Broken Seagate 3TB Hard Drive - Arm Moves Back and Forth, Beeps

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mrkoczwa

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Nov 2, 2015
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I'll try to keep this as short as possible. My Seagate 3TB external hard drive of two years started making noises and Windows would recognize it as a bad drive. I have quite a few files on here that I need, so I'm trying whatever I can to fix it without having to pay over $500 to send it in.

I've tried recovering through programs, no luck. I've taken the hard drive out of the external no, luck. I opened the hard drive up to see if the arm was stuck, it was in the correct position. Now I'm considering replacing the arm and head, but I wanted to see if anyone can recognize the problem before I try to anything else. I took of video of the hard drive uncovered as it turns on.

The arm moves halfway twice, beeping each time, then makes a final move all the way to the center, beeps, then the entire thing shuts off.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkz3DT33NQo"][/video]

I'll take any advice or suggestions I can take. I've also heard of freezing the thing, but yikes, that sounds like a very last resort.
 
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glamdringfh

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Dec 23, 2013
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You very well might have already damaged the drive so badly by opening it up and tinkering that even professionals couldn't help you. The only time a hard drive should be opened is in a clean room.

At this point the best bet for getting your important data back is to send it to a profesisonal. If you continue to try and repair the internal components yourself you are only lessening any chance you have left of recovering your data.

I know it is expensive, but if the data is really important sending the drive off is by far and away the best chance you have of getting your data back now.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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What "facts" are you basing that off of? The Backblaze data? The results from that testing is so irrelevant to real world normal user use I can't even begin to quantify it. Unreliable is the only way to effectively regard those "test results". I've seen no other data that would indicate Seagate 3TB, or any other drives, have the "highest failure rates". Drives fail. ALL drives fail. Ten drives from one series might fail within months while others of the same model last ten years. There is no realistic method for making long term comparisons.
 
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eggbrook

eggbrook

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Alright now that the drive has been opened and the disk has been exposed to the open air, that drive cannot be used again. Those drives are assembled in clean rooms, the slightest spec of dust on that disc can disrupt the drive. So now that it's been opened, you need a new drive. There are professional services to restore data from hard drives, but they are usually thousands of dollars.
 
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Solandri

Solandri

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Jan 4, 2012
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The loud roaring sounds like a bad bearing. If the friction from it is preventing the motor from spinning the drive at a consistent speed, it will shut down. Bearings are normally a simple fix for a professional data recovery service. However, as you've opened up the drive, you've increased the chance of data loss.

Also, the air filter in your drive flew off at 0:14 (white thing in lower right corner). Do not turn the drive on again. Send it directly to a professional recovery service and explain that you've opened it, and that the air filter flew off. I would not put the filter back since it probably fell on the ground and picked up dust and dirt.
 
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jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

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Oct 5, 2007
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When I worked in a repair shop we had a ton of Hitachis that failed. It is really luck of the draw but I will say the Seagate 3TBs had a higher failure rate than their 2 or 4TB HDDs.

OP, you pretty much screwed yourself. You never open a drive as any dust can damage the platters. Only in a clean room can they be opened and data recovered. You can attempt to have a professional try to recover data but the chances just went from very possible to almost impossible.

What you have is a mechanical failure. The arm or spindle is probably what failed but the platters (before being opened) probably still had all the data on it and was probably recoverable. Now you run a big chance that nothing will be recoverable.
 
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mrkoczwa

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Nov 2, 2015
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Thank you for the replies everyone. I understand the major risks of opening up the hard drive, but I already decided that I will not be seeking professional help for my hard drive and that if it's dead, I might as well tinker with whatever I can.

But I guess my question now is not whether or not the data can be recovered, but what is the source of the problem. Based on the video, what does it mean that the arm moves back and forth like that? What about the beeps, do they signify anything?

So far I have two suggestions as to what the problem might be. Solandri says it sounds like a bad bearing, while jimmysmitty says this could be a problem with the spindle. Any more suggestions or ideas as to what is causing this problem would be much appreciated!
 
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jsmithepa

jsmithepa

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Jun 14, 2014
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I dunno if we are as interested as you are as to the precise cause of the problem, as these things are finely calibrated, and implicitly suggested, not user-seaviceable.

The reason the arm moves back&forth is because the arm was giving a command to seek to a location, it does that, but reading stuff at that location, the rw head gets garbage or something it doesn't recognize, so the firmware issues a RETRY command which does a reset and brings the RW head to its home location, then the cycle repeats.

No idea about the beep, but sounds ominous.
 
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jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

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Listened to it again. It has to be the arm. The way it moves it sounds like the arm is trying to move to a certain place and is unable to. It could be a bearing in the arm or anything. It is honestly hard to say and replacing it is near impossible by a user, the calibration it takes it very hard. The only thing I have ever replaced on a HDD successfully was the PCB board with one from an exact model and firmware version. It worked but that is just a few screws. Those heads need to be properly aligned with very advanced equipment.
 
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Gregmwex

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May 9, 2017
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people i am facing the same thing mine droped and its producing same sound.have not openned yet wat can i do
 
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ssmusic

Mar 30, 2018
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I have sort of the same problem. Except mine never reaches the platters, it's stuck in its initial position for some time, then it spins down. I don't know whether to get a similar disk and replace the headers or the PCB. And no, I'm not afraid of doing so without the clean room and whatnot. You HDD-repair-police won't lose your livelihood because of a few DIY guys.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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It's dead.
Replace under warranty for free, or replace with your own $$
Recover your data from your backup.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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And it has nothing to do with being HDD "police". People "say" it needs to be done a certain way, or that it "can't" be done, because those are the facts. You can't fly an airplane without wings and you can't open a hard drive up and expose the platters, and expect it to still work, without a clean room. And the knowledge to know what you are doing. And several thousand dollars worth of equipment. If you "could", then we "would". Period.

Also, thanks for necroing a thread from three years ago. Let's not do that anymore, shall we. Thanks.
 
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