hd dead?

[folken]

When I turn on my machine the computer starts to search the ide chanels for a very long time and when it sees my hard drive it has a different name. It went from "Maxtor 6Y120L0" to "Maxtor CALYPSO YAR42KJZ" and after it is done searching the chanels it says primary hard disk failure. The drive doesn't make the typical railroad noises of a dead drive, it just makes the typical startup sounds (arm moving into place) and whirring. I have tried the drive in 3 other machines and I get the same result. When I try to boot off of another hard drive to run utilities on the screwed up hard drive it makes itself master even when I set the pins to slave. I have tried several different utilities on floppies including the maxtor utility but none of them see the drive. I have only had the drive for a few months so I don't see how it could die on me allready. I sure hope that I can get the data off of it some time because I had over 100gb of data on it and a lot of it was valuable data, mainly a recorces database that I have been adding to for years.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be nice.
thanks,
Folken

 

[lunitic]

Sounds like defective controller on your harddisk. You might try to attach the bad HD to the secondary IDE channel and accept it being master. Check, doublecheck the jumpering of your HD. Visually check the PCB on the harddisk, maybe some dirt short-circuited the board. A trick: put the HD in a plastic bag in the freezer for a couple of hours and then reattach it to your computer (keep it in the plastic bag to avoid consensation), you MIGHT be able to use the drive for a short time. If all else fails you could try to swap the controller with one from an *identical* drive, however don't try this if you don't feel up to it, also it will VOID your warranty (I assume your data is more valuable than a replacement drive)

 

[mbaris18]

Maybe, this is stupid question...but, can you explain me what's catch in that freezing method?! did you try that?

Greetings from Croatia!

 

[Flinx]

re the fridge thing:
I have seen one success here in the forums.

It is seen this suggestion on the net in other places.

Maybe the cold causes shinking and that unjams something or maybe it helps make an electrical connection or stops one.
Maybe the cold electronics help.

People have suggested running it upsidedown so it runs on top bearings but that wouldn't make sense in this case

Why do u use a blowtorch on a hard nut?


The loving are the daring!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Flinx on 08/29/03 08:02 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

How would replacing the card void the warranty? Most drives have the card on the bottom, exposed, with no security seal.

Also, many drives cards are compatable with many other drives, I've seen WD drives were the whole drive family had interchangable cards.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[folken]

Doing anything to modify the hardware would void the warranty. I may try it though, I am more concerned with the data on it than the warranty. I will also try the freezing thing too although I don't see how that would help. It would be cold for a short period of time but it wouldn't stay cold for long.

 

[Crashman]

I think the freezing method is used to unstick frozen drives, but I'm not sure.

As for replacing the card, if you return it with the original card, how would they know?

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[folken]

The screws that are holding the controller card on look like they have a small dot of solder on them to keep them from loosening. That would definatly tell the company that it was tampered with. I bet they wouldn't check it though, they would just go "oh, broken drive, here's a new one". That is how it has always been for every other thing I have RMAed.

 

[Crashman]

Ouch! None of my drives have had this spot of solder!

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[lunitic]

I never tried it, I just read it somewhere. It is feasible though, electronics work better when cool (less noise), especially when marginal. About the mechanical parts, I don't know. maybe the air in the drive has a higher viscosity, causing the head to float a little higher. Maybe something else. But even if there is only a small chance it will rescue the data it's worth a try. The drive will stay cool only for a very short time, maybe its worth a try to pack it in ice-packs? (just avoid condensation to touch electronics)

I was lucky: I lost several hdds but never lost important data (I use mirrored drives and I occasionally back up) so I never needed to try the freezer trick.

 

[lunitic]

Tinkering with the hardware will technically void your warranty, but the manufacturer or dealer may not make an issue out of it or maybe not even notice it. Legally you might argue the drive was defective before you start tinkering, and you only started tinkering to rescue the data, but you'd better consult a lawyer about that.
Even unscrewing the screws which hold the electronics will leave microscopical traces from the tools used.

Interesting, the comment about the identical cards for a whole drive family. I know they look similar, but I assumed the electronics needs to know the characteristics of the drive and reads them from some ROM or something. Maybe it detects the characteristics directly from the disk? I wouldn't know, and as such I cannot recommend it. If all else fails it is worth a try...

 

[Crashman]

I work with a lot of refurbs, and the most common drive types are the WD 2xxxx and WD 3xxxx. I've successfully switched cards between different sized 2xxxx drives. I've also successfully switched cards between differnt sized 3xxxx drives. Where xxxx stands for the size part of the model number. The drives I'm refering to were from 1.2GB to 6.4GB. I've never had a pair of newer failed drives from the same family to reference to.

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