Hard Drive Failure - How to diagnose problem

[virtual125]

I have a 6 month old 3TB Seagate 3.5" drive that's used for data storage that suddenly quit working. It will start to power up, but after about 6-7 seconds it powers off. During the 6-7 seconds there is a faint scratching noise similar to a needle moving over a vinyl record. I sent the drive to a data recovery site and they said that their shop could not fix it because it had a bad head. I asked it they had opened the drive and they said "no".

So, my question is: Based on the symptoms described above, is it probable that my drive does have a bad head? And, what does "a bad head mean"....could it just be stuck or does it have to be replaced?

Tks
Ed

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, virtual125!

Unfortunately, mechanical hard drives experience physical damage due to the moving parts inside the HDD. This, just like the data recovery company mentioned, is not something that they can fix even if they do open the drive. The good thing is that they didn't tamper with it because the HDD should still be within the warranty period if you bought it six months ago.
I'd strongly recommend you to backup any important data from it, if you can still access the contents. Afterwards, contact the manufacturer's customer support and send an RMA request. They should be able to provide you with a replacement soon enough.

Other than that, there's nothing else you can do by yourself. 🙁

Best of luck! Hope I was helpful.
SuperSoph_WD