Seagate ST980815A failure. Please Help!

[flanderesses]

Dear Group,
I had Ubuntu running on my thinkpad T42 for the longest time on a
seagate drive (ST980815A). I had all my research work on there and it
died! Right when I made some room on my server (not even an hour ago)
to copy my stuff over the thing died!! Its like getting hit by
lightning. I tried connecting it with a USB drive enclosure to see if
it would come up, but I don't see any messages in dmesg...

I do a
$tail -f /var/log/messages

to watch what device it gets assigned as and nothing comes up.

Moreso, when I put my ear against it, it is making an rhythmical
beeping noise... not beeps, but a cyclic tune that is very faint --
not audible from a distance. I downloaded the seagate diagnostic tool
for linux and issued a,

$st -l

to list all drives, and of course nothing comes up. I am absolutely
hosed and I can't afford some expensive recovery. If anyone out there
knows how to help me or can guide me I am eternally indebted to you.

Here is some system info:
Im running kernel 2.6.19 Debian on my server.

If you need other information please let me know. I don't quite know
what I should provide.
Thank you,
Pouya

 

[mscotgrove]

Dear Group,
I had Ubuntu running on my thinkpad T42 for the longest time on a
seagate drive (ST980815A). I had all my research work on there and it
died! Right when I made some room on my server (not even an hour ago)
to copy my stuff over the thing died!! Its like getting hit by
lightning. I tried connecting it with a USB drive enclosure to see if
it would come up, but I don't see any messages in dmesg...

I do a
$tail -f /var/log/messages

to watch what device it gets assigned as and nothing comes up.

Moreso, when I put my ear against it, it is making an rhythmical
beeping noise... not beeps, but a cyclic tune that is very faint --
not audible from a distance. I downloaded the seagate diagnostic tool
for linux and issued a,

$st -l

to list all drives, and of course nothing comes up. I am absolutely
hosed and I can't afford some expensive recovery. If anyone out there
knows how to help me or can guide me I am eternally indebted to you.

Here is some system info:
Im running kernel 2.6.19 Debian on my server.

If you need other information please let me know. I don't quite know
what I should provide.
Thank you,
Pouya

For laptop drives, The Momentus has a reputation for head failure, I
saw three in one month, though a slightly different version numberto
yours.

I would recommend you find a specialist recovery company capable of
phyiscal recovery

Michael

 

[Arno Wagner]

Dear Group,
I had Ubuntu running on my thinkpad T42 for the longest time on a
seagate drive (ST980815A). I had all my research work on there and it
died! Right when I made some room on my server (not even an hour ago)
to copy my stuff over the thing died!! Its like getting hit by
lightning. I tried connecting it with a USB drive enclosure to see if
it would come up, but I don't see any messages in dmesg...
I do a
$tail -f /var/log/messages
to watch what device it gets assigned as and nothing comes up.

Moreso, when I put my ear against it, it is making an rhythmical
beeping noise... not beeps, but a cyclic tune that is very faint --
not audible from a distance. I downloaded the seagate diagnostic tool
for linux and issued a,

$st -l

to list all drives, and of course nothing comes up. I am absolutely
hosed and I can't afford some expensive recovery.

If the OS does not find the drive, then there is nothing you
can do by yourself. You can, however, do a lot of additional
damage trying to.

If anyone out there
knows how to help me or can guide me I am eternally indebted to you.

Probably you are screwed. This sounds like your disk is dead.
The only cheap protection against this is a backup.

Here is some system info:
Im running kernel 2.6.19 Debian on my server.

If you need other information please let me know. I don't quite know
what I should provide.
Thank you,
Pouya

I think you choices are a) expensive recovery or b) do without the
data. Although there are some miracle recoveries you can read about,
they are exceedingly rare and chances are hat they will not work
for you. I recommend that you make a choice beteen option a) and
b) now and then get on with your life.

On the plus side, you learned a very valuable lession. Most
people only learn by personal experience. Be glad that it was
not something even more expensive you had to learn this lesson
on.

Arno

 

[Arno Wagner]

For laptop drives, The Momentus has a reputation for head failure, I
saw three in one month, though a slightly different version numberto
yours.

Well, head failure is the worst case.

I would recommend you find a specialist recovery company capable of
phyiscal recovery

And do not power the disk up anymore. Every attempt it makes to
ccess the data can introduce surface damage, that may make professional
recovery even more expensive or impossible.

Arno