Hi and thanks for this great forum.

I have been reading but can't find consensus. My Toshiba MK4025GAS is not spinning up at all. It seems that the fluid or gas bearings in these drives often fail, and that the likely thing to do is remove the platters from my drive an place them into a donor drive.

What should I do first. When I connect the drive the activity LED stays lit and the drive never spins up with a quiet drr, drr, drr sound for a little while and then no more sounds with LED on forever. Should I get a donor drive and swap PCB's first? Should I heat the bottom of the bearing? Should I try and lubricate the bearing? Should I just go ahead and pull out the platters and put them into a new drive? What is the safest thing to get my data back.

Also, what numbers on these drives need to match between the donor and my drive? I can't find any list for this model. Is all the FW data on the platters so I don't have to worry about this for this model? There is a chip that could be a FW chip on the PCB that is IC12 and marked "38" with a sticker. If I move this chip to a donor PCB is this all I need worry about?

Also, before the drive totally died it was acting weird. It would work ok one day and then the next would slow down and data retrieval would get slow and then to error. I thought the problem was with the enclosure and not the drive so I wasn't worried about the data being lost... stupid me

Thanks for helping a complete newb that has read a lot already!

Platter swapping is not for the first timer unless the data is worthless. It requires years of experience, special tools, and a clean room.

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Definitely agree.

Where are you based?

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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!

You have problems here - unless you have access to a highly accurate milling machine, special lubrication, and also alignment issues.

You need someone with experience. Not just with data recovery, but with this range of Toshiba drives.


Duncan

Hey guys,

I appreciate the advice, but I am looking for info, not a warning. I do SM work for a living and have experience working in a clean room.

Please let me know what numbers need to match between PCB's for this drive and I'll go from there if no one wants to help. I have done numerous electronic undertakings that I was warned against doing as a first timer and have rarely failed. I wouldn't call the data worthless, but it is not monetarily valuable.

I am in Chicago USA.

non

This is a single platter drive, what alignment issues need to be taken into consideration?

Thanks,
non

PCB matching has nothing to do with platter swapping. From the way you ask your questions, people can tell many things about your experience level.

post46991.html?hilit=toshiba%20motor#p46991

Your answer lies within...

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Thank you.

I read that thread earlier today already and it was helpful.

The reason I would like to get matching numbers for the PCB is not for the platter swap, though I may have been poor at explaining this.

I think it might be prudent to swap PCB's first and see what happens before I swap platters. Also, I would like to take the PCB from my dead drive and try it in the donor drive to double check the PCB. I think I need matching numbers for this, correct?

From what I have read it seems that Toshiba drives are the easies to do platter swaps on?

non

Also, I said I am new to this at the beginning and this will cause me to ask newb questions. I am not going to rush and I am very competent with these sort of things. I understand that my lack of knowledge may result in some folks thinking I lack ability, but I think I can do this.

non

You need to open the drive in a clean room and verify the motor first before you try other methods that may damage the drive further. A proper diagnosis is crucial for data recovery.

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Sounds good.

However, I want to have a donor drive here before I open the drive at all. As I understand it, once the drive is opened it will begin to degrade over time... or is that only if I try and use it?

So if I open it, check the motor, and then put the cover back on, will the drive degrade as it just sits there waiting for a donor drive to arrive?

I am 100% sure the drive is not spinning as it should. If I hold the drive up while I power it on, I can not feel the motor spin up as I can with my other drives. So one thing I know is that it is not spinning, I just need to be sure why it's not spinning.

non

1. Use a drive with the same model #
2. Simply swap boards - don't worry about ROM at this point. If bad drive doesn't spin up with donor PCB then your problem is mechanical.
3. Yes, you must ROM ICs (# 38) if you want to swap PCBs
4. Yes, Toshibas are the easiest for head / platter swaps
5. Alignment of the platter is not an issue with this drive
6. A clean room is advisable but not imperative
7. Humility is a plus when attempting the unknown
7. Good luck.

Jono

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Sweet. Is the ROM IC the only chip on the PCB that I need worry about matching? If so, I could just get any PCB for this drive and swap the ROM IC.

non

First check the drive motor by connecting a working pcb to the drive if the motor spins then u need to worry about ROM .

I'm talking about bearing alignment - not platter alignment.

With all respect, you can have serious SM and clean-room capability. But what you are suggesting is that, as a result, you would be capable of performing neurosurgery on someone!

Non, I don't think anyone's "having a go" - but so many people come onto this forum who claim "high levels of expertise in the IT hardware industry" and believe this automatically empowers them in home-brew data recovery.

PM me if you want a little insider info.


Duncan

I'm going to send you a PM now Duncan, thanks.

Like I said, I am new to this and I do need basic info. I have been reading a lot, but I wish I could find more info now. Some examples of searches I've done here include "Toshiba GAS," "Toshiba platter," "PCB swap," "Toshiba PCB,"... At this point when I try new searches I am getting back only threads I have already read.

BUT I think once I assemble the required info, I will then have the knowledge, and I believe that I have the skill to pull off the job. The data on the disc that I want to get back is mostly photos of friends and family. I can't afford the $$$ for this so the only real hope is to pull this off myself.

If you want to write about bearing alignment here that's fine or please let me know when you get my PM.

Thanks again!

non

Since your drive is not even trying to spin the motor, I think the problem may be simply caused by the heads being parked over the platters instead of on the ramp. It may be simple after all.

Jon

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So after I get a donor drive I should first check this upon opening the drive. However, I have read a lot about these drives and it seems that the bearings fail often with the symptoms that I had... the drive would read slower and slower and then I'd finally get a failure in windows. If I used the drive a day later it was sometimes ok and other times worse. It just seems logical to me that the bearing was slowing down the motor until it finally froze. The funny thing is that it worked one day and then when I wen to use it about a week later it was totally dead.

I guess we'll see. I am in contact with some eBayers' now to get a new drive for a donor.

non

In this thread above where thatdellguy linked me, only the platters were swapped to the new donor drive and not the heads. Is this usually all right for this drive, or should I plan on swapping both the platters and the heads?

I was thinking that if the motor is bad I'd need to swap platters, head assembly, and PCB... but maybe I only need do the platters and PCB

Thanks
non

Sorry, one more thing. I usually use this drive in a USB enclosure. However, if I put the drive directly into a laptop, the notebook bios will not detect the drive at all. It will search for an extended period (maybe a minute) and then not report the hard drive. If only the HDD motor is bad, wouldn't the notebook bios see the drive?

non