HDD powering up issue

[celestialgrave]

So a couple weeks ago I set up a fresh windows 7 install on my new OCZ vertex 2 and as I feared I lost another hard drive. My WD 320gb hdd seems to have died on me. Was working for a few days after the initial install but now seems to not power up. There's no spinning or vibration when I turn on the computer. Tried using the molex power connector, then the sata power connector, same result. Plugged it into another computer and same thing. Any ideas if there's anything I can do? atleast temporarily get it back up to recover some of the data? Thanks.

 

[celestialgrave]

So looking like there are three options for me to give a try:
Force the platters to move
Put the drive in the freezer
Swap PCB

 

[celestialgrave]

So I started with forcing the platter to move and plugged it back in. Voila it powered up, however my computer still won't see it. Plugged it into my other desktop and appears with no issue so I'm backing it up now.
Now I started to think what could be the issue. The hdd in question is a WD3200JD, an older sata I drive and while it did not have a problem at first on my newer computer that I just installed an SSD on it does now and now I'm wondering if the issue is because this time when I install Win7 I set everything to AHCI. Never even thought beforehand about compatibility issues of my hdd's. What do you guys think? Could it have been a compatibility issue that caused a freak side effect of having the hdd park and not power back up until I forced the platters to move?

 

[VirtualLarry]

When you say "Forced the platters to move" - did you physically disassemble the HD?

 

[celestialgrave]

No, I read that doing a "violent" frisbee motion will move them and indeed it did. I didn't think it took too much force in the motion to get the platters to move, but definitely heard the low whir of the platter.

 

[celestialgrave]

Think I shot my own theory down. After backing up the "bad" drive, I put it back in the current computer and so far its powering up and being recognized just fine, though I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it. Any ideas? Think a couple weeks of downtime simply had the head(s) stuck and the motor couldn't overcome the friction until I broke it loose?

 

[VirtualLarry]

There is something called "sticktion", where the heads stick to the platters. Generally though, on modern drives, there is a laser-textured "landing zone" where the heads rest, so this isn't supposed to happen.

Another thing could be that the motor bearing grease dries out, causing the platters to not want to spin.