Should I bother attempting to repair this harddrive?

[Sauro]

I don't know if this is damage from the head scratching the platter, or if it is just a ring near the center. A similar model Diamondmax Plus 9 did not have this ring, so I'm thinking it is damage. Now I can get a replacement head, but I'm wondering if this area is really damage will anything even be recoverable? I have access to this Seagate/Maxtor recovery software if just the MBR is ruined.

Anyway - what do you guys think?

 

[CurseTheSky]

The only questioned to be asked here is whether or not there's critical data on it. If there's something irreplaceable / invaluable, send it off to a professional. If it's all stuff you can live without, take a hammer to it and buy a new hard drive.

 

[C1]

No

 

[FishAk]

This reminds me of my dad saving paper towels if they didn't get "too" dirty.

A new high speed HDD is about $0.08/Gb.

 

[Sauro]

Well I thought it was obvious that there was worthwhile data on it, but buying one of these for 20$ and attempting it is not my concern. It is simply whether or not it is going to be a futile endeavor if it is not fixable.

 

[Sauro]

But not critical enough to pay 500$+ for a professional

 

[FishAk]

But not critical enough to pay 500$+ for a professional

And obviously, not critical enough to backup to a $0.08/Gb drive either.

 

[Sauro]

When you're finished being a jackass you can find a new thread to post in. It's for a relative.

 

[FishAk]

Please don't take the criticism personally. There are many people who browse, and will in the future brows these posts. Perhaps some of them will understand how important and practical backing up is, and it will save them much grief.

 

[Blain]

* Have you ever repair a HD before?
* Is there more than a single platter?
* If there is more than one platter, do have access to the tool needed to hold the platters in position to remove them?

 

[RebateMonger]

The photo isn't terribly helpful. A Forum member, RussWinters, has hands-on experience in professional data recovery and might be able to give some advice. As Blain notes, we don't know how many platters or what the head(s) look like or what the disk model number and manufacturing date is or even what the symptoms are. Maxtors made from 2002-2005 had a bad habit of burning up their controller chip, causing the disk to fail with no damage to the platters/heads.

Hopefully somebody will help your relative to set up an automated backup system to avoid this dilemna in the future.

 

[Russwinters]

Head crashed in the parking zone, and continued to run; it may just be the top thats affected, would need to do some further checking.

*note* do not take the platters apart to look or the data is really gone


There are ways to recover this, but this is seriously work for a pro. I would expect $1000 minimum quotes for this one. When dealing with platter damage the difficult exponentially increases.


If the data isn't that important, toss it.


Regards,

 

[Sauro]

Luckily there is only one platter. I have not done this before, but like I said - it isn't too much of a money sink that I wouldn't be willing to try. I read about using a bit of packaging from medicine tablets to act as a support between the replacement head (as not to ruin them). I guess I am not looking for whether or not you all think I am personally capable of completing this as I am looking for a definitive answer to whether or not the drive is physically, and irrecoverably, damage.

Russ, if you would be so kind, what am I looking at other than the head swap?

 

[Sauro]

Also I have attempted a simple PCB swap already to no avail.

 

[Russwinters]

I am not at liberty to give the full solution, as I am under NDA.

I can tell you what you need to accomplish.


You have to limit the heads from reaching that affected area, while insuring that they do not get stuck to any other area of the platters.


This will need to be done in a ISO 100 minimum clean environment. I am assuming you have opened the drive outside of that already, so it will need to be decontaminated first.


Regards,

 

[Blain]

Either the data isn't too critical or you don't realize how much damage you can cause what's left of the HD, by playing around with it.
You shouldn't have opened the HD until you gathered the facts about repair.

 

[Sauro]

Yeah the data isn't *that* critical, and after opening it for the picture/head removal it was done in a "cleaner" room, and hit with a can of air after being open for the short time. If what Russ is saying is the only way it's going to happen..well... it doesn't look like it's going to happen as I don't have access to a clean room to work with the drive open.

Out of curiosity, and I do not seek to get information that is beyond your NDA, I am surprised that limiting the head from reaching that affected area would be a viable option. Before removing the head I observed it resting against (or seeming to be against) the center spindle (The parking zone as I believe you called it, Russ), and as it would attempt to boot up it would traverse part of the platter only to return to this starting spot (providing the all-too-familiar head-failure click). The head isn't programmed to know exactly how much space it is expecting to traverse? What happens once it reaches the ring of death?

Regardless of the outcome - thank you all for your assistance in this.

 

[Throckmorton]

AFAIK, heads park at the edge, not the center