I have just registered on this forum because I need some help with my Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, ST3500630AS, 500 GB. The drive was originally built in an Maxtor Shared Storage II NAS. When I came back from summer vacation 2 weeks ago, I switched on the NAS, but the system did not boot.

I have contacted Maxtor service, but they offered only a replacement of the entire unit. Unfortunately, I asked my family to store all their private files on the NAS, because I assumed it’s more save than the build in HDD in a Notebook PC. Consequently, all their photos, MP3-files and documents are stored there.

Anyhow, I decided to open the MSS II and connect the HDD to the standard SATA port of my PC in order to analyse the failure. But already the BIOS cannot recognize the HDD during POST. It sounds like the drive tries to spin-up but fails, retries, fails again, reties, etc. I have recorded a sound clip [.AMR file] with the microphone of my mobile phone. It is attached hereunder. On request, I can send the clip to someone’s email address for better analysis of the phenomenon. The noise sounds more loud than it originally is, because I have put the triveon top of a china bowl.

The PCB looks fine, no burned parts as far as I can see.


My last idea, before sending the drive to DR is to purchase a similar drive and replace the PCB. Before doing so, I would like to get your suggestions, how to avoid send the HDD to DR. Your proposals are very much appreciated. Many thanks in advance for your reply.

You want to try on your own, then your unique option is to try the PCB. I give you from 2 to 5% probability of success, and only if the drive DOES SPIN UP, despite the fact it shuts down. If doesn't (the drive did not reach speed at all) maybe a new PCB could solve. Maybe. Adn you have to get an identical drive, identical firmware and identical p/n on PCB. Maybe you'll have to swap rom chip anyway. If everything doesn't solve the issue, only option is to ask a pro. How much can you afford for the DR ? Can you live without your data ? (keep in mind this is not Maxtor help desk and maybe you won't get technical details exactly as Maxtor didn't give you). A pro can point out in a few minutes what exactly is the problem without buying a new drive eventually to sacrifice (yes, you can destroy the new PCB in some case !). Good luck.

That was my apprehension.
My max. investment would be EUR 350, ~ 500 USD. Would this be sufficient?
Is a Pro different from DR service? Where I can find a Pro in Germany?

Where's the sound clip? I can't see it.

It "could" be the PCB, I have seen these like this before, but more likely stuck spindle.

Assuming no-one has dropped the unit, then the PCB option is slightly more plausible.

Put the sound clip up, one can usually tell from that if the spindle is stuck, but not always.

I'm in UK, if that's any help?

Cheers

Sean

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You are in a very difficult situation. You have very important stuff at risk, and you dont have enough money. To answer your question, DR and Pro are the same thing. First off, the data is trapped and its not going to get moldy, so put the drive aside in a safe place. This will give you time to think about things and maybe do some other stuff. Let me copy\paste what I wrote to somebody else earlier.

I am assuming you have pictures and other personal stuff on it. But the wife is going to freak if you try to spend $1500 on a dead $200 drive. If thats the case. Put it aside for now because you are in no hurry. Before you tinker with it, get a few cheap identical drives from Ebay. Now you can practice opening, examining, seeing dust particles, expiriancing how heads stick to platters, and meeting that powerful magnet. You can then practice board swapping and head swapping techniques. All this to really get familiar with drive innerds. You really dont want to learn anything on the drive you really wish to save. Even if you have little money. Also look for Youtube videoes to get a better idea what you are getting into. You may not end up being successfull, but if you try, at least you will have some hands on practice at keeping steady hands. But practice well, because a 500Gig drive is a lot denser than a 50gig. Just try and HS back and forth 10 times and see if you can do it without bending the heads. You will eventually make a mistake and then you will learn from it. When you think you are ready and have you work area all setup, then practice some more. Because that 500Gig drive from WD is especially tough to work with.

This was wrote for somebody else but is good for you too. Once you have played around with junk drives, then you will be in a better position to decide if you want to try to work on your own precious pictures. Also, if you discover that you need lots of practice, you can put the drive away for a year or 2. Then there will be lots of cheap drives on Ebay just like yours, and maybe Walmart may start doing DR cheaply by then. The Walmart thing is a joke, but the point is that more cheaper DR options may be available in a few years. Or you may win the lottery and decide then that $1500 is now very cheap.

So there is no rush and take your time for a good decision.

@pcimage
I'll try to attach the soundclip again.
The drive was not dropped.
I can send the drive to UK if necessary. No problem.

Thanks stts for your reply.Well, my two daughters are very eager to get back their files. So I need to decide within the next couple of weeks what to do.

Frozen spindle / bad bearing.

You're hosed. This is not a cheap or easy repair. Sorry!

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Its a 1/2TB drive. Its so dense, any disassembly and you may never get the heads to find the data tracks without being very lucky. And that is assuming you dont screw up. There was a time when you could deal with a bad motor by swapping everything to another drive case. Its not like the older smaller drives any more. With these bigger drives, about the only thing we have a shot at fixing are pcb failures. So, you may very well be hosed. Maybe you could chill down the drive and see if the bearing loosens up to get things going, but its wierd to have the motor good when you leave and be bad when you get back. Unless you left it running while you were gone.

When these bearings go bad, they require a lot of force to free them. Putting it in the freezer does not help. Heating the bearing to loosen it up (after it is free) does. But even if you are able to free up the motor, the defective bearing will cause too much vibration and the heads will not be able to stay on track and read.

The only reliable way to fix these puppies is with a heads / platter swap, and the vibration dampeners between the platters make it no fun at all.

Prepare to spend big bucks if you want to get your data. Your chances of fixing it yourself are about 0.001%.

Jon

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Thank you all for your assessments. I have understood that the possibility to recover the files are not very high.
I have no intension to open or disassemble the drive. My hope was just changing the PCB could be of some help.

@stts
I can put the drive in a freezer for a while, just to see whether it will work. But what to do first? Freezing or heating?

@jono-ats
I can put the drive in an oven to heat it up? This is something that I can try to do. What temperate is recommended?

Could the drive become even more bad applying these temperature procedures, means less possibility for a pro to recover the data?

It's not a cake neither a beer. Forget the oven and the freezer - internet bullshit for fools. No one has recovered a single byte of data baking or icing a disk. >60 or <0 deg. C the magnetic surface start degrading... Letting alone humidity inside hda when out of freezer... Want to try?

O.k., better not to play arround with temperatures. I could find 3 addresses in Germany on Seagate's home page, offering Recovery Service.

Seagate Recovery Services / CityQuartier DomAquarée / Berlin
Seagate Recovery Services / Munich
Seagate Recovery Services / Frankfurt

Are these 3 different companies, just qualified as Seagate Recovery Service?
In this case I can probably get 3 different estimations on cost for DR, right?

Does anybody have some experience with one of these companies?
Or should I better check for an independent DR service provider?

Yes,try. Anyone here can help?

Do not bake your hard drive. When I apply heat to the bearing it is directed at the bearing area only, not the entire drive. I'm sure this has its own risks, but it has worked for me.

Jon

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I've never tried baking a drive but I have heated the bearing area with success.

Putting a drive in a freezer can be done if you take precautions to remove humidity before & after. There are some drawbacks (condensation on platters, possible crashes, etc.) but for certain drives, chilling them has made THE difference and I have been able to recover data thereafter.

Call me a fool . . . .

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

This actually worked for you with Seagate HDDs? These HDDs do not use fluid bearings do they?


Personally I love repairing these failures. They are so common and relatively straight forward procedures. I do not like to free the spindle motor, instead I prefer to transfer the platters and original heads which in 90% of cases remain undammaged, and can generally recover all data.

But it can be very difficult if you dont know how, so if the data is important to you then you really should consult a DR company.

That's what I'm going to do. I will asked DR for an offer transfering the platters and original heads within the next couple of days. I'm not in a hurry.

Are you saying you don't use your microwave? Thats where I've been going wrong all these years! Silly me.

The Seagate companies are probably all the same. Are they actual labs or do they ship to USA?

I could check two address out of three and found just an office building. I have no idea what environment a DR lab needs.