I am photographer and I have ST3400633A with all my pictures for last 1.5 year.
And drive died ((( But it looks like it is only electronics issue, coz it sounds normally, mean NO NOISE or STRANGE sounds appears. Drive just become unaccessible in couple hours: first it stops access file and then don't even show in drive manager. I tried buy same drive - to switch electronics but no luck (( Looks like nobody has it.
Do anybody has ST3400633A drive ??????
I am ready borrow, rent or buy it. I only need it for couple days, -to rescue my PICTURES. I am in Dallas,TX
Please HELP!!!

Buy a new drive, it does not have to match the current drive. Take out the old drive and then do a clean install of Windows on the new drive. Once you have Windows installed, install he old one making sure the new one is set as the boot drive in the BIOS. With any luck the old will be recognized and you can copy you files to the new one.

I've heard from an expert that about 85% of drive failures are related to the boards going bad which is sort of nice because they are very easy to replace, the hard part is often finding one. You don't just need one from the same model drive, you need one that runs the exact same firmware as your current drive. And it isn't always easy to tell which firmware you have, you just have to buy one made as close as possible to yours, but even if they're made on the same day it's not a sure thing.

Then there's the mythical freezer trick, where you place it in a bag and stick it in the freezer. There are all kinds of theories as to why this should or shouldn't work, but the anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that it does sometimes. However there is some risk of ruining the drive with condensation.

If you can't fix the drive yourself, then you need to start thinking about how much you need your data, because a professional recovery service WILL get it back, but of course at astronomical prices.

Hope this helps.

Firmware is listed on HDD Sticker
But question is - WHERE can i buy same drive????????
Any advices?

Here is a list of places that reportedly sell that dirve
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/ [...] /14033168/

I must be missing something because I do not understand why you want the exact drive, which per the above is really expensive. You do not need an identical drive to either copy files to it or to mirror it.

Um? g-paw, I think the OP wants to swap the electronics to attempt data recovery from the old drive...

Gleb, have you tried eBay? there are a number of these drives currently listed, some at $200+, some at $4,000+ (??) an older (used) drive may have a better chance of matching the original firmware build.

Just an idea...

Another reason backups are so vital... can't express it with enough emphasis...

BACKUP! BACKUP! BACKUP!

G'luck with recovering the drive, Gleb.

I tried ebay
but they have different firmware
it doesn't work with my drive
i already bought 3 different drives - but no one has same firmare((((

Cr@p. I had the same problem. The drive stopped spinning up. I bought another drive, a ...32A model, and swapped boards. The drive still won't spin up. Also, with the board removed, I measure zero ohms across any of the three motor terminals. I must conclude that the platter motor is dead, and there is NO way to replace that.
Anyone know where I can get plans to build my own clean room? hehe
just kidding
I do really want that data back, though.