Sources of info to retrieve data off failing (failed) hard d

[Stellijer]

Isaac Wingfield <isw@witzend.com> wrote in message
news:isw-8C4897.20260912122003@netnews.attbi.com...

In article <t2jCb.2031$z24.291@bignews6.bellsouth.net>,
"Stellijer" <howapropos@hotmail.nospam.com> wrote:

How would moving the heads help when the motor is what's not spinning up?
I'm curious how that could help.

A while back, some manufacturers (Sony was one) had compatibility
problems between disk material and head material -- sometimes, when the
drive was turned off for a while, they would stick together (really,
cold-weld, I think). The motor starting torque was insufficient to break
the bond, but a good whack could do it.

I once had such a disk, but even whacking its did no good. Finally I
really gave it a good shot. It started spinning but it was making an
awful racket. Now that it was obviously no good, I took it apart, to
find the offending head *still attached to the disk*. My final whack had
ripped it right off its supporting arm.

LOL! Wow... what a whack that must have been!

In my case, it's 99% not 'stiction', since the platters seem to rotate small
amounts in a jerking pattern. It's surely in the motor control, the motor, or
contact in between.

 

[Stellijer]

Isaac Wingfield <isw@witzend.com> wrote in message
news:isw-8E923C.20201812122003@netnews.attbi.com...

In article <u2jCb.2035$z24.719@bignews6.bellsouth.net>,
"Stellijer" <howapropos@hotmail.nospam.com> wrote:

--snip--

How would you ever replace an IC on these boards? They look like you'd have
to solder them with microscoping equipment! Also, I would have no idea
where to
get that same IC or know WHICH is the motor driver IC.

Getting the IC may be a problem, but replacing it with "ordinary" tools
is only moderately difficult (assuming you can *see* the pins; if it's a
ball-grid job, you're out of luck):

1) With a sharp hobby knife, cut through all the legs of the bad chip,
right next to the body of the chip. Take care not to cut any traces on
the board. The body may have a bit of stuff on the bottom to attach it;
you may have to lever it up a bit to get it off. MAKE SURE you've cut
all the legs before you do this.

2) Using a "solder sucker", you can melt the solder and "suck" the
individual pins off the board. Work quickly. Make sure none just move
somewhere else and get overlooked.

3)If the pads still have "bumps" of solder, use some solder wick to
clean things. Clean the flux off with acetone. Put a little more solder
on two opposite corner pads.

4) Orient the replacement chip (you *did* notice which way the broken
one went, right?) and *making sure all the pins are directly above their
appropriate pads*, tack down those two corner pads.

5) Re-check to make sure that no leg is bridging adjacent pads.

6) Using fine solder, just run a small iron around the chip, covering
all pins with solder. Make sure every pin is attached to its pad. DO NOT
WORRY about solder bridges at this time.Working quickly is more
important.

7) Once again use the solder wick, this time to remove all solder
bridges. Use a loupe, if you have one.

8) After you're confident that all legs are attached and there are no
bridges, clean off any remaining flux with acetone.

Wow. It's actually interesting to know how to do this but still it seems
daunting, if you add to it the difficulty of obtaining the chip, too.

I imagine my best shot is to find another working PCB and replace the whole
thing. I only hope that the control chip (and thus the PCB) solve the
problem...

 

[Ian Molton]

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 00:07:57 -0200
Chaos Master <please.ask@ibestvip.com.br> wrote:

If the problem is on the logic part, try getting the circuit board
from an IDENTICAL hard drive. (Sometimes this works; I've seen this
done)

If its a quantum, all the Fireball TM models share the same logic (I
know, I've done it and it worked).

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with
ketchup.

 

[Stellijer]

Ian Molton <spyro@f2s.com> wrote in message
news:20031215135608.642872e3.spyro@f2s.com...

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 00:07:57 -0200
Chaos Master <please.ask@ibestvip.com.br> wrote:

If the problem is on the logic part, try getting the circuit board
from an IDENTICAL hard drive. (Sometimes this works; I've seen this
done)

If its a quantum, all the Fireball TM models share the same logic (I
know, I've done it and it worked).

It's a WD Caviar drive.

I know for a fact at least their 80gb models have different logic boards. I
know because I looked at different series versions of the same model and there
was no question the logic board was different. How much that difference makes
is unknown but it's not a good chance.

Right now, I'd rather look around for the SAME exact series on eBay as opposed
to risking purchasing one of a different series. It's not like I can just LOOK
at them in this case since I'd be buying it off eBay.

Now, *IF* I can't find the right series in a month or two, I may chance it and
try a different one. Nonetheless, I have hopes of finding the right one given
time.

 

[Ian Molton]

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 13:04:45 -0500
"Stellijer" <howapropos@hotmail.nospam.com> wrote:

It's a WD Caviar drive.

Sorry to hear that. I too have had bad experiences not only with their utter garbage drives but also their SHITE customer support.

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

 

[Stellijer]

Ian Molton <spyro@f2s.com> wrote in message
news:20031215181453.1cd01995.spyro@f2s.com...

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 13:04:45 -0500
"Stellijer" <howapropos@hotmail.nospam.com> wrote:

It's a WD Caviar drive.

Sorry to hear that. I too have had bad experiences not only with their utter
garbage drives but also their SHITE customer support.

From all accounts, they're not a good choice for quality. They have cheap
drives but one should never rely on them.

I had a guy call me from WD, I returned the call twice and never heard from him
again

 

[Ian Molton]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 10:49:29 -0500
"Stellijer" <howapropos@hotmail.nospam.com> wrote:

I had a guy call me from WD, I returned the call twice and never heard from him
again

I never did get the refund they promised me.

also, buyer beware...

NEVER go direct to the manufacturer, even if your vendor tells you to. if you do, the vendor no longer has a responsibility to you, and worse still, manufacturers warranties DONT entitle you to new goods (they may offer refubs), which I think is disgusting.

Now I have a nice Seagate Barracuda (with 8M cache) and its lovely. super quiet and super super fast. (56MB/sec sustained and a low seek time too)

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

 

[Andre]

"James Sweet" <jamessweet@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<jB2Cb.86499$_M.454302@attbi_s54>...

"Stellijer" <howapropos@hotmail.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:9N0Cb.7$T14.6@bignews3.bellsouth.net...

JW <none@dev.nul> wrote in message
news:644htv4beeto1j5fcvjuf7lqd6vbp38di6@4ax.com...
On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 07:34:46 -0500 "Stellijer"
howapropos@hotmail.nospam.com> wrote in Message id:
2J_Bb.20896$hv2.609@bignews6.bellsouth.net>:

I peeled back the little seal on the drive in a pretty safe environment
(plus
I
didn't open the whole thing).

It appears the platters spin reasonably freely. The problem is that
the
motor
"jerks" the platters only a small amount at a time.

I'm very concerned that maybe the motor has burned out, in which case
I'm not
sure WHAT to do.

Much more likely would be the motor controller on the PCB.


That would probably be the best news since I could probably fix it by
swapping
out the PCB; an easy fix.

Could that cause the motor to make a "skreee" sound ever 30-60 seconds or
so,
too?

One thing to try- measure between each of the motor pins and ground,
one could have shorted to the case (GND) or open, in the former case
isolating it from ground might get it going.

Other possibilities- bad controller chip, bad bearings (too much
friction to let the motor start up, the skreee noise is the normal
ramping up of the drive waveform to get the drive up to normal RPM).

If it is a bad bearing, sometimes spot heating works.


It's surely not a head sound since the drive wasn't spinning yet.

It's
like the motor's gone crazy.


That sounds like the bearings were failing, which probably overheated the
motor driver and burned out one channel. You could probably just replace the
motor driver IC, or swap boards.