Dead hard disk with musical beeps

[Arnold]

My hard disk (Maxtor Diamondmax Plus, 80GB, nearly two years old)
unexpectedly died this morning. At power up it doesn't spin-up, instead it
beeps/chimes a few times.

1) any suggestions on how to revive the disk? The data is not important
enough to spend hundreds of dollars for data recovery, but I would like to
save some of it.

2) what is the meaning of the musical beeps from the hard disk? The sound is
somewhat similar to a mobile phone melody. It definitely comes from the hard
disk, not the motherboard. It is generated during the failed attempts to
spin-up. It is even generated with the data cable disconnected, only the
power cable must be connected.

 

[kony]

My hard disk (Maxtor Diamondmax Plus, 80GB, nearly two years old)
unexpectedly died this morning. At power up it doesn't spin-up, instead it
beeps/chimes a few times.

1) any suggestions on how to revive the disk? The data is not important
enough to spend hundreds of dollars for data recovery, but I would like to
save some of it.

Likely you can't but there's the good ole
put-in-freezer-overnight trick, kept in an airtight bag.

2) what is the meaning of the musical beeps from the hard disk? The sound is
somewhat similar to a mobile phone melody. It definitely comes from the hard
disk, not the motherboard. It is generated during the failed attempts to
spin-up. It is even generated with the data cable disconnected, only the
power cable must be connected.

It means the drive is dead?

 

[Arnold]

Likely you can't but there's the good ole
put-in-freezer-overnight trick, kept in an airtight bag.

Fortunately the disk is alive again. Somewhere else I read that in the past
Maxtor drives occasionally had problems with "stiction" where the spindle
bearings became frozen and the drive would not spin up. One suggestion was
to tap the drive with a rubber mallet in such a way as to coerce the spindle
free. In my case, a gentle tap worked, so I could save my data. The drive
now seems to be fine, able to spin-up many times (but I'll throw it away
anyway).

It means the drive is dead?

No, the tune was rather lively (http://www.techimo.com/maxtorbeeps.mp3); it
probably meant "if you kiss me I'll open my eyes". Another victim opened a
similar crashed Maxtor disk (http://www.techimo.com/forum/t43161.html) to
locate the source of the sound. It seems to come from a kind of air filter,
a small plastic box that contains tiny metal beads.