Hi all,

long time lurker and basically a logical recovery guy here.... Just bought enough equipment to create a clean air workspace, bench, and tools.

I have been practicing head swaps on Seagates using a tool from HDD surgery and have spent days practicing replacements on known bad hard drives that are compatible with the tool.

A friend gave me his 7200.11 drive which was clicking. As all he had on it was his movies I explained it would be the first live test.

I had an identical drive in my main machine so thought time to bite the bullet and try some real recovery of data.

Swapped the heads but his drive is still clicking. As this is the first "real" physical recovery I was really hoping it would work. However after reading everything I am under the assumption that the drive will either work or it wont after a head swap.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what the issue could be assuming my head swap was a success.

What would the most common cause of a head swap with an identical donor be for not working?

Any specific issues with 7200.11's after head swaps.

FYI one head on original drive had "lifted" so it was definitely heads initially.

Any help and encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards and TIA

Logical (for now)

What was the terminal output before and after you swapped the heads? Did you inspect the surface for signs of a fatal crash?

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Hi Luke,

I don't have the cables for checking the outputs, however as my friend dropped his drive I took the opinion that it would be the heads.

From what I could see there does not appear to be any signs of damage to the platters.

Would be interested in info on what I would require to get the terminal info you mention. I have the cable to correct busy errors on seagates if thats what you mean.

Thanks for the speedy reply.

Best

Logical.

If the drive was dropped, it likely is a head issue, if not a surface issue too. You should be able to connect the terminal to the drive and read the output in Hyperterminal as you power the drive on. Though, I'd much prefer to have you use a professional tool like PC3000.

Seagate drive spindles don't deal well with impact either, so there is always a chance that the spindle motor is a problem too. Does the drive make any weird noises when it spins?

Either way, you have some work ahead of you to fully assess the drive's condition and deal with each issue. There is a chance that the damage is fatal. When you switch the heads back, does your donor drive work again?

Luke

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Were the two drives really compatible?
Also, as Luke suggests, try to put heads back to donor and see if it' ll work.
If it doesn't, and assuming you're doing everything right, then donor heads are killed too, probably due to surface problem.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Yes, he actually sold me my drive. They came out of his machine initially as he was upgrading to 2x2TB Raid drives, he kept one and sold me the other....so fortunately, or unfortunately now being the case ?!? the drives were identical.

Thus hoping for sightly more success and agreeing this to be my first unofficial / real mechanical DR job.

Will carry out a head swap back into working drive to determine if heads are good.

Replies really appreciated all, spurring me on

Logical.

Hi all, Transferred the good heads back into the original drive and get the same clicking.

Sounds to me like the heads are gone, probably due to surface damage on the patient platters I could not see.

Unless another drive appears with compatible heads I think I will be putting this drive on my Long term storage shelf until further diagnostics can be attempted.

However I do have another one to attempt today so will start a new thread.

Thanks again.

Logical.

Or probably was the procedure.

It is not a simple task, and these F3 are not entirely easy to deal with as a novice.

There is still (probably) some possibility for recovery, it doesn't hurt to get it looked at professionally if your data (or your clients data) is of any value.

Thanks for the help, will probably leave this on the shelf as there is no real value to the data, jut time it would take to convert his DVD collection.

Onwards and upwards, (Purchasing PC-3000 soon) let the learning begin

best

Logical.

Hell of a lot of money to invest just to do a bit of learning?

I get the feeling soon you have a website which claims years of experience and 97% success rate. This is what is wrong with the industry, every man and his dogs wants a slice of the cake but is not ready to be offering Mr Kipling quality.

I am not having a go at you personally it's just the pro's have to pick up the pieces of the fly by night companies.

PC3000 wont stop your drive clicking. An experienced and skilled technician will stop your drive clcking. Then he can use PC3000 to help maintain stability while safely recovering your data...

Hi HDD Spaz,

Have to speculate to accumulate, and I'm really looking forward to the learning curve. Am sure it will be steep ;-/

Hi hddguy, I wish it would cure all cliking drives, however I am under no ilussion that a great deal of time will need to be invested in this...If i didn't I'd just be standing still.

Time to take the plunge.

Kindest regards

Logical.(website claiming 0% mechanical recoveries as of yet )

Hello Logical,
From what you described, it sounds like the drive has hidden platter damage from the fall. If I were you, I wouldn't waste another good set of heads on that drive. As soon as the new head hits the damaged area on the platter game over. Unfortunately, it is not possible to view the bottom platters, so it is always a gamble to replace heads on a drive that has been dropped. On the newer drives with ceramic platters that scratch very easily, in a high majority of cases, the head swap will be a waste of time. I have been burned several times myself replacing heads in drives with hidden platter damage. My solution now, is not to waste my time and money on drives that have damaged heads. There is easier money to be made. I will let the high priced labs have the tough 10% of the recoveries and focus on the easier jobs that have a better upside. Just my opinion.

Hi Alan2,

Thanks for the info and can see your point. Will take what you say on board for the future.

Best

Logical