Besides the good ideas others have suggested:
Sometimes, an expert electronics tech can replace a blown driver for the
motor, or maybe a fuse or other part? (One friend replaced one blown 39
cent transistor on a board, and ended up with a working drive, when in
your exact situation.) Sometimes a dirty contact, as others suggested.
Sometimes an International Rectifier HexFET instead of a transistor,
same basic thing but more efficient.
For stiction: I take the HDD casing, pick it up in my hand, & rotate it
in my hand one way (give the platters some momentum), then the other way
suddenly, so the platters will move & unstick from the heads, then set
it on the bench & apply drive power quickly - usually works, if stiction
is the problem. (Much more of a problem with older drives, but some
manufacturers have goofed since then.)
Some HDD's use conductive plastic for the data connects between the HDD
& the drive electronics. (Maxtor, mainly, AFAIK. Wish I knew how to
fix that plastic when it gets messed up & quits conducting.) I mostly
buy non-conductive plastic drives; regular contacts, or ribbon cables, I
can crimp, clean, or replace <G> There are special sprays you can get
for regular contacts, that do a good job of cleaning, but usually just
using a #8 Torx driver to pull the screws holding the drive electronics
to the HDD body, and removing/installing it a couple times will clean
things up pretty well if it's just a little oxidation. (Some drives use
ribbon cables for this connection, removing & re-installing them can
work wonders.)
Home built, tiny clean boxes are do-able (Something like an old printer
cover with a clear top, add a good intake filter with a big input fan,
gloves & a smaller exhaust fan & then set some cans of spray air inside
with your tools & the HDD(s), to blow dust into the exhaust fan's
intake, can even be done really cheaply.) Not my area of expertise, but
if I need, I know how. I'd thought of using a micro-fine HEPA filter,
if not just a good car air filter, for the intake filter <G> With HDD's
so cheap, only your data's worth saving, not worth it for the HDD's
storage space anymore, really! Best way I've heard of is using a
"Rainbow" vacuum cleaner as an air source (it blows the air through a
water bath to clean it), have it loop so your entire air in the
chamber's been run through this cleaning system. (If you have leaks,
which you probably will, having a larger intake fan than exhaust fan
lets the leaks blow air OUT of the clean area, which is what you want.)
(Going back into Lurk mode, too darn busy moving in here. If anyone
needs anything, wants something found/shipped from the US, etc., feel
free to bug me 0ff-list.)
Mark
Tibor Mocsar wrote:
>
> After I had survived two headcrashes my third HD died again. Upon switching
> on the computer the engine of the HD does not want to start. Other
> harddrives work well on the same connection. This way without physical
> damages I seemingly lost all my data which had been collected over about
> three years. It's a tragedy and I can't describe how I feel.
>
> I consulted about a dozen socalled "PC-Technicians" but this was wasted
> time. None of them had the slightest idea about electronics of a harddrive.
> All they can do is "click-click". In my desperation I contacted one of the
> two companies in Germany specialized in restoring data from damaged drives.
> Well, they are really competent but their target customer segment is not
> that of private computer users. Their rates reflect this clearly.
> I'm afraid I can't afford their services for about DEM 2500.
>
> Has anybody an idea what to do in such a case?
>
> --
> Tibor Mocsar
>
> Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive
>
> To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
> unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message.
> Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message.
Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
