Hdd dead. Recovery Possible?

Mechanized82

Honorable
Sep 14, 2013
16
0
10,510
Seagate barracuda ST1500DM003 died. I replaced the PCB (with a bios swap courtesy of hdd-parts.com) and still the drive is not recognized. The computer will not even post with the hdd plugged in. It feels like the drive is spinning up when I hold it, I can feel a slight vibration. The cables are good. It makes the same repeated scratch & beep noise over and over for a while and eventually stops after minutes.

Any ideas how to fix this thing at home? I'd love to get my data back. If not, does anyone know of a reasonably priced way to either repair or retrieve the data?
 
Solution

HDD heads "fly" mere microns off the HDD surface and if a simple dust particle embeds itself in the lubricating film on the HDD's surface, it becomes equivalent to cars hitting speed bumps at 100mph... do it enough times and you destroy the car's suspension, drive train, steering or in this case, HDD heads.

Once the HDD heads are damaged, they may scrape against the platter surface and destroy it, rendering data recovery impossible - the data is physically destroyed.

As for doing this at home, most people likely do...

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
If the drive is making an on-going clicking routine, it means the HDD electronics are trying to find servo tracking information on the platters for calibration but cannot find it. This usually means the HDD heads and possibly the platters themselves are damaged. Recovery at this point would likely require putting the platters in a same-model HDD with known-good heads and hope the damaged platters don't scrap its heads before recovery is complete.
 

Mechanized82

Honorable
Sep 14, 2013
16
0
10,510
It's weird... It clicks (technically about a quarter second scratch type noise followed by more like a beeping/squeaking sound. Both of which repeat about once a second) a random number of times, sometimes once, sometimes 50. Then it will give up on that and start making almost a vibrating type noise. Then it gets quiet and maybe 5 minutes later it might click again.

This issue occurred out of nowhere. I was away from my comp, came back to a blue screen freeze. Restarted and she wouldn't post.

I only mention this because I am curious how the platters could be damaged just sitting in the computer? I never dropped it.

Anyway... is this something I could attempt at home? Any how to's on this procedure?
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator

HDD heads "fly" mere microns off the HDD surface and if a simple dust particle embeds itself in the lubricating film on the HDD's surface, it becomes equivalent to cars hitting speed bumps at 100mph... do it enough times and you destroy the car's suspension, drive train, steering or in this case, HDD heads.

Once the HDD heads are damaged, they may scrape against the platter surface and destroy it, rendering data recovery impossible - the data is physically destroyed.

As for doing this at home, most people likely do not have the equipment nor dexterity to pull this through successfully so you would likely end up causing even more damage and not recovering any data.

When drives die, your best chances of data recovery are to stuff it in an anti-static bag and send it to recovery if the data is valuable enough to justify it because by the time you run out of unsuccessful homebrew tricks and become desperate enough to pay up, the data may be mangled beyond repair.
 
Solution