pictures and movies, you can understand the loss is devastating. But to make things even worse, I got involved in a divorce and I am not able to see my 5 year old daughter so pictures were the only thing left of her, and now even these are lost...

I can't afford the data recovery service. The only way to access my data is to physically remove the hard disk out of the seagate Barracuda and rebuild it in a new one with exactly the same firmware and series.

So now I am looking for a new Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 with following specs:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11
1000Gbytes
PN:9BX158-568
Firmware:SD81
ST31000340AS
Could please anyone help? I will be the most gratefull man on earth!!!!
I forgot to mention: If anyone thinks there is another solution, please feel free to reply.

Kind regards,
J. Michiels

What makes you think that the motor is at fault?

You need to first remove your drive from its enclosure and test it by connecting it directly to your computer's motherboard. This will eliminate the USB-SATA bridge board within the enclosure as a potential culprit.

Of course I'm assuming that your AC adapter is good.

If the drive does not power up inside your PC, then remove its circuit board and upload a detailed photo to a file sharing service. Depending on the fault, you may be able to get away with a cheap DIY repair.

Thx FZABKAR for your support!
The drive was tested on the motherboard of a pc and the disk started spinning very slow... There was no chance to speed it up or to recover any data.

I am a complete hardware noob so I don't want to mess thing up just becaus I am too stupid to know what I do. Is there any chance you can fix this for me? I am willing to send my disk all over the world if I am sure someone can recover my pictures and movies and transfer them onto a new HDD.


If the problem is internal to the HDA (head / disc assembly), then you would need to send your drive to a data recovery house.

Your description of the motor speed as "slow" is unusual. External drives often suffer from stiction faults or seized bearings, especially after being dropped. You will hear a repetitive buzz as the motor attempts to kickstart.

Barracuda 7200.11 series suffers from a firmware bug that causes them to be stuck in the BUSY state. However, the motor still spins normally. If this is your problem, then there is a straightforward DIY fix.

You may like to ask the data recovery specialists at HDD Guru for advice:
hard-disk-drives-data-recovery-and-repair-f1.html

BTW, stupidity and ignorance are two different things. Everyone is born ignorant ...

Can any of you wizzards recommend someone who is thrustworthy enough to try to solve this problem for me? I am willing ro send my HDD to the other end of the world and I am willing to pay any expenses to have my data recovered but I can't afford the professionnal recovery services... I know this is a matter of thrust but at this moment it is the only solution I see...

I suggest you record the sound of your drive and ask the data recovery professionals at HDD Guru for their opinions.

If the problem is internal to the HDA, then the drive needs to be opened in a cleanroom by someone with experience.

If it's a board problem, then you can replace the board, but you will need to transplant the 8-pin serial EEPROM (flash) chip from patient to donor.

See the following article for help in identifying the components.

HDD from inside Main parts:
http://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_from_inside.html



If there was any sound to record...

I will try to get some assistance from the HDD gurus. Thx for your help and advice. I really do appreciate it.

I am quite desperate... Can anyone please assist. I can't afford to pay hundreds of euro's to get my data recovered but I am willing to pay an honest price to any of you specialists to help me out on this. I am willing to ship my HDD all over the world as long as I can get the pictures recovered...

Kind regards,

Jo Michiels
Belgium

I already was in contact with Marc Vergalle.

The nearest reputable person in Belgium IS Dobrevjetser from this forum.
You better tell how much are you willing to spend maximum.

Yep,thats me

Dobre aka Marc

_________________
Murphy was an optimist

Datarecovery in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany
Datarecoverytools http://www.drtools.eu

Is this of any influence on the price?

Yes because you won't get any offer from professionals who judge not convenient handling your case. Just to say it clearly, it has a great influence on reciprocal respect of time professionality and expectations.