Apologies for essay but I don't know which parts of the story are relevant. Also please correct me if I'm going about this entirely wrong, I'm learning!

A few months ago my Seagate SRD00F2 5TB began very quietly clicking when connected to my computer. This clicking was much quieter than the header-click I've experienced with really old drives, either way "Oh god, 5TB of backups down the drain!", devastated.

A couple of weeks after that, I gave it another go but this time it didn't power up in any way. As far as I knew, it was completely dead, so I took it out of its case thinking the external PSU or some other external element (additional PCB) is burnt out. I connected it via a SATA/USB adapter to my computer, nothing, still dead. I kept the drive in the hopes that one day I'll have time to take another swing at it, so here I am!



I spent most of the last few days researching, and I found that a drive refusing to power up might have a faulty PCB. That's encouraging! So I found a matching 100721570 REV E PCB and ordered the replacement, which is still on en-route. As the BIOS chip will need to be swapped I'm still reading/watching everything I can, as I'm quite out of my depth!

I then read that it might just be a blown TVS diode caused from over-volting/using the wrong PSU or some such. Since I have a spare PCB on the way, I might as well see if there's anything I can do with this one...

When inspecting the PCB under my microscope, not only was the diode circled below shorting, but it was physically cracked. Going off guides, I removed it, cleaned and re-checked the pads and sure enough no more shorting. Great!



I connected it to my PC and my hopes went up when it began to spin! However, it makes this sound (uh oh, those 4 beeps don't sound normal), then powers off.


I have seen in other threads that damage might have spread to the 2x zero-ohm resistors circled below, but they're reading as shorting/0... which is what we expect, right?




I don't know what the two circled below are, but they're also reading as shorting. Again, I don't know if that's what I want??







TLDR; An external drive stopped working. Originally beeping very quietly, several weeks later refusing to power up. I removed a blown TVS diode and the drive it now spins to life, but won't stay powered. It makes this sound then powers down. Does anyone have a clue what could be wrong?

AlmostThere, by the sound it makes, unfortunately your drive have mechanical issues with one or more heads. This is not a DIY job if your intention is to recover important data. If data is important and you don't have any backup, take it to a data recovery professional.

Noo! That's so disappointing. I've looked into a couple of companies, and mechanical faults are very expensive to fix.

As I have a replacement PCB already on the way, I think I'll swap the BIOS chips as a little practise for when this inevitably happens in future, but won't hold out hope it'll get the drive anywhere.


Lesson learned, backup backup backup!

Cheers.

+1, definitely bad heads, possibly accompanied by media damage.
I suggest you to call Sean at pcimage.co.uk, they're in Peterborough. A question never harmed anyone.

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Hardly surprising given the equipment needed and we have to trash a working drive to get at least one good set of heads.

Sean is probably the cheapest for mechanicals so it's always worth checking if your data has value to you, especially if your price expectation has come from some well advertised websites.

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If this was backup, no problem, you toss the drive and make new backup immediately, right?

pepe

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the contact points look dirty! Try a new pcb with bios swap. But please please please make copy of that ROM code and mail it to yourself.

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ISTM that you have bad heads, plus it's a Seagate.

It's cool you are doing your R&D but without equipment and propper tools you are out of luck.

Even for many of us with all the arsenal required, dealing with those drives is a pain.

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@AlmostThere Have you had any success with replacing the PCB and migrating the BIOS? Did it solve the issue?

I'm experiencing a similar issue as you are. Upon inspection, I noticed that the initial diode was cracked and there was no disk spin detected. However, I have not yet delved deeper into the problem.