Hi all,
i am just after a bit of info please about an IBM deskstar drive i have.
the model is IC35L0800AVVA07, i have 2 of these identical drives, 1 drive works correctly i can read and write to it the other drive just clicks away and widows wont detect it.
these are both my drives and are of no value so am using them to learn.
i replaced the bpards and same things, the good drive still worked with the swapped board, the clicking drive still didnt work,
so i thought faulty heads possibly,
very very carefully i opened the drives, took the head from the good drive placed into bad drive same thing just a clicking noise nothing else, thinking i most likely damaged the heads in the process, i installed the heads from the faulty clicking drive in to what was the good drive, started the machine with the drive as a slave and was able to access the files on the drive, this to a degree ruled out any head damage caused by me.

now im lost as to how to procced, in my limited understanding i will guess a problem with the firmware on the platter?
i have been pulling my hair out trying to understand how to proceed any help or pointers or hints will be greatly appreciated so to how to work with the firmware on this drive.
thank you all

leave the drive for 1-2 minutes if clicking stops then could be a firmware problem of bad sectors in the start .

The heads are very sensetive and swapping heads can be very difficult to do. The symptoms indicate head failure, but head swap failed. I think if you place donor heads back into donor drive the donor drive will be clicking also.

Heads may have been damaged during the headswap. did you use anything to seperate heads before removing?

thx for the answers guys.
Hddguy, i thought it may be a head issue also, but that didnt make sense to me as the head swap from drive one that was working correctly is now in the drive that initially didnt work and still dosent, but the head from the drive that initially didnt work is now i the drive that initially did work and still works so i would of assumed the heads did not get damaged otherwise the initial working drive would not work.
i seperated the heads so they wouldnt touch during the procedure and was fully groundeed working on an antistatic mat and workbench,
i have to say the head swap is quite a difficult job, are there special tools one can buy for keeping the heads seperated or is all self developed by each company/ person?

Rameez, i will try your reply tomorrow when i am back in the office, if your solution is correct how can i work with the firmware, i dont have a pc3000 yet ut feel that the need is approaching.

thx

I'd say SA problem as PCB swap and head swap left both drives the same. PC-3000 is the only answer I know of to your problem, other than ATA commands (which are beyond my ability). Since the working drive is still working with the other heads you did a good job on the swap, congrats!

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I think ST is a sub company of Lucas