www.deadharddrive.com

[mikemastercorp]

Hi guys,

I am sorry for my hard drive but part of I am happy that I have found your web site, so the hope is back. Here is my story:

My wife was having nice time writing forum messages and listening music from our external LaCie 320GB USB Drive when the 1 year old kiddo approached from behind and using the moment of mothers distraction, just dropped the hard drive to the printer that is about 10cm lower than the hard drive stand. After that the bad things started to happen. The harddrive was taking long time to access files (we have seen only the pictures we have there) so I have decided to switch off the hard drive and give it some time to cool down. In the evening I have noticed that Windows XP is recognizing the drive as 320GB USB External and the drivers are well installed, however when I try to access the drive, it takes me about a minute to do it. I started copying all the information as I guessed what is going to happen later but only about 70% of the pictures we have on it are safely copied to another PC. The funny thing is that I am working as an IT and I always recommend backing up the information to our clients, but when it came to my hdd, I have left it unsafely holding valuable information.

I have ran few diagnostic software I know worked my day before (hddrecovery, mhdd etc) but they returned this time no luck. So I have searched the Net for solutions and I decided as a last resort to open the hard drive. The disk is spinning but one of the heads is benched and I guess this have caused the problems. I tried to disassemble the head and I have noticed that the power connector plug is damaged (2 pins are disconnected from the plastic stand). I guess I can try to spoil them using welder but I am affray to connect this head back as this might scratch the whole hard drive. So far, I did not noticed any scratches on the disks itself which is good for the info, but currently I am looking for a head (donor) to replace the head. Here is all the info I can get from the top of the HDD:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320 Gbytes
S/N: 9QF99VET
ST3329829AS
P/N: 9BJ13G-505
Firmware: 3.AAD
Date Code: 08355
Site Code: TK
Product of Thailand
MIC STX-L3510 (B)

If anybody have idea where can I get a head for this drive or have a donor drive for sale, I am ready to buy it if the price is reasonable of course. Currently we live in Montreal, Canada.

Well I guess the waiting is the key to salvation now

Thank you all in advance guys!

P.S. According to the comments below the hard drive or just the head I am looking for could be froms 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 with xQFxxxxx in its serial number.

[mikemastercorp]

I was also thinking, what can happen if I take out the mirror disk from my damaged hard drive and place them in my other Seagate Barracuda 320GB but with different firmware and size: ST3320618AS . I know that the head probably will not be able to read the beginning/end of the disk as it is not intended to go that further (i think) but is it possible to recover at least the data that will be reachable by the heads? Or there is a difference of the FAT's etc so the drive will stay unread?

[Kit]

your donor must have sn like xQFxxxxxx. It is all. QF is code for heads in your drive. all other (Firmware, size, etc) may be anything.
swap heads in your case is very difficult, because your heads dead after hit on platers. chance is very low. You will have many bad sectors on your drive.
I advise you go to recovery company, because they have special tools for same problems and they can read disk head by head. It is way for better recovery.
Good luck.
ps i am in Toronto.

[mikemastercorp]

Thanks a lot man. I did not knew I could search for different models having QF in the SN. Now it is a lot easier to find a donor, as If looking for everything to match it was barely impossible. As a matter of fact the information on the hard drive was partly recovered before I opened it, so it is not that serious damage now. However for the sake of the practice and the good will I am still looking for anybody that have a burned disk to change the head and try to read the rest of the info. While taking out the head of the hard drive I took it propperly (looked the video in YouTube for the "pill home made tool" and it was very easy and no scratches were made visible under lens. I used really a clean environment opening the harddrive in an old plastic box with two hands sticked in it, so I believe the only thing left is to find a head replacement and place it. Even if I cant fix it, it will be a good lesson how to/not to act in the future.

Thanks again and if anybody have donors or friends with such one, I am still looking for it. Thanks everyone on the phorum for the ideas and solutions.