Hello!!

I have a problem with a Hitachi ARM HDS721010CLA332. It fell down while turned on.

The HDD clicked with all heads, so I performed a head swap. I tried 2 donors drive.

With new heads, HDD doesn't click anymore but it can't ID and can't read anything from SA.

I tried 2 head stacks, but it's always the same, doesn't click, goes DRD DSC in pc3k but can't ID.

If I put heads back to donors, they work well, so patient doesn't kill heads. I tried also a head swap between the 2 working donors and it went well, HDDs can ID perfectly, so head swap technique is good.

I heard that Hitachi drive can have magnetic problems, like media demagnetized... heads are good, so maybe there is SA damage.. what do you think?

Thanks,
Simone

This is the ARM series of Hitachi drives. Head swaps on these are harder than on older Hitachis, because of compatibility issues. Some people say you should swap magnets, too when changing heads, but I've had mixed results.

If there is no media damage, and the heads are compatible, then the latest version of the PC3K can address the compatibility issue.

Jono

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What he said

But first try and manually enter the appropriate utility in the "Hitachi ARM" family, and select "Tech Key Detection". Once it's entered the utility and found the Tech Keys, exit and re-enter. See what occurs.

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I already tried to enter utility, select "Tech Key Detection", result ok, exit and re-enter but no success. In other previous cases I had, this method worked, but now I can't read anything from SA.

Jono, do you think that latest version of PC3K can solve my problem? I have ver. 5.5, and I know latest is 5.6. Did they add a feature to solve this?

Or you are speaking about new products like UDMA-E or EXPRESS?

Thanks,
Simone

I don't know the exact version, but in the most recent, Ace added a feature to reset the P.O.S.T. failure flag and also load PSHT & RDMT into memory, which permits the use of "mostly compatible" head stacks.

Sometimes you can get the drive to passport by doing what pcimage suggested and then simply exiting the utility and re-entering. You can also try to adjust heads map to see if that changes anything.

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You have PM

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

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

Problem solved, incompatible heads.