Hi, can anyone point me to the information on how to do this? I dropped my drive today a small distance while it was running, and now it spins for a few seconds then makes a single chirp, and starts all over. Windows will not recognize the drive. I'm sending the drive to a data recovery company, but they may end up wanting to charge more than I can afford. I am a very skilled electronics tech and I know I can probably pull this off with the right tools and guidance.

Thanks,
Patrick

You need a pro, dropped hdd especially high capacity drives have many heads and might be scratches on platters.

Patrick,
I've been swapping heads for 6 years now and 500GB is not something I can call easy, if you havent done it yet then don't do it at all you will just ruin both drives. if you need that data back, you have to get professional help.

Hi Patrick,

here's some guidance.

Most data recovery "pros" can't do this job type successfully.

So you got a choice - choose real pro or have some fun discovering.

I don't think any real pro is going to give you step by step guidance
on how to do this job - so if you got no bucks, have some fun.

Success!!

if data still important for you. i suggest you not to play it by yourself. you know nothing about harddrive and any data structure. if you try by yourself maybe you will make thing worse and after you run out of idea. you will to try find a pro to solve it. i'm affarid you have make it unrecoverable even for a pro. so think about it.

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Ya, I sent it to a recovery service. I may end up buying a bunch of cheap drives to learn how to do it myself though.

Good idea please do

Any opinions on Salvation Data's head/platter swapping tools? They look pretty easy to use.

They work just fine. They won't work on your 500 GB drive though.

Jon

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Why is that? I'm not crazy enough to try this on my drive. I'm paying a pro for that, but I'm curious why the Salvation Data tools wouldn't work on that drive.

Hopefully one picture will suffice.

Jon

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So, I got quoted $2000 to recover the drive, because the company doesn't have the parts and has to send it out. There's no way I can afford that. Is there anyone here with a reputable DR service that could help me or recommend someone? It's a two-month old 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 with about 430GB of data on it. It was dropped about 2ft. onto the carpet while running. I didn't have any files open at the time. The drive spins and then makes a quick chirping sound. PM me if you can help.

Thanks,
Patrick

Hi!

I am sure that a lot of forumers from this site will be able to help you.
I can also offer a such service, but I am unclear on a

The only thing I don't understand is: why a DR company has to send it out?
How long will it take?

Price is seems to be in a "reasonable" range, not "overpriced".

If anyone disagree, please feel free to comment.

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I describe it as a "chirp" because it doesn't really sound like a click. It spins for a few seconds, then chirps, then spins, and repeats all this for about 30-seconds and then the drive shuts itself down. The DR company said they have to send it out because the drive is so new that they can't easily get parts for it. The problem with the price is that I simply can't afford it. I could do $1000-$1500, but for $2000 I would just spend the two weeks to recreate the projects from scratch. You better believe I've learned my lesson on making backups though.

usually dropped drive will stuck the spindle motor. this is not easy case. I have work for some drive such this condition. and last 2 week I recerve one 500 GB NS ( 72.10 ) with stucked spindle. also from dropped drive. and Data was saved upto 99% after work about one week just to make to the spindle free.

I think the price is not overpriced and still reasonable.

APing

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Why would I hear the drive spinning if the spindle motor were stuck? I assume that it spins the platters?

if spindle was stucked. You can not hear any spin sound. you just hear a sound like it want to spin but it really can not be spinned.

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the reason why the below dont work
as its for single use platters only and heads

watch the video its a single platter only

which the company does not tell the truth


Salvation Data's head/platter swapping tools?

Sounds like some of the bearings in the motor have collapsed. This would allow slight spin up but would slow down again once the "crumbled" bearing is in motion.

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I ended up telling them to go ahead with the recovery. They tell me they had to replace the heads. They're also saying I'll get back 100% of my data because I wasn't accessing any data when the drive got dropped.

Thanks for all the input everyone!