IBM Deskstar dead (no spinning) What should my plan be?

[superboyAC]

I have read the similar posts that I could find regarding this subject. The most applicable to my
situation that I could find was the following thread:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group...gb+seagate+drive+dead&rnum=1#d07c5109fd79cdff

I am in a very similar situation. My IBM Deskstar (80 GB) has stopped spinning. I tried it in
several computers, and none could spin it or recognize that a drive was installed. I'm wondering
what I should do, and I'm a little timid to try the freezing thing. The drive never really had
problems before, I never heard it make a clicking sound. The only thing I remember was that about a
week before it completely died, it spun down like it was going to sleep, and I wasn't able to access
the drive until I rebooted. I should've immediately backed up then, but I didn't think much of it
(IDIOT!!!). Anyway, so I'm considering the following:

My options currently are limited by my maximum $500 budget...
1) Find an identical hard drive (same part number and factory chip number), switch the board under
the drive and see if that works. The problem with this is that if it doesn't work, I may be out a
couple of hundred dollars, leaving less to professional recovery services.

2)Use a professional recovery service. But the cheapest one I can find is in the UK
(www.retrodata.co.uk), which offers consumer-level service. Are there any similar companies here in
the US?

That's about it, I don't know what else to do. Frankly, I'm a little worried about the
chip-swapping thing because of something I read in the post above, it might ruin the drive more?!
Besides, it may prove to be very difficult or impossible to find the exact drive I need.

There's about 40 GB of files i need to recover (all music), everything else was backup up. There is
no operating system or program files on the drive, just music files.

Thanks for any help.
AC

 

[J. Clarke]

I have read the similar posts that I could find regarding this subject.
The most applicable to my situation that I could find was the following
thread:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group...gb+seagate+drive+dead&rnum=1#d07c5109fd79cdff

I am in a very similar situation. My IBM Deskstar (80 GB) has stopped
spinning. I tried it in
several computers, and none could spin it or recognize that a drive was
installed. I'm wondering
what I should do, and I'm a little timid to try the freezing thing. The
drive never really had
problems before, I never heard it make a clicking sound. The only thing I
remember was that about a week before it completely died, it spun down
like it was going to sleep, and I wasn't able to access
the drive until I rebooted. I should've immediately backed up then, but I
didn't think much of it
(IDIOT!!!). Anyway, so I'm considering the following:

My options currently are limited by my maximum $500 budget...
1) Find an identical hard drive (same part number and factory chip
number), switch the board under
the drive and see if that works. The problem with this is that if it
doesn't work, I may be out a couple of hundred dollars, leaving less to
professional recovery services.

2)Use a professional recovery service. But the cheapest one I can find is
in the UK
(www.retrodata.co.uk), which offers consumer-level service. Are there any
similar companies here in the US?

That's about it, I don't know what else to do. Frankly, I'm a little
worried about the chip-swapping thing because of something I read in the
post above, it might ruin the drive more?! Besides, it may prove to be
very difficult or impossible to find the exact drive I need.

There's about 40 GB of files i need to recover (all music), everything
else was backup up. There is no operating system or program files on the
drive, just music files.

If the music is of any real value then pay someone who knows what they are
about to recover it--any screwing around that you do with no experience at
data recovery is likely to make it more difficult for the professionals to
recover, if it is recoverable at all.

If it's your downloaded MP3 collection then toss the drive and chalk it up
to experience.

In the future make proper backups.

 

[J. Clarke]

Did you try whacking it with a screwdriver handle while powered on? If
the bearings are siezed you might be able to jiggle them loose that way.

Or crash the heads.

 

[timeOday]

I have read the similar posts that I could find regarding this subject. The most applicable to my
situation that I could find was the following thread:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group...gb+seagate+drive+dead&rnum=1#d07c5109fd79cdff

I am in a very similar situation. My IBM Deskstar (80 GB) has stopped spinning. I tried it in
several computers, and none could spin it or recognize that a drive was installed. I'm wondering
what I should do, and I'm a little timid to try the freezing thing. The drive never really had
problems before, I never heard it make a clicking sound. The only thing I remember was that about a
week before it completely died, it spun down like it was going to sleep, and I wasn't able to access
the drive until I rebooted. I should've immediately backed up then, but I didn't think much of it
(IDIOT!!!). Anyway, so I'm considering the following:

My options currently are limited by my maximum $500 budget...
1) Find an identical hard drive (same part number and factory chip number), switch the board under
the drive and see if that works. The problem with this is that if it doesn't work, I may be out a
couple of hundred dollars, leaving less to professional recovery services.

2)Use a professional recovery service. But the cheapest one I can find is in the UK
(www.retrodata.co.uk), which offers consumer-level service. Are there any similar companies here in
the US?

That's about it, I don't know what else to do. Frankly, I'm a little worried about the
chip-swapping thing because of something I read in the post above, it might ruin the drive more?!
Besides, it may prove to be very difficult or impossible to find the exact drive I need.

There's about 40 GB of files i need to recover (all music), everything else was backup up. There is
no operating system or program files on the drive, just music files.

Thanks for any help.
AC

Did you try whacking it with a screwdriver handle while powered on? If
the bearings are siezed you might be able to jiggle them loose that way.

 

[Odie Ferrous]

Did you try whacking it with a screwdriver handle while powered on? If
the bearings are siezed you might be able to jiggle them loose that way.

No - definitely not a good move.

Besides, Deskstars don't typically suffer from bearing seizure.


Odie

 

[Michael Cecil]

No - definitely not a good move.

Besides, Deskstars don't typically suffer from bearing seizure.

Ah, come on. It's fun to watch people when the realize the glass platters
in their deathstar have shattered!

 

[J. Clarke]

Ah, come on. It's fun to watch people when the realize the glass platters
in their deathstar have shattered!

That takes a harder whack than you can deliver with a screwdriver.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...gb+seagate+drive+dead&rnum=1#d07c5109fd79cdff

Or crash the heads.

While in the load/unload-ramp position? Rotflol.

And snip the rest of the post if you aren't capable of properly quoting it,
oh clueless one.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

No - definitely not a good move.

Besides, Deskstars don't typically suffer from bearing seizure.

But they can have stiction. And some call a slider a 'head bearing'.

 

[Nick]

While in the load/unload-ramp position? Rotflol.

If you whack it strong enough, yes you can crash the head.

Nick

 

[J. Clarke]

If you whack it strong enough, yes you can crash the head.

It would have to be a really hard whack _if_ it's on the ramp, which
physically lifts the head off the platter. The trouble with this is that
if the drive is _dead_ you have no way of knowing if it's dead with the
head on the ramp or dead with the head somewhere else.

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

That takes a harder whack than you can deliver with a screwdriver.

Don't be so sure. I've seen several laptops with shattered glass-platter
Travelstar drives. The machines had no external damage.

 

[J. Clarke]

Don't be so sure. I've seen several laptops with shattered glass-platter
Travelstar drives. The machines had no external damage.

Of course you took the drives apart to ascertain this. It's rather
difficult to apply a shock exceeding spec to a laptop drive without showing
external damage.

 

[Rolf Blom]

Mike Tomlinson wrote:




Of course you took the drives apart to ascertain this. It's rather
difficult to apply a shock exceeding spec to a laptop drive without showing
external damage.

A colleague once put a minitower on a desk a bit too close to where
people where walking past; and sure enough someone in a hurry ran by and
gave it a somewhat rough nudge. It had a 3.5" 10.000rpm drive inside,
and the tipping of that gyro broke the glass platter in a miniature
explosion.

When opening the PC, some pieces of the platter had actually perforated
the aluminium enclosure of the disk, so the damage was definitely
noticeable from the outside in this case.

Smaller notebook drives can have emergency parking of heads, but unless
it's also spun down, the spinning disk could crack, and I guess it
depends on the enclosure strength if anything shows. It should rattle a
bit though...

/Rolf

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

Of course you took the drives apart to ascertain this.

Yes. The rattle was a giveaway, but opening the drives revealed a mess
of glass shards and powdered glass/magnetic substrate inside.

It's rather
difficult to apply a shock exceeding spec to a laptop drive without showing
external damage.

Agreed. But make something idiot-proof and an idiot will find a way
around it.

 

[J. Clarke]

Yes. The rattle was a giveaway, but opening the drives revealed a mess
of glass shards and powdered glass/magnetic substrate inside.


Agreed. But make something idiot-proof and an idiot will find a way
around it.

Be interesting to know what the guy did to it--I'd lay good odds that it was
broken by something other than impact damage.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Depends on the surface (how much of it) that is absorbing the shock.
Or how much of the internal structure is absorbing the shock and how
much of that shock is transferred to the harddrive.

A colleague once put a minitower on a desk a bit too close to where
people where walking past; and sure enough someone in a hurry ran by and
gave it a somewhat rough nudge. It had a 3.5" 10.000rpm drive inside,
and the tipping of that gyro broke the glass platter in a miniature explosion.

Unfortunately we are discussing tapping a non-spinning drive.

 

[Odie Ferrous]

Be interesting to know what the guy did to it--I'd lay good odds that it was
broken by something other than impact damage.

I once received a drive that a client had put in the freezer overnight.

Trouble is, he sealed it and submerged it in a tub of water.

Of course, the water froze, the ice expanded, and crushed the entire
drive to the point that the platters smashed.

I didn't believe him at first, then tried it myself with an old 12mm
drive.

Quite incredible.


Odie

 

[Rod Speed]

J. Clarke wrote

I once received a drive that a client had put in the freezer overnight.

Trouble is, he sealed it and submerged it in a tub of water.

Of course, the water froze, the ice expanded, and crushed
the entire drive to the point that the platters smashed.

You were warned about those 'mind' altering drugs and magic mushrooms.

I didn't believe him at first, then tried it myself with an old 12mm drive.

Quite incredible.

Completely incredible in the dictionary sense.

Ice does expand a small amount as it freezes, enough to break
a glass bottle, but not enough to crush a hard drive, stupid.

 

[Odie Ferrous]

You were warned about those 'mind' altering drugs and magic mushrooms.



Completely incredible in the dictionary sense.

Ice does expand a small amount as it freezes, enough to break
a glass bottle, but not enough to crush a hard drive, stupid.

Pardon? You've tried this, I take it?

If not, do so.

The entire top cover was compacted sufficiently to crush the platters.
Remember I am talking about a laptop drive which has a delicate top
cover. But you probably aren't aware of that.

Would you like me to repeat the process and take some photographs to
email you? Or would that be wizardry with imagery?


Odie