Hard drive not spinning...

[James]

Okay, I took my mother-in-laws crashed HD to the computer guy and he can't
get the HD to be recongnized. He suggested that I buy a refurbed HD (same
model) and he'll swap the controllers and see if he can get her data off of
the HD. She has 10 years worth of small business records on it...no back up.

To make a long story short, that didn't work. So, I've got a refurbed HD
with all good parts and an old HD with who knows what bad parts. I figured
I've got nothing to lose at this point. She definitely doesn't want to spend
the 1000 bucks to send it out and see if they can get the data off of it.
So...(yeah, I know you're not supposed to) I opened up both HD cases and
swapped the disk...so that now the disk with the data is on the hard drive
with the good parts. I hook it back up and now the HD light comes on (it
didn't before) but the disk doesn't spin...it's like it's locked. And I get
an invalid drive error message. Since I've already gone where you're not
supposed to by opening up the cases...anyone have any ideas what else to
try? I also have nothing to lose but the 45 dollars for the refurbed drive
so I'm willing to give just about anything a shot. I really don't want to
have to help her re-enter the past 3 years worth of data on her new hard
drive. I was able to copy 7 years worth from her old computer.

Lorraine

I really don't think you should have done that - the best thing to do is to
try and put the proper disks back into the refurb drive and use that (If you
are able to know ( - Get the other one to a data center who deals with this
stuff.

 

[KILOWATT]

Lorraine,Hi! 5 years ago i've found in the garbage an old computer with
the monitor(monochrome!) that has a 100Mb HDD on it. DOS and a
few programs were installed and the computer was in perfect working order.
Since i had nothing to do with such machine, i've experienced a little with
it before salvaging it for parts. One of the experiences was to open the
Hard Disk Drive's casing to see how long it would survive to the ambient
dusty air...

After about 20 minutes of operation, i experienced some read problems when
loading a program. After an hour, the drive was completely useless. Okay it
was still spinning and searching tracks of course, but it could not find anything
readable on it. So, i don't know how much capacity is the HDD in her computer,
but even if it's just one Gigabyte capacity, then can you imagine how much the
density of the platters is and how small is the area containing a single bit?
Since she's not interested to pay(and i understand her) thousands
$ for data recovery (since the drive has been opened in ambiant air already...it's
probably too late anyway for that), i suggest to teach her a good backup routine.
http://www.liutilities.com/products/winbackup/

And take a look there to have a look on how dust particles have an impact
(literally)on the read/write heads.
http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/op/heads/opHeight.html

--
Alain(alias:Kilowatt)
Montréal Québec
PS: 1000 excuses for errors or omissions,
i'm a "pure" french canadian!
Come to visit me at: http://kilowatt.camarades.com
(If replying also by e-mail, remove
"no spam" from the adress.)

 

[lorraine]

Okay, I took my mother-in-laws crashed HD to the computer guy and he can't
get the HD to be recongnized. He suggested that I buy a refurbed HD (same
model) and he'll swap the controllers and see if he can get her data off of
the HD. She has 10 years worth of small business records on it...no back up.

To make a long story short, that didn't work. So, I've got a refurbed HD
with all good parts and an old HD with who knows what bad parts. I figured
I've got nothing to lose at this point. She definitely doesn't want to spend
the 1000 bucks to send it out and see if they can get the data off of it.
So...(yeah, I know you're not supposed to) I opened up both HD cases and
swapped the disk...so that now the disk with the data is on the hard drive
with the good parts. I hook it back up and now the HD light comes on (it
didn't before) but the disk doesn't spin...it's like it's locked. And I get
an invalid drive error message. Since I've already gone where you're not
supposed to by opening up the cases...anyone have any ideas what else to
try? I also have nothing to lose but the 45 dollars for the refurbed drive
so I'm willing to give just about anything a shot. I really don't want to
have to help her re-enter the past 3 years worth of data on her new hard
drive. I was able to copy 7 years worth from her old computer.

Lorraine

 

[kony]

Hi,

Thanks for the response. I kind of figured that if anything, I'd experience
read problems or some type of damage along those lines. I'd really like to
get the darn thing to a least spin though so I'd know if anything is
recoverable.

Guess being unafraid to attempt anything isn't always a good thing. )

Lorraine

If I'm understanding you correctly, that you just opened both drives,
took the platter from the original drive and placed it in the
new/refurb drive which was tested working prior to the operation, then
you probably did some damage during the operation. You might check
the circuit board to verify that it's making contact, and open the
drive again and try to rotate the platter. I would suspect that the
platter bearing was damaged but that's just a wild guess. If the
platter won't turn you "might" be able to force it free, get it to
turn for a very short while. It wouldn't turn for long, data might
not be readable, and the drive might even severly crash the heads into
the platters when the bearing suddenly siezes again (which it will)
but it might spin, which was your goal at this point, even if it's
extremely unlikely that you'd be able to get any data back at this
point.


Dave

 

[Lane Lewis]

Okay, I took my mother-in-laws crashed HD to the computer guy and he can't
get the HD to be recongnized. He suggested that I buy a refurbed HD (same
model) and he'll swap the controllers and see if he can get her data off of
the HD. She has 10 years worth of small business records on it...no back up.

To make a long story short, that didn't work. So, I've got a refurbed HD
with all good parts and an old HD with who knows what bad parts. I figured
I've got nothing to lose at this point. She definitely doesn't want to spend
the 1000 bucks to send it out and see if they can get the data off of it.
So...(yeah, I know you're not supposed to) I opened up both HD cases and
swapped the disk...so that now the disk with the data is on the hard drive
with the good parts. I hook it back up and now the HD light comes on (it
didn't before) but the disk doesn't spin...it's like it's locked. And I get
an invalid drive error message. Since I've already gone where you're not
supposed to by opening up the cases...anyone have any ideas what else to
try? I also have nothing to lose but the 45 dollars for the refurbed drive
so I'm willing to give just about anything a shot. I really don't want to
have to help her re-enter the past 3 years worth of data on her new hard
drive. I was able to copy 7 years worth from her old computer.

Lorraine

Never open a drive except in a clean room, even dust can cause problems. If
it isn't worth the $1000 bucks (your best bet) try sticking it in the
freezer over night and then try it again.
Careful with the condensation though when it warms up.

Lane

 

[lorraine]

Hi,

Thanks for the response. I kind of figured that if anything, I'd experience
read problems or some type of damage along those lines. I'd really like to
get the darn thing to a least spin though so I'd know if anything is
recoverable.

Guess being unafraid to attempt anything isn't always a good thing. )

Lorraine

 

[KILOWATT]

«Bonjour» again, Lorraine. Yes even if you opened the drive in
"ordinary ambient air" to transfer the parts, it should got to spin
at least. Probably the spindle motor or bearing as Kony mentioned.
With HDDs, the only possible "repair" to do, is what the "computer guy"
did...wich is to switch the controller boards. Sorry for her...for the lost
data. This is often irreplaceable. :-(
Alain(alias:Kilowatt)
Montréal Québec
PS: 1000 excuses for errors or omissions,
i'm a "pure" french canadian!
Come to visit me at: http://kilowatt.camarades.com
(If replying also by e-mail, remove
"no spam" from the adress.)

 

[KILOWATT]

Guess being unafraid to attempt anything isn't always a good thing. )

It's always better than just being afraid! ;-)

 

[lorraine]

You know this is the second place I've seen that (sticking it in the
freezer). I didn't put much stock in it the first time but now you've got me
wondering. How does that work?

 

[lorraine]

I guess I'd have to agree with you on that point. )

Thanks again,

Lorraine

 

[lorraine]

Oh yeah, and what will happen after it does warm up? I don't want to get
fried over this...

I'm plugging it into an older processor to play with it so that if it screws
anything up, I'm not frying my "good" computer.

Lorraine

 

[V W Wall]

Oh yeah, and what will happen after it does warm up? I don't want to get
fried over this...

I'm plugging it into an older processor to play with it so that if it screws
anything up, I'm not frying my "good" computer.

Lorraine

If after you put the "old" platter in the new drive and it didn't spin up,
I'm afraid you've buggered something more than allowing dust particles to
screw up the drive. Freezing sometimes works when the drive bearings are
stuck, but the "new" drive shouldn't have had this problem. Replacing a
platter is a delicate operation, even under the best of conditions.
Did you try spinning it by hand before you put the cover back?

Virg Wall