I have a Seagate st3000dm001 that I'm interested in either getting repaired or having a raw image of it. I talked to a local data recovery place and all they wanted to do was file/folder recovery. They kept insisting that's the only possible way and they only charge if they recover files. I tried to explain that I was fine paying for diagnostics and repair/recovery (if it's possible) and I understand that there's risks.
So, I'm interested in finding a reputable place that will do this type of work for me. The drive I wish repaired/recovered has never been opened or dropped, and I have a identical donor drive for parts if needed.
I've actually had several of these drives fail on me over the last 8 months. Either I'm unlucky or they just don't build them like they used too. They all exhibit the same symptoms on failure, they spin up, I can hear the head seek a few times, and then it spins down. On a failed on that I didn't care about I pulled it apart to see what it was doing and it behaved identically to this video.
http://youtu.be/rIygEvAFl-AJust like in this video the top platter had no visible scratching. I can't see the other platters, but I don't hear what typically sounds like heads on platter, just the heads seeking and hitting their stops.
Please let me know about any recommendations, advice, help.
Thanks