hard drive help please

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.

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Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

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

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

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Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

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

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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.

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.

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

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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....

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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.

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

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.

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Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

. . . .I care about the DATA.

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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.

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Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

I care about the DATA.

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What is D.A.T.A. ?

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

I like this one: Do As Time Allows

I think he probably isnt a member of:-

Decisions and Advanced Technology Associates, Inc.

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. . . . .

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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'.

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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. https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2005/03/1.gifhttps://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2005/03/1.gif

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.

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.

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.

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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....

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If you have the latest Apple replacement parts book, it should list it in that. If I remember correctly (I've repaired COUNTLESS hardware components in iMacs), Apple used either Maxtor or sometimes Seagate hard drives.

Go to the Apple site amd check the specs for the pc for the maker.
But, typically you are too late. Sporks case had to do with replacing the pcb, not opening the case itself, and if so, was very very lucky.
Check this here:

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Clicking, grinding or scraping noises indicate a head crash — the read/write heads have come into contact with the media surface, causing severe destruction.

Situation/Symptoms
Unusual noises - clicking, grinding, metal scraping.

What to Do
1) If booted up, back up any critical files.
2) Shut down the computer and DO NOT reboot.

Why
Extensive physical damage and permanent data loss can occur in a short period of time if a drive is left running.

WARNING: Tampering with a damaged disk may cause data loss.

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..............and even replacing the board is a very precise science, has to be exact same hdd in all respects as donor.
Even then, ive witnessed (and tried once - only once) the hdd go bang with that exact replacement.

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Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

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.

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I think you actually got a lot of useful advice, you just don't want to accept it because it doesn't make you look good. Useful advice is don't just take a hard drive apart and expect it to work again. That, is a TECH ANSWER.

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Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

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.

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the reason that dissassembly was an especially bad idea is because of this:
When not in use, the heads rest on the stationary platters, but when in motion the spinning of the platters create air pressure that lifts the heads off the platters. The space between the platter and the head is so minute that even one dust particle or a fingerprint could disable the spin. This necessitates that hard drive assembly be done in a clean room.

Even if it is the controller card rather than the disk itself, now that is has been opened up outside of a class 100 clean room, you will not be able to get it working properly even with a new controller card. You will have to send it in to a data recovery center such as ontrack to be disassembled in their cleanroom and put on a stepping motor to recover the data.

(and btw, I am not now nor have I ever been a plumber..I do data recovery all the time..and I am thinking approx 1000-1250 bucks for this job)

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Originally Posted by Spork

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.

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I had a person with "critical" data on a drive once, wanted me to take a look at it, and insisted that I try everything. At first boot I got the click of death, and tried what I could, but it wouldn't even get picked up by the boot process of 3 PC's. I sent it in to a data recovery place that cracks them open (while still maintaining manufactures warrantee) then estimates the process necessary, and then offers a free quote. They said this sort of damage would start at $4600 to recover data, and they didn't guarantee any data would be recoverable...if they did pull it off, my friend would have to pay for it. Normally their rates start around $500-$1000 and go up from there, so we were taking a chance (hey, it was a free estimate)…turned out the data wasn’t so “critical” after all.

Scorp, you are being completely unreasonable. If you want support on the internals of a drive, you need to go to a forum where groups of specialized people hang out. Most of the people here are software specialists, with the basic hardware knowledge to assemble and troubleshoot a PC/server down to the component, not troubleshoot the component. Once you cross the line from tech to circuit/drive specialist, you’ve exhausted the scope of most of the extensive knowledge here.

Seems to me you owe everyone an apology for your outburst. Or you can just go on with the label script kiddie across you’re forhead…

Scorp, you opened a drive YOU KNEW was in warranty and fubar'd it.... now you want to shout at us? Get real.

If it's new, you send it back, period. That is what the warranty is for.

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Originally Posted by ScorpioIlya

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.

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You could also pack it up, and send it to Drivesavers. They will give you a free estimate on retreiving the data. If you do not elect to have them fix it, they will send it back to you with a sticker on it that validates the warranty. They are recognized by every drive manufacturer, and the manufacturer will still consider the drive in warranty...https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2005/03/1.gif

Scorp. As you clearly think that we in the Windrivers forums are sadly lacking in tech expertise and ability, then you'll obviously be looking for a better forum with PROPER techs in it.
When you do, would you be so kind as to post the address here, so we can see what advise they would give about dismantling a new hard drive.
:thumbs2:

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Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

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.

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Having come to this thread after talking about my own HDD problem I wonder, why would dust harm the drive? Many years ago I opened a dead drive and remember seeing what looked like a chrome disk with an arm on it... is the disk that fragile?

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Originally Posted by NetScum

Having come to this thread after talking about my own HDD problem I wonder, why would dust harm the drive? Many years ago I opened a dead drive and remember seeing what looked like a chrome disk with an arm on it... is the disk that fragile?

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Yes it is , read from the beginning as its explaned by some .

http://www.storagereview.com/guideIm...yingheight.gif

read all about it.

One nice little explanation I once read regarding the size of the read/write head compared to the gap between head and platter ... imagine a 747 jumbo jet flying at 500mph ... at an altitude of 6 INCHES . A steady hand on the control and nice flat ground, I think :)

Hmm..

Been inside hundreds of macs through the years, in fact was working in an imac this morning, replacing the hard drive.

Don't remember having seen an unidentified hard drive in any of them (or any PC come to that....)

This mornings was a Seagate ST32014A.... Replaced as was.

Damn, can't find a wind-up smiley.....

John

So, what about a response then Scorp??