Hi all,

I was hoping for advice on the following clicking ST98823AS. It's apparent it has head failure and requires HSA swap.

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Interface task reset
4096k x 16 buffer detected
MERC2 - 1_Disk S-10 12
Buzz - -01-06 14:00
Head Mask 05,01 - Switch to full int.
Spin Ready
(P)$Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF - Head Mask FFFF -
etc, etc,
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I've recently performed many successful head swaps, but I've not come across a head arrangement like this yet. 3 heads and 3 arms, the top arm is not a pair. My donor will be same model, same site code. When my donor arrives will it have the same HSA, or will I be surprised and it will have 2, or 4, heads, and not 3? If it has 4 then I assume that after a heads map it should image ok anyway?

Hopefully the donor will have the same 3 head configuration, or is this something strange to see and is there a chance I get a nasty surprise?

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Data Recovery Cape Town

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/supp ... 67122c.pdf

Page 9

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Like thatdellguy implies, better to buy a 100/120Gb donor, as an 80Gb might have a different head configuration.

Good luck

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Once the platter is scratched, the damage cascades, and recovery is very hard. Good luck!

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Thanks to all for the input. I see that the 80GB, 100Gb and 120GB all have the same densities, so I'd be safe getting a higher capacity donor with 4 heads. Saying that, spec sheet says that the ST98823AS has 3 heads, so surely if I ordered an identical donor, it would have 3 heads. Or do you sometimes get 'surprises'?

I'm going to first try my best to establish whether the platter/s are damaged as jono said, perhaps getting a donor is in vain. Let me put some more time into the diagnosis.

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

For entertainment value I thought I should update this to say that after searching high and low for a donor, I just realised I have a perfect donor right in front of me. In an external USB enclosure on my desk is a ST98823AS, matching side code What luck. Now for the hard part.

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

Good Luck.

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ACELab partner

Probably. But which 3?

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Good luck indeed.

I had a 120Gb 5400.2 in yesterday, lovely patterns on the platter - "rings of death"

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Ah, unlucky I'll be having a good look at the patient heads to see if I can see any signs of damage. If they look alright then I'm going to go ahead with this job in the next few days and, hopefully, be in luck and not waste a good set of heads. Will keep you posted for interest's sake.

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

I eventually got around to tackling this case. I plugged the donor into PC3K and had a look at the head config and it was 0,1,2 so thankfully it looked like it was going to be a good match.

I removed the patient heads and had a good look at them and they looked physically fine. The filter was clean and there was no sign of any physical damage anywhere in the drive. I moved the donor heads into the patient, powered it up and at first it ID'ed as garbage, but I got it to come right and I'm almost done imaging the drive now as I type.

The drive had been with a DR company for a month before I got it, and they had said they couldn't recover it. The fact that it had already been opened, recovery attempted, and that they are the biggest DR house in my country with 14 years experience, didn't give me much hope. Either way, the outcome was a good one and I'm happy to close another successful case

Thanks to all for the input.

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

Congratulations for the good work.

Keep it up.

_________________
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ACELab partner

Congratulations!

That said, I'm puzzled why the big boys had trouble with a straightforward (?) head swap, if that's indeed what it was.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I was also puzzled as to why they couldn't do it. They definitely had a go as the seals were broken and the top platter had some contamination...sigh. All I can't think is that they couldn't find a donor, but it's a common drive here so that can't be the case. I had to fiddle for a while to get it to init properly, so maybe they were stuck at that point? Who knows.

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town