Hitachi Deskstar Bizarre Noise Fault

[al]

Hi All,

I have recently had a couple of Hitachi Deskstar hard drives go bad on
me. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had symptoms like these and
can shed any light on what my chances are of getting any data
recovered!

When powered up, both drives emit a strange beeping sequence, please
visit the following URL to listen as its quite a bizzarre sound (not
the usual clunks or grinding as with most HD faults I've seen):

http://media.putfile.com/Hitachi-Deskstar-Hard-Drive-Fault

Both drives produce this noise for around one minute then it stops.
Not sure if the drive powers down at this stage or not, I can't hear
or feel any movement.

The drives are both 500GB IDE 3.5" 7,200RPM Models, model number:
HDT725050VLAT80 and were manufactured in Aug 2007.

They were installed in a NAS device, see the following link:
http://svp.co.uk/product/dual_hdd_networked_attached_storage_(ide)_5707

I have downloaded and run the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test by plugging
the drives into a PC, but neither BIOS or the DFT recognise the
drives.

Has anyone had a fault like this before? Anyone managed to get their
data back? I have considered using a professional data recovery
company but could do with any comments/help before I commit to going
down that rather costly road. Suggestions on tools/techniques to
recover data?

Any help appreciated!!

Thanks,

Al.

 

[Paul]

Hi All,

I have recently had a couple of Hitachi Deskstar hard drives go bad on
me. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had symptoms like these and
can shed any light on what my chances are of getting any data
recovered!

When powered up, both drives emit a strange beeping sequence, please
visit the following URL to listen as its quite a bizzarre sound (not
the usual clunks or grinding as with most HD faults I've seen):

http://media.putfile.com/Hitachi-Deskstar-Hard-Drive-Fault

Both drives produce this noise for around one minute then it stops.
Not sure if the drive powers down at this stage or not, I can't hear
or feel any movement.

The drives are both 500GB IDE 3.5" 7,200RPM Models, model number:
HDT725050VLAT80 and were manufactured in Aug 2007.

They were installed in a NAS device, see the following link:
http://svp.co.uk/product/dual_hdd_networked_attached_storage_(ide)_5707

I have downloaded and run the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test by plugging
the drives into a PC, but neither BIOS or the DFT recognise the
drives.

Has anyone had a fault like this before? Anyone managed to get their
data back? I have considered using a professional data recovery
company but could do with any comments/help before I commit to going
down that rather costly road. Suggestions on tools/techniques to
recover data?

Any help appreciated!!

Thanks,

Al.

This is what I come to the Internet for. Content

http://fn4.putfile.com/getfile/1202092920video1234sslash18814202728.mp3

I pulled this into Audacity (free audio editor). I used a notch at 50Hz, 150Hz
and one at 250Hz, to remove some of the background hum. My computer speakers
are just terrible, and I suspect I don't have much response at all at 50Hz,
so I'm probably missing some of the nuances.

You can get Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net

The notch filter is a separate file, and you put it in the plug-in folder,
after Audacity is installed. Then, when you start Audacity, there should be
a "Notch" in the effects menu.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/nyquist/ ( Save a copy of notch.ny )

If you want to open notch.ny for a look, use "Wordpad".

The Notch filter has three controls. The upper number should be set to 2,
which means "user's choice". That is how you get it to respect the frequency
setting, which is the second field down in the dialog. The third field is Q,
and I don't really know if it is working right or not. I've left it at 5, and
that seems to be sharp enough. (2, 50, 5) then (2, 150, 5) and (2, 250, 5)
notches, removed most of the recording noise. The filter rings a little bit, so
creates some crap at the beginning and ending of the selection it is filtering.

I used the spectrum plotting feature, but the peaks didn't correspond to the
hum I was hearing. I went on a hunch that it was 50Hz related, figured my
speakers couldn't possibly do 50Hz (they only cost $20), and filtered the
third and fifth harmonic (150Hz and 250Hz). After that, snipping off the blip
at the start of the recording, then "Normalize" the whole selection, to get
more volume, and it is much clearer.

There is mention here, of a "beep-click" sound for the Deathstar from Hitachi,
but the click implies an attempt by the arm, to find track zero. And that
kinda ruins some theories about what the beep might be. I was thinking the
beep in your recording, was an attempt to get the spindle spinning. Maybe
if it was stuck, the beep is an attempt to shake it loose. But some drives
also use a fast seek sequence, as a test, and that is another way to make a
beep sound with the arm. (There is one SCSI disk, that uses the fast seek
sequence, every 71 seconds, which is enough to drive you nuts in an
office environment.) And to do that, implies the spindle is spinning.
The arm shouldn't leave the launch ramp, until the motor controller says
the spindle is up to speed.

http://groups.google.ca/group/comp....read/thread/3475b4268d6176ec/946c8d2da378181f

I think I would hold the drive in my hand, and see if I could feel the
spindle spinning. Either that, or listen for a "spinup" sound when it
first powers up.

If the drive cannot be seen by the OS, then software data recovery tools
will be useless. And the data recovery company will be charging a few
$$$ for this.

Funny that this would happen to two drives at the same time. Maybe
the enclosure had a power problem ?

Have a look at the controller board on each drive, for any obvious
burnt ICs or other marks. Have a sniff, and see if you can smell
a burnt smell around the logic board.

Paul

 

[John Doe]

Hi All,

Hi one,

I have recently had a couple of Hitachi Deskstar hard drives go
bad on me. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had symptoms like
these and can shed any light on what my chances are of getting any
data recovered!

Your chances are great if you have important files backed up to
removable media. If not, you need to take a course on "copy and
paste", a fundamental part of personal computing.

Or just hang around this group for a while and listen to the whining
people do when their hard drive fails and they don't have a copy of
important files. Making a copy of important files from your hard
drive is so easy to do yet so commonly not done.

When powered up, both drives emit a strange beeping sequence,
please visit the following URL to listen as its quite a bizzarre
sound (not the usual clunks or grinding as with most HD faults
I've seen):

http://media.putfile.com/Hitachi-Deskstar-Hard-Drive-Fault

If you play it backwards in slow motion, it sounds like your hard
drive saying "COPY IMPORTANT FILES TO REMOVABLE MEDIA!"

Good luck.




--
My big wheel in-line street skates (a.k.a. rollerblades).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210@N04/2565924423/

Google Groups is destroying the USENET archive, to hell with
Google.

 

[John Doe]

al wrote:

This is what I come to the Internet for. Content

Agreed, I enjoy seeing the information too.

http://fn4.putfile.com/getfile/1202092920video1234sslash18814202728.mp3

By the way, to al. I would post to the storage group too. They are
experts on hard drive stuff.

 

[Alex Lush]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your comments.

Apologies for the crappy quality of the recording, the only thing I
had to hand was a very cheap microphone that came with my sat nav. It
gives you an impression of what the sound is though!!

Couldn't access the first URL you posted in reply by the way, access
denied message??

There is mention here, of a "beep-click" sound for the Deathstar from Hitachi,
but the click implies an attempt by the arm, to find track zero. And that
kinda ruins some theories about what the beep might be. I was thinking the
beep in your recording, was an attempt to get the spindle spinning. Maybe
if it was stuck, the beep is an attempt to shake it loose. But some drives
also use a fast seek sequence, as a test, and that is another way to makea
beep sound with the arm. (There is one SCSI disk, that uses the fast seek
sequence, every 71 seconds, which is enough to drive you nuts in an
office environment.) And to do that, implies the spindle is spinning.
The arm shouldn't leave the launch ramp, until the motor controller says
the spindle is up to speed.

http://groups.google.ca/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage/browse...

I think I would hold the drive in my hand, and see if I could feel the
spindle spinning. Either that, or listen for a "spinup" sound when it
first powers up.

I have just tried what you said, no spinup sound that I can hear of,
the only (small) vibration seems to be what ever is causing the lower
toned of the two noises.

If the drive cannot be seen by the OS, then software data recovery tools
will be useless. And the data recovery company will be charging a few
$$$ for this.

Ranging from £200GBP to £7,000GBP from the ones I've requested an
initial quote off!!

Funny that this would happen to two drives at the same time. Maybe
the enclosure had a power problem ?

I think it was a power surge although the nas device was plugged into
a surge protector so that *should* have caught it before it got to the
device.

Have a look at the controller board on each drive, for any obvious
burnt ICs or other marks. Have a sniff, and see if you can smell
a burnt smell around the logic board.

That was my first thought, no obvious damage to ICs and no odd smells
either.

Thanks for your help Paul, you've given me some good background to
search on there.

Alex

 

[Alex Lush]

sometimes if you freeze it, a stuck spindle will come unstuck when you power
it.  be quick about it because its gonna get stuck again.  Have your back up
plan ready in your mind before you transfer it from freezer to pc.  If it
spins you have about 4 minutes.

~AlicGinnis~,

Haha I was wondering when the freezer method would come up!! Have you
had first hand experience of this working? I always considered it to
be an old wife's tale!

That said, I may try it once all other avenues have been exhausted!!

On the gmail comment, I have all my mail and contacts on gmail
luckily, it was mostly music and photos that were on the drive. I may
have to upload the photos to picassa though should I ever get them
back!! The cloud is the future!

Al

 

[Paul]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your comments.

Apologies for the crappy quality of the recording, the only thing I
had to hand was a very cheap microphone that came with my sat nav. It
gives you an impression of what the sound is though!!

Couldn't access the first URL you posted in reply by the way, access
denied message??

The link I provided, was the actual download link to the file. Maybe
that site dynamically changes the link ? I did a "view source" in
Firefox, to find it, because I had trouble getting the file.

On the contrary, the recording is fine. It just needed to have a
bit of hum removed from it. And as for noise sources, the logical
sources are the motor and the actuator arm (voice coil). The weird
part, is the pattern to the sounds. Hard to tell if the pattern
is there for a reason, or is a side effect of something (the sound
of something overloaded).

Paul