Hello,

Can someone please offer some advice. My external hard drive, a Maxtor one touch, fell off the coffee table, 18 inches tall, while it was on. I don't believe any data was being read or written to it, but it was on and plugged into my laptop. After the fall, the hard drive has been dead. It makes no sounds whatsoever. I removed it from the case to see that it is a Seagate barracuda 1TB. I plugged it into a new hdd power wire and the hard drive still acts completely dead. No sounds. I could feel the pcb board was heating up. So we unplugged it. I am wondering if this is possibly a bad pcb board or if it is more likely an internal problem like a seized motor or something. Any help with this is much appreciated as I am so sad for the loss of my data!



Crystal

Motor is seized. Send it to a pro if the data is of any value.

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

The chances of it being a circuit board issue from sustaining a fall is highly unlikely. There are two possible scenarios, but both would probably make some sound, although it may just be too quiet for you to hear while it's in it's enclosure.


1) The Heads are now stuck to the platters, and are preventing the platters from spinning up


2) The Spindle is now seized, and will need to be loosened up again, although in my experience simply loostening the spindle rarely works on these drives because eccentricity will exist (kind of a wobble in it's spin) and the drive will no longer be able to read data.



Basically, this will be no low cost matter. It needs to be looked at by a pro, in a clean room. Most good recovery companies will offer free diagnostics, or a pretty cheap diagnostic.


Expect at LEAST $1000 for recovery, although $1500-$2500 is more realistic.


I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news =(


Also, refrain from powering on the drive any further as that will only make things worse at this point


Regards,

Thanks so much for the reply!
I am pretty sure the drive makes no sound at all. We didn't have it in an enclosure, my friend just plugged a power wire to the drive and put his ear on the drive and could not hear a thing. He tried that a couple times and the drive makes no sound.

Someone referred me to this site:
http://www.aerodr.com/
They said if they cannot fix it for $279 I only pay for shipping.
They say the only thing they will not fix is platter damage.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!!

Crystal

I can only speak from my experience in the DR business, and I can say that I am 95% sure that your drive will require the platters to be moved to a new disk. That drive has 4 platters, with spacers. It is extremely difficult. The tolerances on 1TB drives are very, very low. There is no margin for error.

Here is the thing, the cost for the labor of a technician with the skillset to perform this recovery is higher then $279. The tools that you would need to perform this recovery cost well over $279 to machine, in fact they will probably cost well over $1500 to machine.


Using a company claiming they will do this job for $279 is very risky, and even further if they fail, they will probably fail in a way that either:


1) renders the data un-recoverable forever


2) increases the cost of sending it to someone who CAN do it because of extra fees added on because someone tampered with the drive, and made the recovery even more difficult.



My best recommendation is that if the data is truly valuable, make sure you take to someone who has the skillset required for this difficult job.

Recovering a seized 1TB four platter Seagate for $279 is not going to happen...You're wasting your time and possibly your data by sending it to that place. Post a clear picture of the circuit board in this post just in case.

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

I almost want to say with certainty that this company started after taking Scott's course. Although they claim:
http://technalysis.us/engineering/data-recovery.htm

I would look for an more experienced data recovery company. Realistic prices will get you realistic results.

ThatDellGuy,

Here are pics of the board.
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/2207/boardtop.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8507/bottomboardj.jpg

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!!

Crystal

The PCB looks fine

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Cryztal6,

At your own risk - you need to establish if the pcb is bad or motor stuck, So try this..
At your own risk and not for more than 3 seconds.

Place your ear hard against the drive with the drive connected to PC (Power OFF)..

Switch on PC, (Switch OFF within 3 secs)
If you hear the slightest sound like MMrrr,..... Mmmrr then pcb is OK and motor is stuck - major job.

If you hear nothing, not even Mmmm, .... mmm ... then possibly pcb is damaged, (unlikely)
and solution might be quite easy.

Be absolutely sure that you have no sounds whatsoever.

I think the motor is faulty but do as derp suggests.

Hello,

Thanks so much for your suggestions. We have made sure there is absolutely no sound coming out of this hard drive when it is plugged into power, switched on and hooked up to the pc. We stuck an ear to it several times and hear nothing at all. Does this suggest a faulty pcb?

Thanks!

You could check the two TVS diodes (two vertical black rectangles next to each other below the Hynix chip).

Check for continuity with a multimeter, they should NOT be short.

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

pcimage,

thanks for the tip. I do have a multimeter. What setting do I put it on and what reading would tell me if it is shorted?

Thanks!!

Sorry for my ignorance, its been years since my electrical class.

Crystal

Continuity:http://www.ladyada.net/library/metertut/continuity.html


Regards,

Hi

I have a simalar problem. Mine fell from the end table when my aughter tripped on the wire.
I can hear the drive(s) trying to spin up.
I don't know if putting the drive directly into the PC will work or not but I don't want to loose my extended warrenty. It has a 3 year warranty.
It is a 1tb segate. 9zc2ag-500

I have two SATA drive bays in the front of my desktop.
I'm also not sure how I can open it.
http://www.geeks.com/imageshare/S/150x1 ... N-unit.gif

When you call seagate to say its broken, if its under warranty they will ship a replacement. Tell them you need permission to have the hard drive removed from the case so you can get try to get your data. They gave me permission. There are websites online with instructions on how to remove it from the case. Your situation is different from mine because my drive makes no sounds now. I am looking to buy the same model number hard drive and swap the pcb to see if that helps. I found the same model number drive for $75. Does it have to have the same firmware too?

Thanks!

Seems a little dodgy to expect to be able to RMA a drive you've dropped. Warranties don't usually cover user-caused damage.

ok thanks for the tip. Doesnt hurt to try. My brother dropped one and it got replaced.

Hope at seagate nobody reads this forum.