[SOLVED] Arm Hitting Against Spindle, Issue Source?

[TwentyDays]

So, I have a hard drive, what happens is as follows: the arm begins to move when the drive spins up. It moves around for a couple seconds and then repeatedly slams into the center piece (the spindle). After doing that a few times, the drive slows down and stops spinning.

My guess is the drive was looking for something, couldn't find it, thus it shut itself down? However, that wouldn't explain why it was knocking into the spindle.

I'm wondering what people think the issue would be: the PCB, the arm itself, or the spindle's motor.
I'm currently at a loss.

I only need it to work for one boot considering I have many terabytes now to image this really old drive to.

inb4 dead, inb4 data recovery center. Although I'd hate to lose the drive, I've already opened it to see why it was clicking, so I'm already in "no man's land". I might as well go for broke. So, if I need to replace the PCB/arm/etc. I will do so myself.

 

[fzabkar]

It's losing control of the track servo. That usually points to a head, preamp or media fault.

 

[Zerk2012]

I hope you don't have something on the drive that can't be replaced. You might learn the hard way like me about always having data backed up.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm wondering what people think the issue would be: ...

It is a dead or dying drive.

Data protection is what you do before the thing starts acting up.

Now that you've seemingly actually opened it up....;(...all indications point to dead.

 

[TwentyDays]

It's losing control of the track servo. That usually points to a head, preamp or media fault.

Thanks for the quick response. So, if it's the head, I can just replace those (I'm pretty sure--dangerous, but doable).
For determining if the issue is the preamp, again, I could just replace the preamp?
For the media fault, that's the only one I'm confused about. The HDD should at least start up if sectors on the HDD itself are bad--it's just that the data wouldn't work, right?

Too bad I don't have a tool which allows me to see the assembly instructions executed on the board then I could, perhaps, know definitively, the issue.

I hope you don't have something on the drive that can't be replaced. You might learn the hard way like me about always having data backed up.

I could live without the "files" themselves, that's why even if the data was broken, I wouldn't care. The issue is the issue of catalog. I.e., I would at least want as many of the filenames as possible.

@USAFRet, sadly I only got my hands on 30 TB recently. Despite opening it, the issue didn't change into something worse (at least in my perception). It's still the exact same. Thus, I'm still hopeful to at least get it to work just once to image. Even if half of the sectors wind up being dead.

 

[USAFRet]

What size/make/model is this drive?

 

[TwentyDays]

@USAFRet
3.5 in. Seagate ST31000524AS. 7200.12 Firmware JC4A.

 

[USAFRet]

@USAFRet, sadly I only got my hands on 30 TB recently. Despite opening it, the issue didn't change into something worse (at least in my perception). It's still the exact same. Thus, I'm still hopeful to at least get it to work just once to image. Even if half of the sectors wind up being dead.

It was still mostly dead. By opening it up before you found the actual issue, you just made the job of a data recovery company harder.
But since you weren't going to do that anyway...

 

[fzabkar]

The heads and preamp are located on the headstack.

HDDs from the inside articles:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=16
http://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_from_inside.html

You would need a head replacement tool. Not really a first time DIY proposition ...

https://apextoollab.com/search/?search=ST31000524AS
https://hddsurgery.com/data-recovery-tools/hdds-sea-7200-12-11-10-p1-set

These drives have a serial terminal port which outputs diagnostic information. You would need a USB-TTL adapter (approx. US$5).

There is plenty of info at hddoracle.com and hddguru.com.

In short, I think your chances are extremely slim.

 

[TwentyDays]

@fzabkar Thank you for the help. Yeah, I'd been looking at that, i.e. the USB-UART thing for confirming what the errors are and, lol, yeah the ~$500 helpers for the heads. Oh well, we'll see.
I've already ordered the converter + the drive and, if my drive is already dead (and I don't plan to give it to a pro), my actions make no difference. Dead and deader are the same.
I'll keep this thread updated, even if the end result is doom. But, who knows, maybe I'll have that 1% luck and be able to say "got it to image". Honestly, I do question what happened to this drive considering I've had drives soaked in the rain while on that, although they had a bunch of bad blocks, could boot.

Oh, and as an aside which, really doesn't mean much until I see the diagnostic output, but, using StarTech's SATA -> USB converter, I see under Devices USB Mass Storage Device. In particular, under its properties I see two device funtions:
name: ST_M13FQ BL USB Device Type: Disk Drives
name: USB Mass Storage Device Type: Unviersal Serial Bus
It also shows up weirding in Disk Management as an offline drive with only 3.86 GB--not initialized. What I expected was for it to appear as, offline sure, but as a 1 TB RAW drive.

I don't know if that means my computer at least knows something is there, or if those are just the default properties are there due to the adapter.

Edit: the internet says that the above 3.86 GB just reaffirms the known, i.e. either bad heads or bad media.

 

[fzabkar]

Headstacks need to be matched. The same model may use several different preamp types. The preamp ID is reported via terminal in response to Ctrl-L.

A rule of thumb that used to work was to match the first 3 characters of the serial number. The preamp ID is a better approach.

I wish you well, but I think you are destined to fail. :-(