Seagate Barracuda 4TB 2.5" strange failure

[AndreaF]

Hard disk model
Maxtor M3 2.5" USB 4TB that under the hood is a Seagate Barracuda

Fail Context
During Heavy I\O operations with many small files and fragmented filesystem operation became very slow and system unresponsive, this forced me to try to restart the system. Restart of PC remained stuck so I have removed the power.
At the restart the USB hard disk is no more recognized in any computer (error code43). I have also tried to remove the hard disk from USB enclosure connecting it to another Sata adapter to check if the issue is caused by some error with USB interface of enclosure, without success.
When it is attached it start to spin but does some noise and stop. I have attached an audio file with the noise.

Condition before
Hard disk has 3 years of live, SMART status checked a couple of days before the issue, it was ok without any alarming sign.

Questions
What is the more likely cause of the issue? What you suggest to do to try to make it at least able to be accessed to recover some data?

Attachments

hd_fail.zip

HD Noise

(219 KiB) Downloaded 252 times

[Lardman]

Sounds very much like the heads doing damage to the platter to me. Please stop powering it on and take it to a DR professional if the data has value.

If there was no trauma, cause is likely to be just mechanical failure. Don't be tempted to open the drive and look, there really are no user serviceable parts inside and you'll add an extra drive open fee to most professional recovery cost.

[AndreaF]

Sounds very much like the heads doing damage to the platter to me. Please stop powering it on and take it to a DR professional if the data has value.

If there was no trauma, cause is likely to be just mechanical failure. Don't be tempted to open the drive and look, there really are no user serviceable parts inside and you'll add an extra drive open fee to most professional recovery cost.

No trauma at all, HD has been never removed from its stable place since a year before the failure.
This is an hard drive with very confident information and I don't want any even minimal risk other people could access its data, so unfortunately if I will not recovery info by myself I have to opt for trash can.

Also I have another perfectly drive of the same model and size purchased several months later. Is advisable an attempt to temporarily use its controller board on the faulty drive? Or this would involve a risk to compromise it's logic making even the working drive, unusable? Or It's excluded the issue could be caused by a failure of logical controller board considering the situation so it would be a waste of time?

[Dataworld]

You can trust DR Companies no matter how confident is information, rather than any criminal activity.

Our priority are services, not value of a data.

[Lardman]

It's not a pcb problem, don't waste your time trying to swap them. To me it sounds like the heads are wedged between ramp and edge of the platter, but you can never really tell until it's opened up.

We don't care about confidential data, any decent DR pro will be happy to discuss their policy and privacy measures with you. Most of us will offer a blind recovery service but you will lose any guarantee about file recovery success. It's up to you depending on the value of your data.

If you're really concerned about the contents I suggest you drill a few holes into the platters before putting it in the trash.

[AndreaF]

It's not a pcb problem, don't waste your time trying to swap them. To me it sounds like the heads are wedged between ramp and edge of the platter, but you can never really tell until it's opened up.

We don't care about confidential data, any decent DR pro will be happy to discuss their policy and privacy measures with you. Most of us will offer a blind recovery service but you will lose any guarantee about file recovery success. It's up to you depending on the value of your data.

If you're really concerned about the contents I suggest you drill a few holes into the platters before putting it in the trash.

I have tried to open it, and everything appear normal with head arm that is parked correctly and not stuck on the plates. (I know is not advisable without clean room but I haven't much alternatives I have tried to use nebulized water, a dehumidifier and a HEPA filtration system to reduce the dustiness of the air and create a somewhat better environment)

What could be the cause of this problem?
The noise is every perfectly the same I have attached in the recording, it has no slightest variation, led is always on and doesn't blink.
as soon as I insert it, it is heard spinning distinctly, the arm seems moving produces that sound for the time you can hear in the attached file, and then seems sleeping and I no longer hear any mechanical movement or spinning, the led remains always on whole time, also disk temperature seems pretty hot considering it's attached for few minutes doing nothing.

(I understand the talk about professionalism, privacy policies etc. but even if there is a way to recover them without accessing them, the risk of compromising the confidentiality of the information in this case is much greater than the risk of losing them, so in this case is not viable send this HD to a lab.)

[Lardman]

So not only have you opened it, if I understand your post correctly you ran the drive exposed without the lid secured. If the heads weren't trashed before they very likely are now.

[AndreaF]

So not only have you opened it, if I understand your post correctly you ran the drive exposed without the lid secured. If the heads weren't trashed before they very likely are now.

What else could I have done? And please don't repeat taking it to a lab because I had already made it clear that I can't do it.

[pepe]

... is much greater than the risk of losing them...

then loose them and get back on the road. :s

pepe

[AndreaF]

... is much greater than the risk of losing them...

then loose them and get back on the road. :s

pepe

I know that many people here work in the sector, and I don't want to be rude, but it is useless and boring to insist on "send it to the laboratory" stuff if I have already explained that in this case I cannot, and I am asking for help. If lab was a viable option, I would have searched for the phone number of the nearest lab on Google without wasting time asking for help on the forum to see if something can be done to get it started at least once and have a chance to recover a couple of files that I didn't have backup among the data stored in it. Those unwilling to offer any help, not necessarily need to comment to repeat the same thing to which I have already replied. It is not useful for anyone.

[northwind]

So not only have you opened it, if I understand your post correctly you ran the drive exposed without the lid secured. If the heads weren't trashed before they very likely are now.

+1.
Media too.

[AndreaF]

So not only have you opened it, if I understand your post correctly you ran the drive exposed without the lid secured. If the heads weren't trashed before they very likely are now.

What else could I have done? However I have closed the lid and screwed all the screws before ran the drive again (I haven't started the disk "uncovered".

... is much greater than the risk of losing them...

then loose them and get back on the road. :s

pepe

I have already explained the laboratory is not a viable option in this case, and in case I would have looked for the nearest specialized laboratory without staying here to ask in the hope to find a way to make it start just to attempt to recovery some file.

[Lardman]

What else could I have done?

Your frustration is obvious and understandable. We don't have a problem with providing DIY advice where it's an ease fix or something obvious and the risk to data is minimal, that's not the case here.

The problem you have is likely to need a full head swap, platter decontamination and there's potential physical platter damage which is all likely to need the firmware tweaking to get access after all the physical stuff is resolved. It may not appear to be as it just stopped working, but it is a complex recovery.

There really are no good DIY solutions for mechanical failures. You could try finding a matching donor drive and buy head combs to try a kitchen table head swap - the chances of success without the correct equipment and considerable practice are very low, one finger print, stray hair, remnant of old head or misalignment and your data could be turned into dust when the head catches and carves up the platter, not to mention the difficulty of finding a compatible matching donor in the first place.

[ShaneWard]

Seagate drives suffer from bad sectors and stuff like that. More like there was a bad sector on a very important part of the drive that stops it from booting. Usually it means the drive is dead, so you will need a new drive and restore from backup.

[AndreaF]

Seagate drives suffer from bad sectors and stuff like that. More like there was a bad sector on a very important part of the drive that stops it from booting. Usually it means the drive is dead, so you will need a new drive and restore from backup.

The dynamic of failure however doesn't seem related to bad sectors considering that usually when they start to have bad sector usually the SMART some time before starts to show some alarming sign e.g. increased number of unrecoverable errors, relocated sectors and so on. This time SMART was perfect before the failure that happened suddenly during heavy I/O phase with many different processes reading and writing on lots of very small files at same time.
It is possible that stress condition leaded to some firmware error or that it caused some overheat that damaged the head due to excessive temperature?

Also I'm wondering on portable 2.5" USB drive segment what are the most reliable, statistical data about reliability available are related to standard 3.5" in server arrays use

[pepe]

I didn't mean to be rude, just honest. Such cases are complicated on their own, even in the lab, why would anybody spend ten times more time assisting a DIY maneuver of that complexity? Without tools. Without hands on control of what's being done.
You decided this drive won't enter a lab, this means you've chosen to loose it.

pepe

[AndreaF]

I didn't mean to be rude, just honest. Such cases are complicated on their own, even in the lab, why would anybody spend ten times more time assisting a DIY maneuver of that complexity? Without tools. Without hands on control of what's being done.
You decided this drive won't enter a lab, this means you've chosen to loose it.

pepe

I'm not here expecting some magical solution to make some miracle resurrection, neither I expected to get in such condition recovery possibilities of a professional lab intervention. But this doesn't imply that people of the sector with experience on hd failure couldn't individuate culprit of an hd not recognized anymore and cannot help me to do an attempt.

[pepe]

i meant such 'help' would take 10 times more time than doing the job in our lab. Where's the point then?
Also, diag port is locked, without which it is also a pointless effort. Of course it can be unlocked, but this all goes far beyond the forum-help bounds.
Saying this with the experience you cited.

pepe

[AndreaF]

i meant such 'help' would take 10 times more time than doing the job in our lab. Where's the point then?
Also, diag port is locked, without which it is also a pointless effort. Of course it can be unlocked, but this all goes far beyond the forum-help bounds.
Saying this with the experience you cited.

pepe

it is more difficult to understand the problem correctly and time is wasted offering help, of course, forum community helpers are hidden heroes of the digital era, but no one is obliged to help if do not want to and there is no constraint on how much the aid must go into detail and I'm here for hints and suggestions I certainly don't expect full remote assistance service. That you would waste more time than doing the full lab work in person than making suggestions on a forum about some of the most common possible procedures to attempt is very unlikely.
For sure arguing with every user you don't intend to help is a waste of time that could be used better.