IDE hard drive -- changing the card?

[Fabien LE LEZ]

Hello,

I've got a Seagate ST3300831A (Barracuda 7200.8 300 GB).
The electronic card seems busted (there's a component that looks
burnt, and none of my three IDE controllers detect the disk).

Seagate does offer a warranty service, but they won't repair the disk
-- they'll just give me a new, blank, disk.

Is there a way to change that card, so that I can get my data back[*]?
I've thought about buying another hard drive of the same model,
exchanging the cards while I copy the data to another disk, and then
put the busted card back.

Will that work?
Is there a risk that the warranty will be voided?

Thanks a lot in advance for your advice.


[*] Note : it's not really important data (the important data is
backuped regurarly), but it'd be nice to get it back.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hello,

I've got a Seagate ST3300831A (Barracuda 7200.8 300 GB).
The electronic card seems busted (there's a component that looks
burnt, and none of my three IDE controllers detect the disk).

Seagate does offer a warranty service, but they won't repair the disk
-- they'll just give me a new, blank, disk.

If they see the burnt component (what did cause it?) they may
well assume you mistreaded the disk and refuse warranty
replacement.

Is there a way to change that card, so that I can get my data back[*]?
I've thought about buying another hard drive of the same model,
exchanging the cards while I copy the data to another disk, and then
put the busted card back.

Will that work?

Unclear. There might be damage to the read amplifier circuit,
that is inside the disk.

Is there a risk that the warranty will be voided?

I would assume the warranty is already void, see above.
I don't think that an attempt with a different curcuit board
will influence that.

Arno

Thanks a lot in advance for your advice.

[*] Note : it's not really important data (the important data is
backuped regurarly), but it'd be nice to get it back.

 

[Rod Speed]

I've got a Seagate ST3300831A (Barracuda 7200.8 300 GB).
The electronic card seems busted (there's a component that
looks burnt, and none of my three IDE controllers detect the disk).

Seagate does offer a warranty service, but they won't
repair the disk -- they'll just give me a new, blank, disk.

Is there a way to change that card,
Yes

so that I can get my data back[*]?
Maybe.

I've thought about buying another hard drive of the same
model, exchanging the cards while I copy the data to
another disk, and then put the busted card back.

Will that work?

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesnt, depends on the model.

Is there a risk that the warranty will be voided?

Yes, it normally will void the warranty.

Thanks a lot in advance for your advice.

[*] Note : it's not really important data (the important data
is backuped regurarly), but it'd be nice to get it back.

No harm in trying it and they may not notice that
the card has been swapped if you are careful.

 

[JohnH]

If they see the burnt component (what did cause it?) they may well
assume you mistreaded the disk and refuse warranty replacement.

Unlikely. I deliberately killed a drive which had intermittent bads
at a rather low frequency, which I thought they would likely not
see any fault with, because the bads werent always visible.

Turned out to be surprisingly hard to kill the drive. I eventually
ended up finding the datasheet for the ram online and zapped
it with a big lab power supply, blew the side right out of the ic.

It was replaced under warranty without a murmur.

Is there a way to change that card, so that I can get my data
back[*]? I've thought about buying another hard drive of the same
model, exchanging the cards while I copy the data to another disk,
and then put the busted card back.

Will that work?

Unclear. There might be damage to the read amplifier circuit,
that is inside the disk.

Is there a risk that the warranty will be voided?

I would assume the warranty is already void, see above.
I don't think that an attempt with a different curcuit board
will influence that.

Arno

Thanks a lot in advance for your advice.

[*] Note : it's not really important data (the important data is
backuped regurarly), but it'd be nice to get it back.

 

[Fabien LE LEZ]

If they see the burnt component

(what did cause it?)

It looks like what you get when there's a short-circuit.
I really think it's a failure of the disk itself, not caused by an
external factor.

My other hard drives are all around 35-40°C, so I don't think it was
caused by overheat.

 

[Frazer Jolly Goodfellow]

It looks like what you get when there's a short-circuit.
I really think it's a failure of the disk itself, not caused by
an external factor.

My other hard drives are all around 35-40°C, so I don't think it
was caused by overheat.

The temperature reported via SMART is often not representative of the
temperature(s) of the PCB chips, which can be significantly hotter.

 

[Rod Speed]

The temperature reported via SMART is often not representative of the
temperature(s) of the PCB chips, which can be significantly hotter.

That wont be why the chip died.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Unlikely. I deliberately killed a drive which had intermittent bads
at a rather low frequency, which I thought they would likely not
see any fault with, because the bads werent always visible.

Turned out to be surprisingly hard to kill the drive. I eventually
ended up finding the datasheet for the ram online and zapped
it with a big lab power supply, blew the side right out of the ic.

It was replaced under warranty without a murmur.

Quite surprising, but I believe you. Must be easier to
just replace them without checking....

Arno

 

[Alan Kakareka]

I've got a Seagate ST3300831A (Barracuda 7200.8 300 GB).

This drive belongs to TONKA family

The electronic card seems busted (there's a component that looks
burnt, and none of my three IDE controllers detect the disk).

Which component is burnt ? Any chip or diode next to power connector (2
diodes - 5V and 12V)?

Seagate does offer a warranty service, but they won't repair the disk
-- they'll just give me a new, blank, disk.

They can recover data as well for a small additional fee (about $1500 -
$3000)- https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com

Is there a way to change that card, so that I can get my data back[*]?
I've thought about buying another hard drive of the same model,
exchanging the cards while I copy the data to another disk, and then
put the busted card back.

Definitely, you have to match PCB code (like S.15, S.30 etc. and the world
after the date of ROM generation)
No need to match firmware of the drive

Will that work?
Is there a risk that the warranty will be voided?

No,
usually there are no stickers on PCB you will have to brake.

g00d luck

--
Alan Kakareka
Data Recovery Service
786-253-8286 cell
http://www.247recovery.com
--

I've got a Seagate ST3300831A (Barracuda 7200.8 300 GB).
The electronic card seems busted (there's a component that
looks burnt, and none of my three IDE controllers detect the disk).

Seagate does offer a warranty service, but they won't
repair the disk -- they'll just give me a new, blank, disk.

Is there a way to change that card,
Yes

so that I can get my data back[*]?
Maybe.

I've thought about buying another hard drive of the same
model, exchanging the cards while I copy the data to
another disk, and then put the busted card back.

Will that work?

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesnt, depends on the model.

Is there a risk that the warranty will be voided?

Yes, it normally will void the warranty.

Thanks a lot in advance for your advice.

[*] Note : it's not really important data (the important data
is backuped regurarly), but it'd be nice to get it back.

No harm in trying it and they may not notice that
the card has been swapped if you are careful.

 

[Fabien LE LEZ]

Which component is burnt ? Any chip or diode next to power connector (2
diodes - 5V and 12V)?

No, it's an integrated circuit. There's a kind of "blister" on the IC,
and some connections are blackish.

They can recover data as well for a small additional fee (about $1500 -
$3000)- https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com

I like your idea of a "small fee" :-D

I certainly won't pay such a fee for data that wasn't worth backuping
to begin with...

g00d luck

Thanks. I'll try it. At worst I'll have two broken disks to send to
Seagate ;-)

 

[Arno Wagner]

No, it's an integrated circuit. There's a kind of "blister" on the IC,
and some connections are blackish.

Likely the motor controller. It has some power-circuits in it. If it
overheats for a longer time, the power components become less
efficient and overheat more.

I like your idea of a "small fee" :-D

It is actually quite small, if you consider that it may take
several hours for an engineer and an inventory of spares
to do this. Also if you consider the potential value of the
data. Of course in a privately owned disk, it seems expensive.

I certainly won't pay such a fee for data that wasn't worth backuping
to begin with...

Some people have data that is wiorth much, much more, but no
or no working backup.

Thanks. I'll try it. At worst I'll have two broken disks to send to
Seagate ;-)

Good luck with that. Might actually work though.

Arno

 

[Rod Speed]

No, it's an integrated circuit.

That is what a chip is, another name for the same thing.

There's a kind of "blister" on the IC, and some connections are blackish.

I like your idea of a "small fee" :-D

I certainly won't pay such a fee for data that
wasn't worth backuping to begin with...

Thanks. I'll try it. At worst I'll have two broken disks to send to Seagate ;-)

Did those both die at the same time ? If they did, either the
power supply died and over voltaged both drives as it died,
or you got a power surge which is what killed the drives. Seagate
may well refuse to warranty the drives killed in that situation.

Safer to send them in for a warranty claim well separated in time
if you choose to try to get a warranty claim that you arent entitled to.

 

[Fabien LE LEZ]

Did those both die at the same time ?

Nope. The second one isn't even bought yet.
I'm going to buy a second hard drive (same model), put the new card on
the old disk, and pray... If it doesn't work, I'll have two broken
cards, so two broken hard drives to send to Seagate.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Quite surprising,

but I believe you.

Yes indeed, that is quite surprising.
High time to let Rod out of your kill file, don't you think, Arnie?

 

[Fabien LE LEZ]

Is there a way to change that card, so that I can get my data back[*]?
I've thought about buying another hard drive of the same model,
exchanging the cards while I copy the data to another disk, and then
put the busted card back.

Well, it didn't work :-(
I suppose something on the disk itself was damaged (the firmware
maybe?), since the two controller cards seems identical.