Hard drive click of death

[Fud]

I pulled an old WD 40 gig caviar off another computer and plugged it into the usb adapter to another computer. It would not spin up at all and the jumpers are set to mastor. I wouldn't make a sound at all so i found a matching drive on egay and swapped them. Then it would start to spin up then the clicking started. I read and tried everything from freezing it to puting it the oven to unlock the heads with no luck so far. Even tried jarring it while unplgged and nothinging. From all i have read those three things worked sometimes and sometimes not.

Has anyone tried a different method and it worked? I know you can't open it up or it'sgone for sure even with one micron of dust getting in and not willing to pay a huge fee to a lab that can't even guarantee they can get it all. Another drive i'm trying to rescue will spin up but it's invisible. So i took it to a guy and he said he could read .jpg on it and .avi but said it would take about 14 hrs to recover it. So i looked at his screen and he was using easy recovery. I don't know what he used before that to make the drive even visible at first. The second drive has no clicking at all. Anyone had that happend and able to find the drive? I tried partition magic and it didn't show up there either.

Would hate to lose data on two drives that is really old and don't even know whats on them really cept for some old programs which can be replaced but not the pictures.

Dumb me didn't back them up long time ago so it's my fault really.

But the one that spins up must have some hope i think.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[kc8adu]

Re: Hard drive click of death

swapped what?
the boards?
if so and it now spins but clicks you have to swap the eepron from the old board.
as for the invisible one there are many logical recovery softwares out there.getdataback,rstudio,a-ff,ect.

[t.j.]

Re: Hard drive click of death

;when worken on drives best to hook them straight to comp! more luck that way then in an enclosure!

[selldoor]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Are you on windows 7?

Apparently there are some glitches in Win7 regarding drive assignment. One of these is that if you use a
memory stick or camera or sd reader it assigns a letter to that - say G. Next time you add a disk it still assigns G and it is looking for whatever was plugged in last.

Perhaps changing the letter as follows will help.

You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

Open Computer by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Computer.

You can change, add, or remove a drive letter by using Computer Management.

1. Open Computer Management by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Computer Management. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

2. In the Navigation pane, click Disk Management.

3. Right-click the partition or drive that you want to change, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

4. Do one of the following:

•To assign a drive letter if one has not already been assigned, click Add, click the letter that you want to use, and then click OK.

•To change a drive letter, click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the letter that you want to use, and then click OK.

•To remove a drive letter, click Remove, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to remove it...

[Fud]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Swaped the logic board on the bottom the PCB, then at least it started to be recognized cept for the clicking over and over. If that eepron is inside the case it can't be done. Even if a speck of dust gets in then it's gone for good. In other words the old board on it actied like it wasn't even plugged in, the new used one i put in as least some signes of life. Also it's not in an enclosure just plugged into a USB dongle made for just that purpose.

swapped what?
the boards?
if so and it now spins but clicks you have to swap the eepron from the old board.
as for the invisible one there are many logical recovery softwares out there.getdataback,rstudio,a-ff,ect.

[Fud]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Selldoor the usb dongle works just fine on other drives in windows or linux, the click of death is a common problem. Some people have had luck with freezing them or heating them and even dropping them to unlock the heads. Was wondering who had the best luck using what method of getting it to work long enough to pull the data off then throw it away.

Are you on windows 7?

Apparently there are some glitches in Win7 regarding drive assignment. One of these is that if you use a
memory stick or camera or sd reader it assigns a letter to that - say G. Next time you add a disk it still assigns G and it is looking for whatever was plugged in last.

Perhaps changing the letter as follows will help.

You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

Open Computer by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Computer.

You can change, add, or remove a drive letter by using Computer Management.

1. Open Computer Management by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Computer Management. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

2. In the Navigation pane, click Disk Management.

3. Right-click the partition or drive that you want to change, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

4. Do one of the following:

•To assign a drive letter if one has not already been assigned, click Add, click the letter that you want to use, and then click OK.

•To change a drive letter, click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the letter that you want to use, and then click OK.

•To remove a drive letter, click Remove, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to remove it...

[selldoor]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Selldoor the usb dongle works just fine on other drives in windows or linux

I didnt say it wouldnt, what I am saying is that if you are using windows 7
windows 7 sometimes remembers that the last thing you plugged into the usb socket.
So if before you plugged in the dongle you plugged in a SD card reader and it assigned that as drive X, the next thing you plug in it still assigns as drive X
as the next logical drive. It remembers Drive X was a SD Card Reader regardless of what you plugged in (USB Dongle) and when it cant find a SD Card reader on Drive X it just bottles it.

, the click of death is a common problem. .

Yes I am quite aware of that thanks.

[momaka]

Re: Hard drive click of death

I read and tried everything from freezing it to puting it the oven to unlock the heads with no luck so far. Even tried jarring it while unplgged and nothinging. From all i have read those three things worked sometimes and sometimes not.

These are actually some of the best methods to fuck up an otherwise recoverable hard drive. DON'T EVER PERFORM THESE METHODS. The only trick that actually *may* work sometimes is if the heads are stuck to the platter and you gently whack the drive. But again, even that makes the risk of destroying the HDD bigger.

The problem with your HDD is likely a bad board since you say that with the new board it spins up now. Like KC said, you need to swap the firmware chip from the old board to the new one.

I know you can't open it up or it'sgone for sure even with one micron of dust getting in

You CAN open it. However, it just won't work for very long, especially if the room is dusty. I was given a PS3 HDD with stuck heads. No way to get them unstuck other than opening the drive. After I finally forced the heads unstuck, the HDD got recognized by Windows. I didn't really care about the data on it, so I formatted it. It worked fine for 1 hour. Actually, it would have worked much longer if I didn't do a full drive scan that many times (I did 3 and then a benchmark test, and that killed it).

[Fud]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Actually with the original board it didn't make a sound at all as if it wasn't even plugged in. The replacement board from an identical drive it tries to spin up then click shutdown tries again then click about once every second. My last resort will be to open it up then if that doesn't get it unstuck see if the platter can be taken out and put in the other one. Sounds like 1 in a hundred chance of working doesn't it.

These are actually some of the best methods to fuck up an otherwise recoverable hard drive. DON'T EVER PERFORM THESE METHODS. The only trick that actually *may* work sometimes is if the heads are stuck to the platter and you gently whack the drive. But again, even that makes the risk of destroying the HDD bigger.

The problem with your HDD is likely a bad board since you say that with the new board it spins up now. Like KC said, you need to swap the firmware chip from the old board to the new one.


You CAN open it. However, it just won't work for very long, especially if the room is dusty. I was given a PS3 HDD with stuck heads. No way to get them unstuck other than opening the drive. After I finally forced the heads unstuck, the HDD got recognized by Windows. I didn't really care about the data on it, so I formatted it. It worked fine for 1 hour. Actually, it would have worked much longer if I didn't do a full drive scan that many times (I did 3 and then a benchmark test, and that killed it).

[Fud]

How did you get them unstuck

After opening the case what did you use a plastic stick while it was on or off? I may have to try that as a last resort. And exactly what did you do pry it somehow or nudge it?

You CAN open it. However, it just won't work for very long, especially if the room is dusty. I was given a PS3 HDD with stuck heads. No way to get them unstuck other than opening the drive. After I finally forced the heads unstuck, the HDD got recognized by Windows. I didn't really care about the data on it, so I formatted it. It worked fine for 1 hour. Actually, it would have worked much longer if I didn't do a full drive scan that many times (I did 3 and then a benchmark test, and that killed it).

[momaka]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Well, let me repeat this again: if you can hear the hard drive spin up (you may have to put it close to your ear if it's a very quiet HDD) - DO NOT OPEN IT.
Swapping the boards and the HDD comming back to (some) form of life suggests that the issue was with the board itself and not the HDD being stuck (if the HDD was stuck, both boards would do the same thing).

So re-evaluate your HDD and go from there.

If you do need to open the HDD, do it this way:
1) remove all screws first. There may be (usually is) a hidden screw under the sticker - make sure to unscrew that one as well.
2) Turn and hold the hard drive upside down. Now try removing the top cover. If it doesn't want to come off, use a small screwdriver to pry the cover on the corners of the hard drive. DO NOT stick the screw driver in too much - just a few millimeters at most (no more than 1/8"). It shouldn't require much force.
3) Once the cover is removed, take some pictures of the platters and post them here. Try to keep the hard drive upside down or at least vertically positioned. The reason behind this is to keep dust from sticking to the platters as much as possible. Also, DO NOT touch the platters.

Once you take the pictures, close the hard drive (even if you see dust on the platters) and just don't power it on until you have posted the pictures here. That way we can see if there's anything wrong with the hard drive before you try to do anything to it.

[Fud]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Ok here is the pic, i had the camera ready and it was only open for a few seconds. Not sure if i explained it right but with the original logic board on it, it didn't make a sound at all none even a peep, no spin at all. The replacement logic board from a sacrifice drive which does work on that one when swapped then it tries to power up but with the clicks, like off on off on . So the old logic board wasn't working then it's two things now with the inards being stuck.

On edit. The logic board works perfectly fine on the sacrifice drive which is empty and bought just for the board.

Well, let me repeat this again: if you can hear the hard drive spin up (you may have to put it close to your ear if it's a very quiet HDD) - DO NOT OPEN IT.
Swapping the boards and the HDD comming back to (some) form of life suggests that the issue was with the board itself and not the HDD being stuck (if the HDD was stuck, both boards would do the same thing).

So re-evaluate your HDD and go from there.

If you do need to open the HDD, do it this way:
1) remove all screws first. There may be (usually is) a hidden screw under the sticker - make sure to unscrew that one as well.
2) Turn and hold the hard drive upside down. Now try removing the top cover. If it doesn't want to come off, use a small screwdriver to pry the cover on the corners of the hard drive. DO NOT stick the screw driver in too much - just a few millimeters at most (no more than 1/8"). It shouldn't require much force.
3) Once the cover is removed, take some pictures of the platters and post them here. Try to keep the hard drive upside down or at least vertically positioned. The reason behind this is to keep dust from sticking to the platters as much as possible. Also, DO NOT touch the platters.

Once you take the pictures, close the hard drive (even if you see dust on the platters) and just don't power it on until you have posted the pictures here. That way we can see if there's anything wrong with the hard drive before you try to do anything to it.

[momaka]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Ok here is the pic, i had the camera ready and it was only open for a few seconds. Not sure if i explained it right but with the original logic board on it, it didn't make a sound at all none even a peep, no spin at all. The replacement logic board from a sacrifice drive which does work on that one when swapped then it tries to power up but with the clicks, like off on off on . So the old logic board wasn't working then it's two things now with the inards being stuck.

Try the old board on the new drive and see if it spins up. There could have been just loose contacts between the original board on your drive and the drive itself.

If the new drive doesn't spin and doesn't make any noise, then your old board is indeed bad.

In any case, the new board in your drive may not work without also swapping the firmware chip on it with the chip on your old board.

Now that you have the new board in your hard drive, open it (again, upside down) and power it on very very briefly - you just want to see if it tries to spin. As soon as you see the disk start spinning, make sure to cut power quickly. Some hard drives do not work well without their top covers and can damage their heads. If the HDD turns, then you know the heads aren't stuck. If it doesn't turn, see if you can move the heads or if they feel like they are stuck to the platter. Be very careful with this - one fingerprint on the disk and you may not be able to recover your data.

If the heads feel stuck, let me know.

[Scenic]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Removing the lid on those WD drives instantly makes them unusable, as the arm with the heads on is mounted to the cover (the hole in the label).
Without the right torque on that screw, the drive won't read any data reliably or at all, even if everything else is working fine.

Congrats! You've ruined the drive even further.
Consider it FUBAR'd.

[Mad_Professor]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Removing the lid on those WD drives instantly makes them unusable, as the arm with the heads on is mounted to the cover (the hole in the label).
Without the right torque on that screw, the drive won't read any data reliably or at all, even if everything else is working fine.

Congrats! You've ruined the drive even further.
Consider it FUBAR'd.

Not too mention dust and particles getting on the platters.

[Fud]

Oh well

I knew opening it up was a last resort after nothing else worked at all. So what is the worst that can happen it's beyond repair and it's not going to a lab for 40 gigs and pay a fortune for that...oh and thanks for telling me that the screw to the arm has to be a certain torque or it wont work with the lid back on. So now i have to buy a special little torque wrench just for this crappy hard drive now

Oh well at least I can learn how the innards work a bit more and why the arm is stuck to the middle spindle.

Stupid me years ago thought hey why not take the platter out and put it in the cd rom and read it. Sounds dumb but that came to mind then lol.

[Scenic]

Re: Oh well

So now i have to buy a special little torque wrench just for this crappy hard drive now

That's not even the problem.. the problem is that you don't know the torque specs, so even if you had a torque wrench for it, it would still be useless :|

[Fud]

Re: Oh well

Really that's true i don't know the torque specs on some little screw. Do you know the torque specs on every valve cover gasket? No you do not and I know you don't. You don't have to be that condescending really.

That's not even the problem.. the problem is that you don't know the torque specs, so even if you had a torque wrench for it, it would still be useless :|

[kc8adu]

Re: Hard drive click of death

problem is that the drive is slapped together and then goes to the servo writer.since you removed the screw the post the head stack pivots on has moved slightly.but you didnt need to open this drive!
if you posted pics we could have talked you through moving the serial eeprom containing the unique data for that drive.
then again the preamp could have died in the event that caused the failure.

[Fud]

Re: Hard drive click of death

Where exactly is the eeprom chip, after looking all over the web i couldn't find which one it is. And looking with a magnifying glass i couldn't tell either.

And since I might have hosed it after opening it up when told I should open it up I figure it's worth a try changing the chip and maybe i can tighten the screw just right maybe, If not I'll learn something anyway and will tell others not to open it unless they just want the magnets. Changed the image to one that is like mine exactly.