Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question
Solved

Dropped external hard drive, considering platter swap

Tags:
  • External USB
  • Hewlett Packard
  • Hard Drives
  • Homebuilt
  • External Hard Drive
Last response: in Storage
Share
September 15, 2014 11:55:57 PM

Hi all, I have an old HP Simplesave external USB hard drive that fell off the table and crashed onto a hard tiled floor. I've tried every software method to revive it since it doesn't show up in Explorer or Disk Management. All that I heard at first when I plugged it in was a a slight, brief screeching sound. In the end, since the only non-backed up data I had on the drive was about a year worth of family photos, I decided to risk it all and opened it up (yes, at home, since paying big money for data recovery would be pointless for just what I had lost).

I then noticed that the read-write arm was stuck on top of the platter surface so I carefully pulled it back into the "parked" position, closed the drive and plugged it in again.

Now I can hear the drive spinning up, but as soon as it's spinning at full speed, I can hear the arm clicking (jerking back and forth aimlessly) for around a second, followed by a small beep after which the drive goes silent.

I think I'd better consider a platter swap, in which case I'll have to obtain the exact same model of drive as a donor. But what if I can't get the exact same thing? Would it be alright to get another 3.5" 500gb hard disk for the purpose, or at least a similar model? The drive is a Western Digital WD5000KMVW, 500gb with USB port at the back (no SATA)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

More about : dropped external hard drive platter swap

September 16, 2014 12:09:53 AM

That drive is dead if you opened it outside of a clean room. Any particulate can get on the platter and its toast.
m
0
l
September 16, 2014 12:11:13 AM

Yeah, it's gone. Sorry :( 
I've done this countless times with external HDDs.
m
0
l
Related resources
September 16, 2014 12:34:34 AM

So even transplanting the platters won't help?
m
0
l
a b B Homebuilt system
September 16, 2014 1:53:26 AM

Hey, malinmva96!

If you've opened the disk cover, you've exposed the drive internals to normal "everyday air" and this basically contaminated the disk.
Each time a bit of dust gets between the head and platter, it leads to irreversible damage.
As far as changing the heads yourself, you need a clean room. You cannot do this yourself. You need to have the specific tools and knowledge for the purpose.

malinmva96 said:
So even transplanting the platters won't help?

Unfortunately, this is not possible after opening and exposing the hard drive and its components to the outer environment.

I'd recommend to take a look at some new external drives. Here are some links to the WD external storage solutions that you can consider as replacement for your bad drive. They are also USB compatible and offer even bigger storage capacity and speed:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/external/portable/
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/external/desktop/

Hope you find what you are looking for.
SuperSoph_WD
m
0
l
September 16, 2014 2:05:01 AM


SuperSoph_WD said:
Hey, malinmva96!

If you've opened the disk cover, you've exposed the drive internals to normal "everyday air" and this basically contaminated the disk.
Each time a bit of dust gets between the head and platter, it leads to irreversible damage.
As far as changing the heads yourself, you need a clean room. You cannot do this yourself. You need to have the specific tools and knowledge for the purpose.

malinmva96 said:
So even transplanting the platters won't help?

Unfortunately, this is not possible after opening and exposing the hard drive and its components to the outer environment.

I'd recommend to take a look at some new external drives. Here are some links to the WD external storage solutions that you can consider as replacement for your bad drive. They are also USB compatible and offer even bigger storage capacity and speed:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/external/portable/
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/external/desktop/

Hope you find what you are looking for.
SuperSoph_WD


Thanks alot, I've already learned from the experience and bought an Adata HD710 for frequent use :)  as well as backed up my data
But still my question is to why this guy managed to open up his hard drive at home and recover at least part of his data?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Y7BniaRXg
m
1
l
September 16, 2014 2:24:34 AM

I have the same problem.. and nobody answered what happens if someone has a broken disk and open it swap the platters with a same model disk.. does that works or not ?
I dont expect to work for ever just once so i can recover my data to a new disk :) 

I have opened an other disk and after closing him it works fine...
m
0
l

Best solution

September 16, 2014 2:39:45 AM


You have possibly destroyed the drive by scraping the heads across the platters.
Even if not, you will not need to find only another "identical" hard drive, but the firmware and other details about the drive will need to match. (That is to change the read/write heads.)
It does not sound as though a platter swap is necessary - not if the drive spins up.
There is no way on earth anyone with less than considerable experience will be able to recover this drive.

Duncan
www.retrodata.co.uk
Share
!