I'm going to try to explain this the best I can. However, I know nothing about the internals of a HDD, so please bare with me.

The other day when I powered on my PC after it was shut down for the night, my external USB HDD did not load up properly. I could hear that it was trying to start up but I think the external power must have gone bad (just a guess). Anyway, I took the drive out of the external case and plugged it in as a regular SATA drive. I had it sitting outside of my PC case on a box as I tested to see if it would work.

I booted up my PC, and the drive worked. Great! Now a couple minutes later, because I'm stupid and will never forgive myself, I accidentally hit the drive with my foot and it slid off the box it was resting on. It fell a MAX of 4 inches off the back of the box and it landed on the back of the drive (where the power cables are plugged in) on the carpet. It made a weird spinning noise as I went to set it back atop the box. Windows told me that there was an error reading some file, but I didn't think much of it because for the moment it still worked. Then, however, it disappeared from my drive list. Strange, I thought, so I rebooted to see if it just needed to reset itself.

Bad idea apparently. Once I restarted my PC, the drive would make a buzzing noise for about 2 seconds, then make a small 'beep' noise. Then it would do that over again several times as windows was booting up. As the windows screen appears, the PC shows a BSOD for a split second and restarts. I can no longer boot into windows with that drive plugged in.

It is not my main drive, but it has so many files on it that I will probably never be able to get again. I realize that I'm an even bigger idiot for not backing it up in the first place. Please know that I will never make that mistake again, but it could be a lesson learned too late.

As far as trying to get the drive to boot up, I tried a few things after looking around the web. BIOS will not recognize a drive is plugged in. I tried using the Western Digital SATA Diag tools. It did not recognize that I had a WD drive plugged in. Fail there. I tried using SpinRite which is supposed to be some super-software for doing recovery on HDD's. It booted up into the software, but when it tried to scan the disk, it threw an error similar to this one http://iamyouruser.blogspot.com/2006/02 ... error.html
Basically it must mean something like "what the heck did you do to this poor drive?" So that was a no-go. I also tried tapping on the side of the HDD as it started up thinking maybe something was stuck. However, the more I listen to it, the more I think it may be an electrical error of some sort, and not a part error.

I am now fresh out of ideas in the "things I know something about" category. When it comes to the internal workings of a HDD, I know nothing. Which is why I come before you, oh HDD gurus, in the hopes that you can help me shed some light on this error, and maybe lead me to getting it fixed.

Now, I know I could take it to a pro and get it fixed (maybe) and spend $1,000 in the process. However, while the data on that drive goes back some 5 years and I will never be able to get some of those files again, it's not worth spending that much to recover the files. Tough crap you might say. Plus, I'd rather learn a thing or two about HDD's while I'm in despair.

Now all I've done so far is just ramble on out how dumb I am, and how I potentially killed my HDD by making it fall like 4 inches onto carpet none-the-less. Is that even possible? A 4 inch fall caused this much damage? What information do I need to supply you with to help you potentially lead me on the right path to figuring it out? I haven't taken any portion of the HDD apart for fear of ruining it.

The model # is WD5000AAKS-00TMA0
The numbers across the green board (the PCB, I think it's called) are as follows:
2061-701477-800AC XC 4D05 1CNV 9 0001370 7371

Please let me know what else I can do to help and thank you so much for your time!

Once again, I know this could've all been prevented if I would've just made a backup. I'm really stupid... I get that.

It almost sounds like a seized spindle motor or maybe a head stuck to the platter. Do you hear the drive spin up first and then hear those noises? Normally if you put your ear to the drive you can hear the platters spin up to speed for a second or two. If you're not hearing this spin up then its either a seized spindle motor or head stuck. I'm assuming the circuit board was not damaged in the fall.

P.S. Spinrite is used to destroy drives, not fix them.

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Actually if I put my head to the drive and start it up I hear a buzzing sound that actually vibrates the drive. And also, I've noticed that instead of a constant buzzing noise I can actually kind of count along with the noise it makes. It is not continuous, but rather goes something like "1...2....'beep sound'". Hard to describe, but it makes 2 short, 1-second buzz noises followed by an actual beeping sound. So if I were to type what it sounds like, it would be like: buzz....buzz...beep!

Sadly, I can't describe it any better than that. Hopefully that means something to you

Stuck motor / bearing from the fall. Maybe head and media damage too. Expensive to recover.

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I agree. Leave it off and send it to a professional, trash it, or see if WD will rma it.

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You still have a big chance of recovering all of the files by sending it to DR company.

Very sad story.

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I'm not saying this to degrade you or make you feel any worse but in the future don't "tap" a drive while it is running! If the heads are flying and you tap it you could make it much worse. I know of some pros that use this method to fix some problems but they have a better idea of the damage they could be causing and what to look for to do it in the first place. I'm just telling you this so in the future you don't make it harder to recover the drive (either by yourself or for a pro).

These are terrible drives (I know there will be several on this site that disagree with me but I'll have just as many that do). I normally never recommend a pro because that's not why you're here but if you really want this data there's nothing you're gonna do in your home.

And yes!! Most definitely a 4-inch fall can be disastrous. It's all about the impact.

And you do seem to be in a position to offer this advice?



This is not the actions of a 'Pro'. Additional damage should be avoided at all costs, n matter how good the understanding of the fault.



They are only bad disks if you do not know how to repair/recover them. All disks are terrible to a newbie I suppose.




A 4 inch fall will not really have much 'impact', but I do agree that it can be potentially dangerous for the data.

No, I most certainly value your opinion. I had high hopes that it would be something I would be able to fix on my own, however, so far it doesn't appear that way. I knew it was a long shot to try the tapping thing, but honestly, I was in a sort of panic mode at the time so I probably wasn't in a clear state of mind




Very sad indeed.


Have any idea how much we are talking here for someone fixing this, or is it impossible to estimate a price without looking at it?

Cause if it was like $100-$300... I'd think about it... but I've heard some repairs cost well over a few thousand dollars! That is a LOT of money for someone like myself. I just couldn't justify that kind of cost no matter how badly I wanted the data back.

Try adding a extra 0 to the price

You're talking $1,500 minimum.

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Yuck.


Maybe if I made like $200,000 a year I could justify that... but I certainly do not and I'm pretty sure my wife would kill me if I spent like almost a month's salary on fixing a "stupid computer" as she would probably call it.


However, knowing that I probably would not take it to a pro. Is there any reason why I couldn't try to fix it at home? If I accepted the fact that I'm probably not going to get the data back?

What would you guys do?

You need YEARS of experience and very expensive tools.

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U mean I can't just use a towel and some scotch tape? Just kidding!
Depending on the nature of the damage, aren't some issues fixable without those pricey tools?



Are you saying that I need to learn what the heck I'm doing, or something else? I see the same comment in your signature...

My advice? Put it on a shelf somewhere (Where it won't fall again!), and you may be able to recover it in the future. It is also possible that, as better techniques are developed for this series, the price may drop. If you open it, you have a very slim chance of success. You'd be better off playing the lottery, and use the winnings to have it recovered professionally. Also, trying it yourself will likely ruin the chances of a professional recovery, or at least raise the price and lower the amount of data recovered. You might think you have nothing to lose, but you really have nothing to gain instead.

@ hddguy - Dude, the fact that you'd tell this person that a 4-inch fall shouldn't hurt it is ridiculous. Obviously he is suffering from this because it fell 4-inches (on top of whatever the initial failure was). Either way I want to see you take your non-backed up data drives, drop them while they are running and send them to another data recovery agency, without beads of sweat forming on your brow. Then turn around with a straight face and tell this guy that "A 4 inch fall will not really have much 'impact'".

@jimcarrey - Really the reason that you would probably not be successful at home is because these drives are very sensitive to a lot of things (i.e., head alignment, the removal process is probably a little over your head, as well as firmware issues etc). There are many aspects inside this drive that will take careful, knowledgeable hands to overcome. You don't have to take my word for (actually I'm asking you not to). Look on this forum site and many others and see how often this model is brought up! It's quite a bit in comparison to most others. Plus if you don't open this drive in a clean environment then you're almost at a loss before you start. I normally try to help whomever I can on this forum but in this instance I think you can find a cheaper price than what they are quoting and it would be in your best interest to try to find a lower price for the recovery rather than fix it yourself.

That's my opinion. PM me

@jim ... well, you won't get the data back but you'll see how the drive was built and what's inside. Isn't it amazing ?

I appreciate your opinion. I understand that I am up against a giant in terms of my knowledge and skills in the area of HDD recovery. You are right though, I have nothing to gain by ruining the HDD, which is likely what would happen. That is why I probably won't end up doing anything with it... and just go shed a tear somewhere



You are right. I am probably in over my head. Funny you should mention the problems with this drive. Right now, 3 of the first 9 posts in this forum are about this same drive. Hmmm... Might not be buying another one of these if they are that bad. I don't know any DR companies around my area, so I would have to do some research and actually get motivated to go have them say "This will cost you $1,500 to fix". Then I will just say, , and walk away in defeat. Too bad I don't know anyone who does DR, so I could get a discount. Oh well. What a crappy lesson I've learned this week.



Haha, that would be nice to see. I'm sure the inside of a HDD is pretty cool and intricate. However, I have an older 8GB ATA HDD that I could rip apart if I want to see the insides of a drive


I appreciate everyone's input so far, and still welcome any further input that anyone has!

If it was a Seagate 7200.10 500Gb, things would be a whole lot easier, and cheaper!!

or a Samsung

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