Question Solidstate HDD Failure Question

[CRKelly]

Before everyone jumps all over me....I know the dangers of opening the drive! I already figured the data is trash, but I like to understand the "why" of things. 😁

When the HDD starts up, the disks spin fine, the read arm moves all the way across the heads to the center, then there is a beep, it goes back to home. It does this a second time, and then the drive powers down. I am wondering what condition causes this action.

Here is a link to a video of the action on YouTube.

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/CtT04tacsuo?feature=share


Thoughts?

Chris

 

[Grobe]

My guess is that the head doesn't get to read any thing. The case is already open, so this behavior is as expected at this time.

 

[CRKelly]

It was doing this before I opened the housing. It is WHY I opened the housing to begin with. The drive was no longer functional, and the sounds and function are exactly the same as before I opened it.

 

[fzabkar]

The drive's firmware is stored in two places. The "ROM" on the PCB contains the boot code and calibration data ("adaptives"). However, the majority of the firmware is in a reserved area of the platters called the System Area (SA) or Maintenance Cylinders or negative cylinders. The SA stores the SMART data, translator, defect lists, etc.

When the drive powers up, it tries to read the SA. This area can be located near the spindle, or the centre of the platter, or other places. It will make several attempts before giving up.

HDD - computer within computer:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?p=19087#p19087

 

[beyondlogic]

Before everyone jumps all over me....I know the dangers of opening the drive! I already figured the data is trash, but I like to understand the "why" of things. 😁

When the HDD starts up, the disks spin fine, the read arm moves all the way across the heads to the center, then there is a beep, it goes back to home. It does this a second time, and then the drive powers down. I am wondering what condition causes this action.

Here is a link to a video of the action on YouTube.

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/CtT04tacsuo?feature=share


Thoughts?

Chris

usually caused by vibration or a bump did you drop the drive at all ?.

 

[CRKelly]

usually caused by vibration or a bump did you drop the drive at all ?.

I didn't drop it. It was in a system and working fine until one reboot when this started happening.

 

[USAFRet]

I didn't drop it. It was in a system and working fine until one reboot when this started happening.

And, just like most other things, drives die.

Sometimes quite suddenly. And for varied reasons.

 

[CRKelly]

And, just like most other things, drives die.

Sometimes quite suddenly. And for varied reasons.

Yes, yes they do. I just like to do a good post life dissection to figure out exactly this particular failure happened. The more you know right? 😁