Hi and thanks for reading my post
My Hitachi 2,5" IDE HDD (see specs at the bottom) has become inaccessible. My notebook's BIOS would not find it. Tried to connect it to my desktop using both a USB device (that connected the disk to another desktop about a year ago) and a 2,5" to 40-pin IDE convertor that plugs directly into my PC. Still no luck in getting the disk recognized by BIOS. I have the feeling the disk is running when connected though it is difficult to say as I have no other 2,5" HDDs to compare the sound to yet. I suspect it could be st fried on the HDD's board or perhaps something in the HDD's system/firmware area. I am a rather cautious type and before I start disassembling the disk, I would like to eliminate the system/firmware area possibility but I have no idea how. Could anyone kindly help me in this regard, pls?
Many thanks in advance for any kind help!
Best regards,
Pavel

The HDD's specs:
IC25N060ATMR04-0 - IBM Hitachi 60GB 4200RPM 8MB Buffer IDE
Info: http://www.getpartsonline.com/ic25n060atmr04-0.html
User Guide: http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib. ... pec2.0.pdf

I think you should first determine if your drive is at all spinning. Power it up and put your ear on top of it. Can you hear it spin up? Does it vibrate?
If no, then first thing to check is pcb. If it does, then there is nothing more you can do i'm afraid.

What do you mean disassemble the drive? If you open the lid, then you will only make things worse and render data unrecoverable.

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Thanks for writing back,

re: "first determine if your drive is at all spinning."
I am used to the sound of 3,5" drives and this is the only 2,5" I have right now and I am just not familiar with its sound. It makes some noise but is it spinning? I can't tell with 100% certainty, I am afraid. I will get to some functional 2,5" sooner or later so I will be able to clear this up. So basically if it doesn't spin, it looks like PCB, right? The sound is so different to 3,5". It does not sound much like spinning but there is a sound. Could it produce a sound and not be spinning?

re: "If it does, then there is nothing more you can do i'm afraid."
What cause could it be then?

re: "What do you mean disassemble the drive?"
Taking a look at the pcb for signs of heat-related damage like little bumps.

Does the system area damage figure into this somehow? I have only read about it a bit so far so I don't have a very good idea about what it is. I have once recovered a copy of Master Boot Record when the MBR got damaged. I don't think that has to do with the system area, though.

Many thanks advance!

Bets regards,
PH

pavelh,
Knowing this is ATMR series, this symptom you described in post #1, can be a lot of things. This model suffer mainly with weak head(s), enormous bad sector (G-List overload), NV-RAM corruption, and many other things.

For system area/firmware, you can read here : newbie-info-from-and-for-newbies-about-firmware-etc-t6562.html

For clicking noise :
- clicking-noise-causes-and-solutions-t7457.html
- http://files.hddguru.com/download/Hard% ... g%20Noise/

For internal hdd components : hdd-from-inside-main-parts-t12400.html

You might have a good chance if it's just PCB problem.

Most problems related to firmware are only possible to solve using specialized hardware combined with software. Other solutions for internal/mechanical problems are more difficult.

Hope that helps.

Thank you very much for you very informative reply, Freakzy!
I will study it all before proceeding with the HDD. BTW I am sure it is not the clicking sound as that's what happened with another drive of mine so I am pretty familiar with that issue, sigh.
Best regards to Jakarta (it's pretty cold here in Prague right now
PH

Thanks for reading

I have noticed that it sounds like something's a bit loose in the disk when I hold it in my hand (unplugged) and turn it around, something moves inside. Now it's been a while since I have disassembled a few 3,5"'s (never a 2,5") but I don't recall anything that could make that sound. Does it sound (no pun intended) like something, pls?

Also I could be able to determine if the disk spins or not by removing the metal "sleeve" (not the cover or PCB, but the metal piece that covers the sides and the bottom half of the disk at this point, also covers the PCB, is attached with four screws to the disk - it probably has a name) which would reveal the spindle of the disk (more or less like this: http://www.eassetsolutions.com/BLUE/2011-01-04_0128.jpg). If I could turn the disk upside down and plug it into my desktop I could observe if the spindle spins or not. But frankly I am not sure if it is ok to plug the disk in upside down. I think it is more or less fine as long as I don;t move it around, but I'd prefer to sound silly and ask for confirmation if anyone kindly could, pls?

Many thanks in advance for any kind help!!!
Best regards,
PH

This is normal sound for 2.5".


Sorry I don't understand what you want to remove. The only thing that you could remove and observe if the platters are spinning is the top cover of the drive and as suggested before, you should not do it.

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Thanks for your kind replies, Northwind!



Wow! That's interesting Very good to know! I'll have to look into one of these little drives one day to see the differences between 2.5" and 3.5".


[/quote]

It's just a piece of metal used to attach the disk into the notebook. It's not part of the HDD. I probably shouldn't have mentioned it, it's rather confusing. The question should be rather this: can I power up a 2.5" HDD if the PCB of the HDD faces upwards? I think it is silly to even ask this and the answer is very likely to be 'yes' but looking at the drive it just feels weird. I have never plugged in a drive that would be positioned like this so I am not comfortable with it and would be very glad for confirmation that it is ok to do so

Many thanks in advance!!
PH

Disk position will not matter as long as it remains undisturbed during operation.

Thank you very much, Freakzy!
I have tried it and the spindle does not move. I have never plugged in a drive like this before and I have never plugged in a disassembled drive so I am not too familiar with how the parts move. Should the spindle as visible on this picture: http://www.eassetsolutions.com/BLUE/2011-01-04_0128.jpg be moving when the power is on, pls? Mine isn't.

Many thanks in advance!!

PH

Oh no, did you plug the drive connector pins into your 2,5" to 40-pin IDE convertor upside down ? What I meant was, if you connect the drive correctly onto its connector, drive is OK. But, if connect the drive to 2,5" to 40-pin IDE convertor mistakenly, you might fried the PCB. Are you sure you know the correct pin to connect that 2,5" to 40-pin IDE convertor ?

However, spindle (inside drive parts) will not be visible. The link you quote is correct when you put your drive with PCB faces upwards, yes it will look like that. The spindle is the middle circle component in white sticker. But you will not see it moving.

Don't worry. Took a look into the user guide for the HDD to be certain where the pin1 is.



Sigh. Well, it seemed kind of unnatural of this part to be moving this visibly. Could cause friction with the surrounding things. Pitty though. I was hoping to be able to check the spindle this way. But again - it is all good to know.

If you can still bear with me ...
Is there any other way to check the spindle moving other than listening to the sound?
The hissing sound that I hear - could it be something other than the spindle rotating? I have never really heard a dead drive plugged in.
If there is no other way to check the spindle, basically the only thing I can do is to unscrew the PCB and check it for heat-related damage, right? If I am careful that shouldn't be too risky, should it? Just unscrew, take out, check out and possibly put back.

Many thanks again for all your information!!

Best regards,
PH

You're welcome.

Now i understand, you're probably referring to the disk tray, that metal that holds drive in it's place inside the notebook hard drive bay. OK, you can remove that, but as i said and freakzy also advised, you won't be able to see if the spindle rotates or not.



Not without expensive equipment or without opening the tray, and i really don't understand why is it giving you such a hard time.
Just power up the drive, put your ear onto the drive and listen. If it spins up, you will hear platters rotating and heads moving. If not, you will hear absolutely nothing, or some silent hummmmm with disk trying to spin up but fail. [/quote]


Yes, could be stiction. This is the case where heads are stuck to the platters and platters can't rotate.


You can do this, but i doubt you will see anything helpful.

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Many thanks for your kind help, Northwind!



Disk tray! That's much better term I will remember that.



What's giving me hard time is figuring out what the sound is. I am familiar more with the sounds of 3.5". With this 2.5" I don't hear anything familiar. That familiar buzzing sound is not there. But since I don't know much about 2.5"s it could also affect my judgement.



Hmm, thank you. It's the problem that people suggest solving by "hitting" the drive a bit, right? Ahem, I don't feel comfortable about doing that But I will try to look into this issue on the net also. Need to study this before proceeding.




I have seen photographs of real bumps appearing on fried components. My friends have also seen some. Hopefully it would be something this visible. Hopefully...

Many, many thanks for your kind help!!!!

Best regards,
PH

The labels on some drives state that "rattle noise is normal when handled".

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I know you say that you hear hissing (or think that you do), but just to be absolutely certain, are you supplying power to the 44-pin-to-40-pin IDE converter?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Yes this is the problem that people suggest you to hit the drive. Also, refrigerate your disk, put it in the microwave oven or cook it.
If you care about your data, which I assume you do, DON'T do anything like that. Just my advice.



Yes this is true. As I said, if you're careful, you can try this and inspect pcb for any visual damages. When I said you won't find anything useful is because if pcb has any visual damages, drive would be completely dead.

Good luck!

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pavelh,
Can you record the hissing sound and attach here ?

Hi and thanks for writing back, fzabkar,



Could be useful in this case.


Yes, positive. Tried 2 devices to connect and I have used one of them with this drive before successfully.

Best regards,
PH

Thanks for writing again, Northwind!



I have never heard about the microwave and cooking thing. Do they do it with a lot of onions?
As to the freezing - why isn't that recommended? My opinion is that placing cold item in a very warm environment would cause moisture to appear on the surface of things and moisture tends to be conductive...



Wow! Now I sense a lot of experience from you here. My respect 2 u.


PH