New to this board. This site is the only one I could find with people trying to fix hard drives.

My Samsung drive stopped working the other day. PC hangs on boot and is not recognized in BIOS. PC starts up fine if drive is disconnected. Installed OS on another drive and moved the dead drive around to other SATA ports to see if it would detect (before and after boot) but nothing. Sounds like it spins up, but I'm not positive. After 15-20 seconds there is a short,high pitch beep/whine (not a crunch or anything that sounds mechanical) from the drive and then nothing.

I removed the TVSs from the PCB in case they were fried. That did not help either. Can't seem to find any physically damaged parts. There is some discoloration on the 20 pin contacts on the back of the PCB (purplish-pinkish like they might have been overheated; not black). Any thoughts? Anything else I can look at?

Thanks!

If the disk was spining, no need to remove TVS. Now it can even get worse if you have a bad PSU, because you loose your protection.
The drive isn't detected by BIOS, right? That high picth can be spindle problem, if i'm not mistaken.
Do you need the data? If so, send it to someone who works in DR, or else bin the drive.

_________________
http://www.pclab.com.pt facebook.com/PCLAB.A.T
ACELab partner

oh, the tvs only protect the motor control?

It is not a constant high pitch...silence for a 15-20 seconds then a beep...still not sure if it is spinning up though. I'll check again.

Yeah, I do need the data. Who do you guys use for DR?

One more piece of info. I have a PATA to SATA power adapter. My old PATA drive was on this line and when I go to plug the dead SATA drive in (while PC is running; I assumed it was OK since SATA is hot swappable), the PATA shuts off as soon as I connect power. I'm thinking there is a short somewhere on the SATA drive and it causes problems on the power line and that is why the PATA cuts out.

Most of the people on this board are DR guys. :-)

I'm not, but I'll do my best to help you anyway.


What do you mean by "PATA to SATA power adapter"? Is it just a cable with a 4-pin Molex connector at one end and a SATA power connector at the other end, and does your motherboard have an IDE port? Or are you referring to a converter PCB with a SATA-PATA bridge IC which is intended to connect a PATA drive to a SATA port?

What do you mean by "the PATA shuts off"?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Yes, sorry for the confusion. Its as simple as what you stated. Just an adapter. Previously, I had the dead SATA drive on a dedicated SATA power line. I switched to this adapter line to eliminate the SATA power as a factor. The PATA drive that I have is also on this new power line.


Yes, MB has IDE and SATA connectors. PATA drive connected to IDE port, SATA drive connected to SATA port.


When I plug the dead SATA drive into the power line, the PATA drive that shares that power line actually shuts off...I can hear it click off and wind down. Works fine otherwise...PATA drive works fine when dead SATA drive is connected to another power line other than its own.

Thanks so much for your help! Sorry if I confused you.

ok, i don't think the disk is spinning. I hooked it up using an external enclosure and didn't feel or hear anything moving. High pitched beep is really more of a chirp about 15-20seconds after powering up the drive. Windows did not detect the external drive when connected.

If you have a multimeter, measure the voltages at the motor terminals. If you see any activity after power-up, that would confirm that the PCB is trying to spin the motor.

If it's a stiction problem, then see this thread, but heed the warnings:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/FreeAgent- ... 242#M11384

BTW, the bridge board in the enclosure would probably have a switchmode 12V-to-5V DC-DC converter. These sometimes chirp when overloaded.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

I removed the PCB to test the pins as I could only access the pads from the underside of the PCB (the vias ended up underneath an IC on the accessible side). Disconnected, I measured ~0.4VDC on two of the pins and 0V on the other two. The drive is not spinning.

Next steps? Try to replace PCB with similar model HD753LJ?

AIUI, it's not always safe to try a board swap on a Hitachi drive. IIUC, there is a risk that the "adaptive" data may be overwritten. You need to transfer the NVRAM chip (an 8-pin serial EEPROM) from patient to donor.

At the very least you could compare your board's voltages against a known good board. If you upload a detailed photo or scan of the component side, I can show you the test points for the DC-DC converters. I suppose you could try spinning up your drive with a donor PCB, provided that you switch off before the heads have a chance to move.

BTW, I'm not certain how boards normally behave when they are removed from the drive. I've seen one thread where the negative preamp supply wouldn't power up in the absence of a load. In such cases the motor controller's power supply monitor logic would hold the board in a reset state. It could also be that some models may not spin up the drive if they can't communicate with the preamp, but that's only wild speculation on my part.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.