www.deadharddrive.com

Nir · Active contributor Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 5

First of all I want to say what a relief it is to find a forum dedicated to failing hard drives, I read alot of posts hear and learned alot, while also learning that there are good, knowlegable people helping here.
so forgive me for a long post, cause I throwed every information I have about the case.

what happened :
problem happened a week ago.
I came back from work to discover "clicks" coming from my NAS.
I immidiatly took the failing disk out and connected it to my desktop, trying to extract some data from it, but without success, the BIOS doesn't recognise it.
after admiting the failure 2 hours later, I've turned the NAS back on to try and see how windows reacts without one of it's disks, only to discover another Hard-Disk giving the same clicks (it hasn't before, i'm sure about it), both disks same model.

it really looks to much to be coincidence, both drives operating for 1 and a half years without a hitch, finally to drop dead on the same day ??

what did I try this far :
I took the drives to the a DR company, hoped I could afford the recovery, their diagnostics is that Drive#1 suffers from mechanical head issue, and the other (Drive#2) suffers from electronic board issue.
they asked for $2.5k for head replacement, and 500$ for the PCB replacement.

I had to decline, got a family to feed so I figured i'll have to try a DIY repair.

I've been reading alot and watching head replacement videos, and planning on practicing on dummy hard-drives before I go to the actual drive, but first I wanted to make sure there really is a mechanical issue,
so I bought a donor drive for a PCB Replacement.

after buying it I noticed some diffrences, here are some more details :

Donor Drive :
Model - ST31500341AS
P/N : 9J4138-302
Firmware : CC1H
Date Code : 10472
Site Code : TK
PCB# 100530699
MCU : LSI, #B5504A

Failing Disk 1 :
Model - ST31500341AS
P/N : 9J4138-300
Firmware : SD1B (upgraded from SD17 a year ago)
Date Code : 09117
Site Code : TK
PCB# 100512585
MCU : ST V723A

Failing Disk 2 :
Model - ST31500341AS
P/N : 9J4138-300
Firmware : SD1B (upgraded from CC17 a year ago)
Date Code : 09117
Site Code : TK
PCB# 100512585
MCU : ST V723A

I made the switch anyhow, Drive# 1 remained with the same clicking sounds, same intervals.
Drive# 2 didn't seem to like to new PCB at all - the clicks were followed by a new sound I never heard.
so my guess this Donor PCB is useless for these tries.

next thing I tried is switching between Drive#1 and Drive#2 PCB's, results is exactly the same as about, Drive#1 had same clicks, Drive#2 and the new sound attached after the clicks.

before I do any more damage than good, I thought I should ask you folks what's your opinion on the issue.
should I try again and look for a more suitable PCB's ? or is that problem seems like a head issue ?

I can upload the PCB's images (front & back) and also take a video that shows the noises if that might help.

Appreciate any help I can get.
thanks

Edit : forgot to mention, the two disks are part of a software raid (spanned volume under W7) that consists a total of 5 drives, so even though repairing 1 drive for 500$ sound like a deal, it won't do me any good without the other drive, since all my raid is corruped without a single drive (yea I know - silly me)

harddrivespecialist · Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 5:34 pm Post subject:

Wow!
$500.00 for PCB repair is a lot.
$2500.00 is steep also, but if it includes RAID reconstruction, it might be close to average prices on a market, if it does not include reconstructing your RAID its higher then average. Unless there is a lot of physical damages on a platters itself.

That noise that you hear after clicking, is it squeaky or more like metal scratching noise?

Those drives have adaptive data stored on a PCB, which is unique to a drive itself. You have to make sure PCB is attached to correct drive.

Unfortunately, I don't think DIY will be beneficial to you, more damages are likely to be done to your drives.

You can try to find reputable Data Recovery company which will charge less for recovery or simply move on with your life (it might save you aggravation, time and money).
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Nir · Active contributor Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 5

harddrivespecialist · Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 6:01 pm Post subject:

Nir · Active contributor Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 5

I guess they are quite diffrent since the MCU is a diffrent MFG, but worth a try, my better camera should be here tommorow, these Images taken using my Mobile, if it isn't clear enough I'll upload new ones tommorow,

Drive 1 Original PCB :

http://picasaweb.google.com/100788126275650964918/PCBCards#5493454492166202786

Drive 2 Original PCB :

http://picasaweb.google.com/100788126275650964918/PCBCards#5493454518788264098

Donor Disk :
http://picasaweb.google.com/100788126275650964918/PCBCards#5493454560041635634

appreciate the help Smile

harddrivespecialist · Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 6:32 pm Post subject:

2 of the original boards are the same, you can swap EEPROM between them and see results.
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Nir · Active contributor Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 5

thought about that, but since I have no way of telling if the PCB's are "working" I havn't tried that yet.

I'll order an hot-air gun right away..
hmm, can you Identify which chip is the eeprom ? or do you need higher-res photos for that ?

Edit - returned you a PM

harddrivespecialist · Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:43 pm Post subject:

I have to find a similar drive to point EEPROM for you.
Will get back to you later.
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Nir · Active contributor Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 5

I think I found that one out.
it's the 8 pin chip that's closest to the power supply connection.

the real hard task now is to find the correct PCB's

corbingravely · Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:45 am Post subject:

If you have a Seagate, then you don’t need to be worried at all. Even if it is out of warranty, they will be willing to change the whole thing for you if it has only been some months after the warranty period.

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