| Author |
I need hard drive repair advice!!
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| oniebi 2003-10-17, 5:38 pm |
| I have a hard drive here which is not being recognized at startup, or by Windows (98, 98se and XP)in any of the three systems I've intalled it in. It makes a little noise in the beginning and I can feel it running so I know it's spinning. I'm about to swap the card on the drive and was wondering if anyone has any advice to give me about this. The drive is a 1 Gig Fujitsu M1614TAU made in 1996. I am buying an identical drive and am going to swap the guts if I have to but will first try the card. If anyone has any advice about any of these procedures or knows of any tricks to get data off this drive without disassembling it please reply! Thanks!! | |
| gauji 2003-10-17, 10:21 pm |
| Try to download fujitsu for analysing the disk before you try to replace the pcb on the drive because it propably wont work anyway and could damage the drive further more. | |
| Gundyman 2003-10-19, 1:10 pm |
| I would just get a new HD.
Have you try to install on other PC? | |
| oniebi 2003-10-20, 3:16 am |
| quote:
Originally posted by Gundyman
I would just get a new HD.
Have you try to install on other PC?
I've tried it in three systems..None of them recognize it at any point...I've got an identical drive coming on Monday or Tuesday, I need the data off this dead drive... | |
| oniebi 2003-10-20, 3:22 am |
| quote:
Originally posted by gauji
Try to download fujitsu for analysing the disk before you try to replace the pcb on the drive because it propably wont work anyway and could damage the drive further more.
I can't read this drive or even prove its existence at any point in startup or by any of three different machines with three different OS's...I've got an identical drive coming on Monday or Tuesday, I need the data off this dead drive so if anyone knows any tips or tricks I would be eternally grateful... Incidentally this drive just died while running a screensaver....there was no shock or impact of any kind...one minute Win95 and the next a primary hard drive failure screen and that was the last time the drive was recognized by any system. | |
| oniebi 2003-10-26, 3:02 am |
| Hi all,
Just thought I'd let you know I swapped in a new card and the drive stayed dead... It's gone to the pros now but apparently looks like a mechanical or electrical failure inside the drive itself. Very tricky because it still spins, and does seem to function...anyway we will see. Thanks for all the good advice everyone and I'll post as soon as I get word from the shop... | |
| azimuth40 2003-10-26, 9:02 am |
| There is nothing inside the drive except the head drivers, generally one tiny chip. That should not make it report anything on the interface. Very strange? | |
| WPFossil 2003-10-29, 4:25 pm |
| You may be able to use it as a slave drive after you install the new drive. If you've already tried that, go with the Fujitsu software analysis that Gauji suggested. | |
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| Did you hear the drive spinn up at boot time,
if it didnt the motor could be dead or the ribbon inside the drive that connects the heads to the board could be broken. | |
| oniebi 2003-10-31, 5:05 am |
| I tried the sotware but the system never recognized the drive. I no longer have and am waiting to hear what it was but I could feel it spinning in my hand so maybe it was a broken arm or armature part/chip. I'll let you guys know as soon as I find out!! Thanks again!! | |
| DaDnDe 2003-11-08, 10:19 pm |
| it makes noise on spin up... u can feel it run?? oh my.... 1 GB drive... whoa...cant toss that... that would be at least 5 bucks... well not that much...
if you can feel it run, then the bearings are on the way out... most HD run with a head clearance as low as 7 microns. to give u a reference, smoke particles from cigarettes are about 20 microns. ok that means there is no tolerance for vibration. basically u are running on borrowed time, IF your time isnt already up. | |
| oniebi 2003-11-09, 3:32 am |
| It's the data on the drive the client wants the drive itself is virtually worthless. I'll let you guys know what happens. | |
| DaDnDe 2003-11-09, 1:45 pm |
| ok i c, so u are not trying to salvage the drive. ok well then, u can pay some one to recover the info from the drive even if it is dead.
your problem is that the drive has bad sectors on it. No problem u say... well that depends. the drive spins up on boot but doesnt read means that the FAT is damaged. damaged FAT means that for all intensive purposes, the drive is garbage. if the data is real valuable, then there are companies that do nothing but recover data from failed hard drives. for the most part, barring catstrophic physical shock, they can recover any drive. i saw a show where they recovered data from a drive that was in a fire. the circuit board was a melted mess but that didnt make any difference. the only kind of damage that isnt recoverable is from a drive that has been dropped onto a hard surface (actually its more like thrown down onto a surface. they could save a drive taht was run over by a car, but a drive tossed out the window at 60mph was gone for good)
one thing to keep in mind is that this service is done at the binary level and takes huge amounts of time to recover data and u will be charged accordingly. prices ive seen run from $500-$2500 depending on amount of data and conditions... (one drive was lost at bottom of a lake and had to be retrieved)
but since your customer is going to a P2-400, i doubt she has or is willing to spend the money. | |
| JamieOB 2003-11-23, 1:59 am |
| HAVE U TRIED CHANGING THE SYSTEM BIOS??? | |
| oniebi 2003-12-13, 3:25 am |
| I'm still not sure what happened to the drive because this guy, after a ton of work and expense on my part, is stiffing me for the bill. I'm thinking of sending in the collection department with a giant magnet!! I'll keep you guys posted!! |
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