Hello, I have a Seagate 7200.9 ST3160212A that spins up and shows busy but never goes to ready state and nakes a noise as the head seeks quickly to the outer edge of the platter.

I have inspected the drive with the cover off (in a laminar flow box) and the top head looks fine and there are no damages to the platter visible. When the drive spins up, the head moves from the parked position near the inner of the drive and seeks towards the middle of the surface. Then after a few seconds, the head seeks quickly to the outer-most edge of the media, then makes a "ping" noise and goes back to the middle of the media. Any ideas? I'm wondering if either the head on the under side of the platter is damaged or if the amplifier chip may be damage? I suppose the PCB could also have damage maybe to the I/O chip? Any ideas for further troubleshooting this issue would be appreciated. I don't currently have a spare of this model to try PCB swap but I am currently trying to source one. Thanks for any suggestions.
cheers

post us here the terminal log

Best Regards

Sinceraly

Alberto

No terminal log can be obtained. The drive never becomes ready. It stays with busy status and is having seeking problems.

This is the terminal output taken before the seeking problem manifested:

Interface task reset
1024k x 16 buffer detected
TONKA2 - 1_Disk S.38 09-08-05 16:29

Buzz - Head Mask FFFF - Switch to full int.
Spin Ready
(P)PATA Reset
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002

Read Ver Retrys
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002

Read Ver Retrys
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002

Read Ver Retrys
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002

Read Ver Retrys
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002

Read Ver Failure!
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.022b
Failed sys sect. write
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0080
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0080
Unable To Load Overlay 01|000A

T>(P)PATA Reset
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002

Read Ver Retrys
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002

Read Ver Retrys
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002

Read Ver Retrys
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002

Read Ver Retrys
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0002

Read Ver Failure!
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.022b
Failed sys sect. write
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=47 at ffffffff.00.0080
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0080
Unable To Load Overlay 01|000A

T>H


Now that the knocking has manifested, I get this:

Interface task reset
1024k x 16 buffer detected
TONKA2 - 1_Disk S.38 09-08-05 16:29

Buzz - Head Mask FFFF - Switch to full int.
Spin Ready
(P)PATA Reset
$Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF -


I'm thinking the HDA is shot (maybe the lower head)?? Any ideas on this?

Problem with heads u need to change it in order to restore complete operation .

Thank you, this is what I suspected. With Seagate, is the criteria for donor MHA simply same model and firmware revision? Also, do recommend swapping magnets along with MHA when swapping Seagate? Thanks.

Never mind on that last question, I see it is already clearly answered in the head stack replacement FAQ. One questions remains, since this drive is a single platter unit, is it easier to swap the platter to the donor HDA, or more sensible to transplant the MHA from the donor?