I got bit by this and can tell you I wasted considerable time not looking for it first.
This possibly could have been a 5-10min fix. I can't be sure if this damages the heads at all or knocks them out of alignment.

Model: Seagate ST3000DM001
Date Code: 18106 - 2017-09-11. Site: TK
Symptom: 2 clicks on startup, motor powers down.
Result: Drive reports 4GB usable space, SMART reports 137GB size drive.

Note: With this Barracuda series the 4GB/137GB reporting is what happens when the controller can't read the platters.
It is the controller's default mode.

What's going on? The heads are not traveling past the parking ramp and are being blocked. The controller makes 2 attempts and gives up.

I couldn't see it on mine unless the heads were further retracted off the ramps to get a clean look. You need a head ramp kit to protect the heads and have to remove the top head magnet to slide them off the parking ramp away from the platters.



At some point Seagate went to a cheaper construction of the parking ramp and they can become cracked and interfere with the head guides. It's been going on for years apparently so suspect others have and will have the problem.

Reference this blog post pointing out the issue and difference from 2016 https://www.dq-int.co.uk/blog/seagate-barracuda-ramp-weakness/

I have seen this on many many Seagate-cases, most common in Time-Capsule drives. Broken ramp will kill heads and surface of at least one platter. Had one case last month were we were lucky and could recover all platters but most cases are only partly recoverable.

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030 Datenrettung Berlin GmbH (Germany)
HDD, SSD, NAS, RAID Datenrettung - 030-datenrettung.de

So the heads do get mangled and cause damage to the platters?

In this case the heads wouldn't even leave the parking ramp so I'm hopeful the platters are ok.

The cracks there look like they were blocking the guides on the ramp but not sure if it's low enough that it kept the heads from slamming together.

A head replacement is suggested when this happens and to not use the original heads after replacing the parking ramp?

This is indeed a very common problem with Seagates.

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HDD, SSD, Flash and RAID Data Recovery
Founder of The Data Recovery Professionals Group

+1 seen often on Seagate drives.

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Digitalsupport Data Recovery
https://digitalsupport.dk

What they said, fairly common.

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

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