Hard Drive Stopped Working

thedonclark · 01-17-2006, 12:25 AM

If the motor that controls the arm inside the hard drive has burnt out (if that is possible), is there any way to replace it so i can access the information still stored on the platters.

**Barry_R** · 01-17-2006, 12:31 AM

Yes but it is very complicated. It involves having another drive of the same make and model and pulling the arm and head out of it and installing it into the bad drive. Even then there is no guarranty it will work. It is major surgery and needs to be done in a very clean environment.

There are shops that do data recovery but it is expensive.

If the drive is bad it could be the head or something else like the controller board. This is probably not something you want to mess with.

**keymaker** · 01-17-2006, 11:12 PM

barry is right. if you plan to dissect your hard drive and opening it up, you better be in clean room, i mean dust free room.

if you are not in a clean room and dust gets on the flatter, goodbye hard drive.

crazijoe · 01-18-2006, 06:14 AM

Just to give you an idea of how much a recovery center charges. I worked on an old Compaq that a friend of mine was relying on for his business. The HDD died (click o death) and I sent it in to recover the data.
2GB drive - $1400.00
They were able to recover everything off the drive.

Needless to say, he does data backups daily now.

**johnwill** · 01-18-2006, 06:21 PM

However, a home user, even if they happened to dodge the clean room bullet, would not have the equipment or parts to even attempt a data recovery. Home remedies are limited to perhaps swapping the PCB with an identical drive for electronic failures, or sticking the drive in the freezer for a couple of hours to try to get a few minutes to recover some data from the drive.

01-17-2006, 12:25 AM	#1 (permalink)
thedonclark Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 3 OS: XP	Hard Drive Stopped Working If the motor that controls the arm inside the hard drive has burnt out (if that is possible), is there any way to replace it so i can access the information still stored on the platters.

01-17-2006, 11:12 PM	#3 (permalink)
keymaker Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 1,154 OS: windows xp	barry is right. if you plan to dissect your hard drive and opening it up, you better be in clean room, i mean dust free room. if you are not in a clean room and dust gets on the flatter, goodbye hard drive. __________________ AVG Spybot SpywareBlaster Adware CCleaner Diskeeper ZoneAlarm

01-18-2006, 06:14 AM	#4 (permalink)
crazijoe Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Omaha, The Center of the Universe Posts: 7,632 OS: WinXP, Win2K3 My System	Just to give you an idea of how much a recovery center charges. I worked on an old Compaq that a friend of mine was relying on for his business. The HDD died (click o death) and I sent it in to recover the data. 2GB drive - $1400.00 They were able to recover everything off the drive. Needless to say, he does data backups daily now. __________________ Microsoft MCSA + Messaging, MVP, A+, Network+ http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...other/Help.jpg Do you want a real Republican? HDD diagnostic tools / HDD data recovery software

01-18-2006, 06:21 PM	#5 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,651 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	However, a home user, even if they happened to dodge the clean room bullet, would not have the equipment or parts to even attempt a data recovery. Home remedies are limited to perhaps swapping the PCB with an identical drive for electronic failures, or sticking the drive in the freezer for a couple of hours to try to get a few minutes to recover some data from the drive. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

01-17-2006, 12:31 AM	#2 (permalink)
Barry_R TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: California Posts: 700 OS: Win XP Home, Linux Mint My System	Yes but it is very complicated. It involves having another drive of the same make and model and pulling the arm and head out of it and installing it into the bad drive. Even then there is no guarranty it will work. It is major surgery and needs to be done in a very clean environment. There are shops that do data recovery but it is expensive. If the drive is bad it could be the head or something else like the controller board. This is probably not something you want to mess with.