I have a seagate 7200.11 hard drive which does not spin up and after checking under the pcb it seems the heads contacts is broken in half, is there anyway of replacing this or is the drive irrecoverable?

Can you provide photos of this?

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Data Recovery Ireland

Can you take a clear, close-up photo of what you mean, and include it in your next reply? Note that your reply (which will either have the photo attached, or a link to it - your choice) will likely be held in moderation and so won't appear on the forum immediately, as you're a new member. Just wait for it to appear...

What is the history of the drive? This needs a full & clear answer. Something being "broken in half" suggests a lot of force e.g. the drive being dropped, perhaps...


If it's what I think you mean, then yes, it's part of the HSA - but I'm guessing what you mean, without seeing a photo. A greater worry is what other damage has been caused inside the drive, by whatever happened.


Not necessarily, but it's likely not recoverable successfully by you, again depending on what has actually happened to the drive.

There are some forum members from the UK who own or represent DR companies, who may be able to be more specific when you supply a photo & give the history of the drive. I'm just an electronics engineer who works with lots of drives

Edit: I see you beat me to the photo request, CK

The hard drive has been lying around for the last 2 years and it worked the last time i used it. I have attached some photos of the damage i really dont know how this happened as the pcb itself seems fine but the contacts are clearly broken, i think it may have been tampered with.

ok, either somebody has sabotaged this drive or else you tried to remove the PCB without removing the screw that should screw into the head connector. I have never seen this damage so I won't speculate as only you know the history of the drive...

That is the head assembly connector so this drive will need a full headswap to get it working.

Not a DIY.

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Data Recovery Ireland

I know my brother has messed about with my old computer parts before but i cant understand why he would do that but w/e, i noticed as soon as i seen it there was no screw into the head connector. The data is semi important but there is no way of a DIY job on this?

Realistically, no, and any DIY attempt will likely cause more problems. As CK said, a full swap of the HSA will be needed which requires a suitable donor part, use of a cleanroom, lots of experience to do the swap successfully etc. And that's a minimum - if the drive was dropped or other significant mechanical damage has been caused internally, then that may have caused extra problems.

Ewwhhh... Ohhh. that's a nasty mofo!!
The photos are crap and I can't see the full damage. But it looks to be repairable provided the rip doesn't extend too far into the housing. My lab has some met-cal equipment and microscope whereas I could repair and rebuild that connector.

We'd also use a conductive material to extend the traces out to a point where we could solder, it all depends on exactly material and how it's ripped.

Fine traces you say?? Pffaaghh.. The etched wires on that ribbon cable are brute-deluxe. You haven't see fine till you're resoldered head wires. Or replaced the tiny .5mm BGA (6 pins) stuff in an ipod. That's right, many ipod nanos have a tiny BGA in the charge sense circuit that is a total of 0.5mm in size, and this microscopic chip has 6 solder connections underneath it.

So this ribbon is pretty honk'n and I'd need to use one of the "larger" tips to do the work.

That's if this route is chosen. The beauty part is the HDA wouldn't be opened; provided the rips don't extend into the sealed area. Otherwise your only option is to get a new set of heads & arms & pre-amps.

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On a clear disk you can seek forever.