Any hope for this hard drive?

[sidewinder]

One of our deputy heads has had a problem with their laptop - when booting up no HD is detected. Took it out and attached to several SATA-USB converters and listened closely - it spins up briefly then immediately powers down. It doesn't even start being recognised by the computer. No clicks or anything, just the whirring then power down.

 

The staff member said after it first went, it worked again for a few days, then stopped. Also they say they have not dropped the laptop and I have no reason to disbelieve them as there is no sign of any impact damage.

 

Is there likely to be any hope of fixing this myself or is it professional recovery only? I presume the data itself is ok, but the motor or logic board are faulty?

 

It's an Hitachi HTS545032B9A300 manufactured in Feb 2010

Edited March 13, 2013 by sidewinder

[laserblazer]

Not a big deal because everything will be backed up.

 

If you have an identical drive, you can try swapping the boards over.

 

Something else you could try is to stick the drive on a radiator to get nice and warm, then try it.

[sidewinder]

Not been able to find another one so far among our spares, which is annoying. Will try the warming up

 

Not a big deal because everything will be backed up.

 

*chuckle*

In fairness, while they want the data back they arn't too up in arms about it. If I can't fix it I'll get a quote for recovery and it's up to the bursar whether the school shells out or the staff member concerned. Personally I'd get them to pay - they had remote access so didnt need to keep anything on there, but it's not my decision.

[sonofsanta]

If warming up doesn't work, sticking it in the freezer sometimes does (it has for us)

[chazzy2501]

Warming is for fixing bad bearings (use a hairdryer), cooling for iffy logic boards (freezer, in a bag!).

 

if it's a bad bearing the harddrive will kick as it powers up. Also (I've never tried this) you could cook (200c for 10 mins) the logic board (only the logic board!) if you suspect a solder joint issue. But at that point you've already given up.

Edited March 13, 2013 by chazzy2501
extra info

[3s-gtech]

Yeah, sounds like a dead board. Surprisingly easy to fix, but you need the same drive and possibly also the same firmware revision for it.