Hard Drive Repair Question Physical Problem with the drive

Maxtor 40 GB ide hard drive ata 133 3.5 N 40P. Spins, but I get no
OS. I took it out put it in another PC, will not show up as a second
drive (I changed it to be the slave.) I also have a usb to ide
adapter. The drive is recognized by xp pro and I can see it in the
device manager, but I cannot see it in disk manager or windows
explorer. I am sure it is probably hardware failure, but hoped
someone might have some idea how to fix it.

Drive spins and continues to spin. When I first put power to it I
hear a momentary click or some physical movement inside the drive, but
not after that.

Thanks for any help. I know it may be a lost cause.

Previously jmDesktop <needin4mation@gmail.com> wrote:
> Maxtor 40 GB ide hard drive ata 133 3.5 N 40P. Spins, but I get no
> OS. I took it out put it in another PC, will not show up as a second
> drive (I changed it to be the slave.) I also have a usb to ide
> adapter. The drive is recognized by xp pro and I can see it in the
> device manager, but I cannot see it in disk manager or windows
> explorer. I am sure it is probably hardware failure, but hoped
> someone might have some idea how to fix it.

> Drive spins and continues to spin. When I first put power to it I
> hear a momentary click or some physical movement inside the drive, but
> not after that.

> Thanks for any help. I know it may be a lost cause.

This sounds like a problem with the data on disk. What happened to
make it inaccessible?

One thing you can do, is to get its SMART status. You might also
just try to repartition, if you do not care about the data on disk.

Arno

On 10 Apr, 02:51, "jmDesktop" <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Drive spins and continues to spin. When I first put power to it I
> hear a momentary click or some physical movement inside the drive, but
> not after that.

Drives often have a hardware latch to "park" the heads outside the
disk platters, or on the inside of the disk platters. Sometimes the
latch fails, so the drive spins up but the heads can't move.

If you must get data from the disk you can take the lid off, and tape
the latch open, and use recovery software to get data off the disc.
Obviously, the disc is trashed after this. :-)

Previously bealoid <signup@bealoid.co.uk> wrote:
> On 10 Apr, 02:51, "jmDesktop" <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:

>> Drive spins and continues to spin. When I first put power to it I
>> hear a momentary click or some physical movement inside the drive, but
>> not after that.

> Drives often have a hardware latch to "park" the heads outside the
> disk platters, or on the inside of the disk platters. Sometimes the
> latch fails, so the drive spins up but the heads can't move.

> If you must get data from the disk you can take the lid off, and tape
> the latch open, and use recovery software to get data off the disc.
> Obviously, the disc is trashed after this. :-)

Or even before....

Arno

On Apr 10, 9:39 am, "bealoid" <sig...@bealoid.co.uk> wrote:
> On 10 Apr, 02:51, "jmDesktop" <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Drive spins and continues to spin. When I first put power to it I
> > hear a momentary click or some physical movement inside the drive, but
> > not after that.
>
> Drives often have a hardware latch to "park" the heads outside the
> disk platters, or on the inside of the disk platters. Sometimes the
> latch fails, so the drive spins up but the heads can't move.
>
> If you must get data from the disk you can take the lid off, and tape
> the latch open, and use recovery software to get data off the disc.
> Obviously, the disc is trashed after this. :-)

What do you mean "tape the latch open?"

On Apr 10, 2:48 am, Arno Wagner <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
> Previously jmDesktop <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Maxtor 40 GB ide hard drive ata 133 3.5 N 40P. Spins, but I get no
> > OS. I took it out put it in another PC, will not show up as a second
> > drive (I changed it to be the slave.) I also have a usb to ide
> > adapter. The drive is recognized by xp pro and I can see it in the
> > device manager, but I cannot see it in disk manager or windows
> > explorer. I am sure it is probably hardware failure, but hoped
> > someone might have some idea how to fix it.
> > Drive spins and continues to spin. When I first put power to it I
> > hear a momentary click or some physical movement inside the drive, but
> > not after that.
> > Thanks for any help. I know it may be a lost cause.
>
> This sounds like a problem with the data on disk. What happened to
> make it inaccessible?
>
> One thing you can do, is to get its SMART status. You might also
> just try to repartition, if you do not care about the data on disk.
>
> Arno

I do care about the data. It's not the drive. I don't care about
that. I can buy another one. I don't know what happened to it. A
week before I was getting a blank screen while some programs ran and
other times I would try and wake up the PC and just have my blank
screen. The machine was running, but nothing would happen. Finally,
I got the no OS on the system or insert boot media, etc.

How do I get the SMART status? I can see information about the drive
in the device manager and can populate information about it.

Thanks again.

On 10 Apr, 16:41, "jmDesktop" <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Apr 10, 9:39 am, "bealoid" <sig...@bealoid.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > On 10 Apr, 02:51, "jmDesktop" <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Drive spins and continues to spin. When I first put power to it I
> > > hear a momentary click or some physical movement inside the drive, but
> > > not after that.
>
> > Drives often have a hardware latch to "park" the heads outside the
> > disk platters, or on the inside of the disk platters. Sometimes the
> > latch fails, so the drive spins up but the heads can't move.
>
> > If you must get data from the disk you can take the lid off, and tape
> > the latch open, and use recovery software to get data off the disc.
> > Obviously, the disc is trashed after this. :-)
>
> What do you mean "tape the latch open?"

Have a look at some of the pictures on this website:
http://hddguru.com/content/en/articl...stack-Q-and-A/

Looking at the head stacks you'll see a delicate end, over the
platters. Then there's a pivot. Then you'll see a chunky metal end.
This has big magnets, coils, ribbon cables, and maybe a plastic latch
thing.

Sometimes the electronics that open the latch break. This means that
the heads can't swing out over the platters. You can take the lid off
the drive, and open the latch, and hold it open by a piece of tape,
then connect the drive to a pc and power it up.

This is a last ditch effort to get data off the drive. You'll
probably need data recovery software.


I've only done this once. I was lucky, I got my data back. I learnt
that back ups are always easier. :-)

bealoid wrote:
>
> On 10 Apr, 16:41, "jmDesktop" <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Apr 10, 9:39 am, "bealoid" <sig...@bealoid.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > > On 10 Apr, 02:51, "jmDesktop" <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > > Drive spins and continues to spin. When I first put power to it I
> > > > hear a momentary click or some physical movement inside the drive, but
> > > > not after that.
> >
> > > Drives often have a hardware latch to "park" the heads outside the
> > > disk platters, or on the inside of the disk platters. Sometimes the
> > > latch fails, so the drive spins up but the heads can't move.
> >
> > > If you must get data from the disk you can take the lid off, and tape
> > > the latch open, and use recovery software to get data off the disc.
> > > Obviously, the disc is trashed after this. :-)
> >
> > What do you mean "tape the latch open?"
>
> Have a look at some of the pictures on this website:
> http://hddguru.com/content/en/articl...stack-Q-and-A/
>
> Looking at the head stacks you'll see a delicate end, over the
> platters. Then there's a pivot. Then you'll see a chunky metal end.
> This has big magnets, coils, ribbon cables, and maybe a plastic latch
> thing.
>
> Sometimes the electronics that open the latch break. This means that
> the heads can't swing out over the platters. You can take the lid off
> the drive, and open the latch, and hold it open by a piece of tape,
> then connect the drive to a pc and power it up.
>
> This is a last ditch effort to get data off the drive. You'll
> probably need data recovery software.
>
> I've only done this once. I was lucky, I got my data back. I learnt
> that back ups are always easier. :-)

Sorry - you have totally lost me on this one.


Odie
--
Retrodata
www.retrodata.co.uk
Globally Local Data Recovery Experts

Previously jmDesktop <needin4mation@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Apr 10, 2:48 am, Arno Wagner <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>> Previously jmDesktop <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Maxtor 40 GB ide hard drive ata 133 3.5 N 40P. Spins, but I get no
>> > OS. I took it out put it in another PC, will not show up as a second
>> > drive (I changed it to be the slave.) I also have a usb to ide
>> > adapter. The drive is recognized by xp pro and I can see it in the
>> > device manager, but I cannot see it in disk manager or windows
>> > explorer. I am sure it is probably hardware failure, but hoped
>> > someone might have some idea how to fix it.
>> > Drive spins and continues to spin. When I first put power to it I
>> > hear a momentary click or some physical movement inside the drive, but
>> > not after that.
>> > Thanks for any help. I know it may be a lost cause.
>>
>> This sounds like a problem with the data on disk. What happened to
>> make it inaccessible?
>>
>> One thing you can do, is to get its SMART status. You might also
>> just try to repartition, if you do not care about the data on disk.
>>
>> Arno

> I do care about the data. It's not the drive. I don't care about
> that. I can buy another one. I don't know what happened to it. A
> week before I was getting a blank screen while some programs ran and
> other times I would try and wake up the PC and just have my blank
> screen. The machine was running, but nothing would happen. Finally,
> I got the no OS on the system or insert boot media, etc.

> How do I get the SMART status? I can see information about the drive
> in the device manager and can populate information about it.

E.g. sisoft sandra or the smartmontools candisplay the smart status.
Best read it and post it here.

Arno

Previously Odie Ferrous <odie_ferrous@hotmail.com> wrote:
> bealoid wrote:
>>
>> On 10 Apr, 16:41, "jmDesktop" <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > On Apr 10, 9:39 am, "bealoid" <sig...@bealoid.co.uk> wrote:
>> >
>> > > On 10 Apr, 02:51, "jmDesktop" <needin4mat...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > > > Drive spins and continues to spin. When I first put power to it I
>> > > > hear a momentary click or some physical movement inside the drive, but
>> > > > not after that.
>> >
>> > > Drives often have a hardware latch to "park" the heads outside the
>> > > disk platters, or on the inside of the disk platters. Sometimes the
>> > > latch fails, so the drive spins up but the heads can't move.
>> >
>> > > If you must get data from the disk you can take the lid off, and tape
>> > > the latch open, and use recovery software to get data off the disc.
>> > > Obviously, the disc is trashed after this. :-)
>> >
>> > What do you mean "tape the latch open?"
>>
>> Have a look at some of the pictures on this website:
>> http://hddguru.com/content/en/articl...stack-Q-and-A/
>>
>> Looking at the head stacks you'll see a delicate end, over the
>> platters. Then there's a pivot. Then you'll see a chunky metal end.
>> This has big magnets, coils, ribbon cables, and maybe a plastic latch
>> thing.
>>
>> Sometimes the electronics that open the latch break. This means that
>> the heads can't swing out over the platters. You can take the lid off
>> the drive, and open the latch, and hold it open by a piece of tape,
>> then connect the drive to a pc and power it up.
>>
>> This is a last ditch effort to get data off the drive. You'll
>> probably need data recovery software.
>>
>> I've only done this once. I was lucky, I got my data back. I learnt
>> that back ups are always easier. :-)

> Sorry - you have totally lost me on this one.

Me too. The drives I opened (broken or not needed anymore)
had no ''electronics that open the latch''. Maybe a WD
invention? I never opened (or owned) one of those...

Arno