Harddrive Problem

I have a harddrive, a seagate barracuda 7200.7, model st3120022a, that stopped working. I was doing a routine virus scan and got a blue screen (I'm using XP, so this was abnormal), and the drive was broken. It wouldn't detect it in bios, and the drive was spinning and clicking periodically. Same thing on a different computer. I figured the controller board had gone bad, so I bought an identical working drive and switched out boards, and still the same thing. Since I could hear the platters spinning, I knew they weren't locked up, but the periodic clicking got me thinking that the heads were possibly stuck on something (made sense at the time, I don't know why). In a last ditch effort to get a few files off this drive, I opened it to see if the platter/heads were free, and both were. I know this drive is now ruined, I just hoped that the heads had gotten stuck or something, and I could get it running for a minute or two to get a couple peices of info off of it and then send it on it's way to the junk box. The heads just move out onto the platters from the center and immediately return to the center, about once a second. Now I'm just curious what could cause this? Any Ideas?

Thanks Steve

Reply to
cajuncalibration
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For most drives, the read amplifier (a chip) is inside the sealed enclosure (not for environmental protection; to get it as close as possible to the heads). If it has failed, changing out the main board won't help. Look for it soldered to the orange flexible circuit "board" that exits the enclosure.

Isaac

Reply to
Isaac Wingfield

Probably the head amplifier chip on the head assembly failed, or it could be one of the heads itself. I've had some luck putting drives with this problem in the freezer for a few hours then powering them up to copy the data off, now that you've opened it it might be too late though.

Reply to
James Sweet

Just tried freezing it, of course it didn't work, I'm sure the drive is totally gone now. Anyway, worth a shot.

Steve

Reply to
cajuncalibration

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