Testing Western Digital Hard Drive Motor?

My experience may not be very encouraging for you. When my WD1600JB drive stopped spinning, I could also smell the release of the magic smoke from the pc board. On inspection, I saw a crater in the epoxy of the motor driver chip. It spins when I substitute a pc board from another WD1600JB drive, but it does not read back any of the recorded data. I am hoping that swapping motor driver chips will bring it back to life, but I need to learn how to do that with the surface mounted chips, and I need to find a donor pc board.

ken wrote in news:1187826207.765971.49680 @i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

The first thing to do is unplug everything and plug it back in. Sometimes, for whatever reason something doesn't sit right.

Next, try just power alone. You didn't say SATA (keyed) or 40-pin IDE (not always keyed), so it's possible the cable could be backwards. That will keep some drives from spinning up.

Puckdropper

On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:43:27 -0700, ken put finger to keyboard and composed:

Stiction? If so, then hit the metal casing with the handle of a screwdriver.

See

(n.) Short for static friction, a condition in which a hard disk drive's read/write heads become stuck to the disk?s platters with enough strength to keep the platters from spinning, resulting in hard drive failure. When a computer is turned off, its hard drive's read/write heads park on the platter's landing zones. Under normal circumstances, the heads will lift off the platter when the computer's hard drive is activated and the platters rotate. Stiction typically occurs when a computer has been turned off for long periods of time.

- Franc Zabkar

Franc Zabkar

Thanks for the Stiction tip! "If so, then hit the metal casing with the handle of a screwdriver."

Am guessing you are correct. This HD was only used as a backup so never became hot and there was never any smell.

I was afraid of doing any damage so probably did not hit the case very hard but so far hitting the metal casing with the handle of a screwdriver has done nothing.

Did some searching and found mention of hitting a wooden table with the stuck HD to free the heads. Am wondering if you have had any experience doing this?

Also is there any other way to break the stiction?

Ken

Believe Franc Zabkar is correct. As mentioned my HD was only used very infrequently for backup.

Ken

Puckdropper

"You didn't say SATA (keyed) or 40-pin IDE" It is a standard 40 pin with keyed connector.

Ken

Another trick I saw way back when was to put the drive in a plastic zip-lock bag and put it in the freezer for a day or two, then pull it out *in the bag* and let it return to room temperature before removing the bag.

On Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:38:45 -0700, ken put finger to keyboard and composed:

I've never had to hit a stuck drive any harder than with a screwdriver handle.

- Franc Zabkar

clifto wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@remote.clifto.com:

If you're interested in more solutions like this, you might want to do a Google Search for "200 ways to revive a hard drive". I'd link to a direct document, but the first two results (which are probably what you want to read) are PDFs. This way, you can use Google's "View as HTML" option if you want.

Puckdropper

Thanks for the tips!

Am wondering if anyone has tried this "Hold the drive upside down, making gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly. Vertical is also another option."

Also if the heads are sticking to the platter and the motor is not turning, how long until it burns out?

Ken

On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:15:27 -0700, ken put finger to keyboard and composed:

I'm not sure, but I would think that the drive's controller would time out after a finite number of failed attempts.

IIRC, when this happens I can hear a soft clicking sound. I use an old AT PSU for testing, and I hold the body of the drive against my ear.

- Franc Zabkar

Franc

Have been trying the suggestions like hitting and dropping the hard drive. Have not tried the freezer suggestion yet. Am wondering if can short out anything if there is moisture condensation inside it?

Thanks again for your help.

Ken

Doesn't work _now_ , does it?

Besides, the instructions for the freezer suggestion said to seal the unit in a baggie before freezing and to keep it in the sealed baggie until it warms to room temperature, so that all the condensation ends up on the outside of the baggie and not inside the drive.

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:11:58 -0700, ken put finger to keyboard and composed:

You may want to listen to these sound samples:

I have an IBM 6GB HD that used to be very quiet. However, it wouldn't spin up reliably. After a lot of frustration I gave it a good thrashing with a blunt instrument. That seemed to have cured the stiction fault, but immediately afterwards the bearings became

- Franc Zabkar

If your goal is to retrieve data from the drive you can remove the cover and try to spin the platter with a finger. If this works the drive will run without a cover more than long enough to get your data as long as what prevented the drive from starting on its own. In other words removing the cover won't cause short term harm to the drive.

Franc

Thanks for the links.

Am guessing that impact is not that good for the delicate parts.

Do you or anyone else have success data for freezing HDs?

The reason I am hesitant to subject this HD to harsh treatment is that it was working fine when I put it in storage.

Am now thinking that it could be a power contact problem? Will corroded contacts or poor power contacts give this type of symptom? I have never head any motor noise of any kind. What do you think?

Ken