Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Seagate 7200.11 clicking sound

October 31st, 2013, 23:11

Hi All - need some help with troubleshooting this 7200.11 1TB ST310000340AS (read the many useful posts - but still not fix).
The firmware is SD04 - and the drive is part of the known corrupted firmware.
Drive will power up, motor spins, the drive will make a clicking noise repeating every 2 seconds (heads seeking the SA area) and than it will stop spinning. Bios can't see it, but if it is attached to SATA connector - on running Win 7 system - I can see that it will show up in the device manager under Disks. And it will read correctly the drive. No way to talk to the drive as it is not spinning.

Connected to the drive using serial port, ran Hyper terminal with all the proper commands, and I can only go as far as typing the Upper case U (to power up) command - and then get the error:
Error 1009 Detsec 0006008
Spin Error
Elapsed time 28.463 secs
R/W status 2 R/W Error 84150180

Deep Spar can't see the drive.

Already cleaned the connectors on PCB board - both for heads, and for motor.

Any suggestions?

Re: Seagate 7200.11 clicking sound

October 31st, 2013, 23:16

Most likely cause is bad heads; and if so, there is a good chance of head contamination or media damage as well. Spinning down is your sign. It's not a DIY.

Re: Seagate 7200.11 clicking sound

October 31st, 2013, 23:26

I thought that with bad heads on this Seagate family I should see FFFF Head mask error using the serial port connection.

Is there anyway to know if the heads are bad without opening of the cover? There are so many posts about similar error on this same exact drive that were related to Firmware or bad contacts on board.

Re: Seagate 7200.11 clicking sound

November 1st, 2013, 8:39

Accurate wrote:I thought that with bad heads on this Seagate family I should see FFFF Head mask error using the serial port connection.


That's on older pre-F3 drives.

Re: Seagate 7200.11 clicking sound

November 1st, 2013, 9:04

Accurate wrote:Is there anyway to know if the heads are bad without opening of the cover?


Accurate wrote:Drive will power up, motor spins, the drive will make a clicking noise repeating every 2 seconds (heads seeking the SA area) and than it will stop spinning.


Heads are bad

Re: Seagate 7200.11 clicking sound

November 1st, 2013, 13:20

hddguy wrote:
Accurate wrote:Is there anyway to know if the heads are bad without opening of the cover?


Accurate wrote:Drive will power up, motor spins, the drive will make a clicking noise repeating every 2 seconds (heads seeking the SA area) and than it will stop spinning.


Heads are bad


Totally agree.

Re: Seagate 7200.11 clicking sound

November 1st, 2013, 21:22

Thank you everyone. This was a case of damaged heads, and it also head damage on the platters...

Anyone knows if these drives can be fixed from damage on the SA area?

Re: Seagate 7200.11 clicking sound

November 2nd, 2013, 2:51

Accurate wrote:Thank you everyone. This was a case of damaged heads, and it also head damage on the platters...

Anyone knows if these drives can be fixed from damage on the SA area?

Depending on how much the platters are scored, yes. In that case only a partial recovery is possible, IF possible. And it won't cost 100 $.
It is different if the SA is damaged logically but phisically readable.
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