hard drive help please

**ScorpioIlya** · June 15th, 2004, 08:03 AM

I have a non-working 17" imac hard drive in my hands, hooked up to a firewire external enclosure, for troubleshooting. The hard drive will spin up, but the needle arm moves back and forth, over and over again. I opened it up obviously, to find that out. There seems to be no scratches on the drive, and it spins up just fine, just the NEEDLE ARM moves back and forth, and makes that 'startup click' sound over and over, like its trying to do something, but failing.

Is there anything I can try? even if I'll screw it up and ruin the drive, its worth it.

**TripleRLtd** · June 15th, 2004, 08:20 AM

Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

I'll screw it up and ruin the drive, its worth it.

Sorry, Ilya, but you already did screw it up.

**kato2274** · June 15th, 2004, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

.... even if I'll screw it up and ruin the drive, its worth it.

well consider it worth it because you probably already screwed up the drive just by opening it up in a non "clean room" enviroment. even if there were something to try or some parts you could try to replace, I highly doubt that the drive would operate for more than a couple of minutes even after you had "fixed" it. I hope there was no important data on that drive.

**MobilePCPhysician** · June 15th, 2004, 08:40 AM

the controller board took a dump. Replace the board with an exact replacement, and you will be able to recover the data. The drive may not be good for too long, as it had been opened.

**ScorpioIlya** · June 15th, 2004, 08:52 AM

this is a brand new imac drive, i have NO IDEA what brand it is.....there's no specs on it at all....

**kato2274** · June 15th, 2004, 09:09 AM

Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

this is a brand new imac drive, i have NO IDEA what brand it is.....there's no specs on it at all....

so it's brand new, and you opened it up. . . . . . good job jethro, not only did you probably kill the drive, but you just voided any warranty that it probably has.

**TripleRLtd** · June 15th, 2004, 09:24 AM

Well, he does claim to be a Certified Meathead +.
;-)

**ScorpioIlya** · June 15th, 2004, 10:17 AM

Let me re-iterate

Its a brand new imac drive (i'm saying that in hope you guys know what brand it is, if its unmarked) (its from a BRAND NEW 17" Imac).

The needle arm moves back and forth

There's no damage on the plates

I closed the drive back up

I'm trying to find an answer as to which drive it is, so i can ebay a similiar drive, and pull the data off of it.

I don't care about the drive. I care about the DATA.

As you all know, hard drive manufacturers, don't cover the DATA on the drive, they will replace the drive, and destroy all your data when they throw the old one out. You are responsible for backups. Therefore, using the manufacturer (whose identity is first of all unknown to me), would be useless.

**kato2274** · June 15th, 2004, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

. . . .I care about the DATA.

if you really did, you wouldn't have opened it up. one small speck of dust on a platter can ruin the drive and any hopes of recovering data.

if you really DO care about the data, call a professional recovery firm. you probably put them behind the 8-ball by opening it, but if there is recoverable data on it, they will find it and restore it.

if you just want to experiment then by all means have at it. . . . just don't expect great results after what you've already done.

**Ya_know** · June 15th, 2004, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

I care about the DATA.

What is D.A.T.A. ?

http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-quer...t&Acronym=DATA

I like this one: Do As Time Allows

**ADS_Tech** · June 15th, 2004, 12:22 PM

I think he probably isnt a member of:-

Decisions and Advanced Technology Associates, Inc.

**kato2274** · June 15th, 2004, 02:58 PM

http://forums.windrivers.com/showthread.php?t=54974
some time ago on a harmless and fun thread about mistakes we've all made and screw ups we've had while learning. . . . .

Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

You guys need to quit accusing others of being incompetent and jumping up others' asses, and look inward to root out your own incompetence...........I am shocked how many people screw stuff up....I thought I was bad....but geeez.......what's wrong with you 'professionals'.

well bud, I looked through that thread again and didn't see anyone mention that they took the case off a hard drive that was under warranty and contained important data exposing the platters.

**ScorpioIlya** · June 15th, 2004, 03:16 PM

this is just sad............you people are ****ing useless unless it comes to removing spyware, or updating norton definitions. Do you guys ever solve any 'real problems' on your own? Yeah i wanted to fix this myself.....I don't have access to a clean room..but I tried to be really careful....big ****ing whoop....not ONE person suggested a utility to diagnose the problem, or a way to ID the drive, or where to order a replacement IMAC drive.........this isn't a ****ing techie forum...this is a buncha 40 year old former plumbers who 'know about computers'. You guys act ****ing 'l33t' or whatever.......then answer the ****ing question instead of whipping your dicks out...that's what this board is for..otherwise GET OFF OF IT. Its for people who need TECH ANSWERS, or want to GIVE THEM. You should be banned...all of you who ****ing waste my time.

The only one that actually helped was MobilePCPhysician. I didn't think it was the circuit board, since it spins up and whatever...but I'll take your word for it, and try to find another identical board. Thank you very much for you help.

**TripleRLtd** · June 15th, 2004, 03:30 PM

The problem we tried to convey is that you alrieady made any utilities useless once you opened her up: and I don't care how "careful" you were. You blew it: admit it and don't take you embarrassment out on us.
Speck of dust so small you can't see them will damage a hdd beyond repair. Hence the need for clean room enviroments.
You should have come asking before the opened it up, but you would think a tech would know that.

**Spork** · June 15th, 2004, 03:32 PM

I've actually witnessed this type of repair which was done right on a tech's bench. Customer came in with a drive that was pretty hosed (can't remember what was wrong because this happened years ago and I wasn't the one who was dealing with it). Anyway, the customer didn't want to pay the nearly $1000 for a local data recovery shop to fix it. So what he did was buy the exact same hard drive and our master tech performed the surgery. He found that he had to replace something inside the original hard drive and used the new drive for parts.

It actually worked and the customer was able to back up all of his data onto CDs. Was actually pretty impressed that it worked.