Hard drive transplant - Help needed!

[Clunk]

I am trying to recover data from a Maxtor drive that has died (pc doesnt recognise it at all). The drive in question is an early Diamond Max 9 plus SATA. I managed to get hold of a PCB from a similar aged IDE drive and I installed it, and the pc recognised it and i started to copy the files accross, and then it died again.

Now, In disk manager, it wont see it, the bios doesnt see it, but if i lift the drive so that it is horizontal, it spins up, but the read/write arm thingy just goes to the centre and stays there. I tried to nudge it with a pen, but it feels really stiff and sticky (ahem).

So, now that the PCB is working and I know that the data is still on the platters, in theory, could i take out these platters and put them into any maxtor drive to recover the data?, or are there other factors to consider, and if so what are they?

thanks

P.S. with the drive in the upright position with the wires coming out of the top, it is completely dead, and only wakes up at horizontal, but the pc still wont recognize it, even after rescanning for drives.

[Steve B]

you'll not be able to remove the platters without removing the seeking arms, which could scratch the mag-coat. best bet would be to hunt for the circuitry for exactly the same model of drive, and use that instead.

[Clunk]

its the arm thats sticking i think, so either way, i would have to take that lot out...going to need a steady hand then.

[Steve B]

ive got a couple of samsungs waiting to be circuit-transplanted.
not sure what im going to do about them though

[Clunk]

the circuit bit is easy enough, its the tinkering on the wheels of steel that im worries about

[FInalD]

I wouldn't open up the HDD if I was you, they are sealed containers, seal with 'rust gas' (as my lecturer put it)...basicaly if you open up the drive you'll more than likely shaft the whole thing, the only thing that's 'safe' to do is replace circuit boards. Unless you happen to have a hermeticaly sealed room and all the propper equiptment for hard drive dismantling/reassembly.

Sorry.

FinalD

[Clunk]

they arent air tight, there is a small rectangular box, topped with some kind of gauze (about 1cm x 2cm) that is about half full of tiny black balls and leading out of that box is a tiny air hole that sits under the power connector socket. Maybe the black balls absorb moisture or something...or maybe they are magic beans and.....

[FInalD]

The actual platters, spindles, and read-write heads are in an airtight container...believe me, I ripped a spare small HDD I had to bits to turn it into a speaker (but that's another story), and the casing around the platters is airtight.

They could well be magic beans though, as my HDD that I took apart doesn't have any

FinalD

[MadduckUK]

I ripped a spare small HDD I had to bits to turn it into a speaker (but that's another story),

i saw that article. how did it go in the end?

[Clunk]

Wasnt doubting you mate, just mentioning that mine has an elaborate air vent made of magic beans and stuff. Ill do a pic.

[FInalD]

i saw that article. how did it go in the end?

It's nothing special, you have to really strain rather to hear it, and if you are not careful you stick a fair few watts though yourself...powered mine off a hifi amp, and didn't bother with soldering, just kinda held wires there

FinalD

[Yellowbeard]

Have you tried the "old freezer trick"? Put the drive in a freezer for few hours and then immediately attach it while it is still cold and see if you get it to run long enough to clone it. Also, this probably won't make any difference but, have you tried a DOS based utility?

[Clunk]

Have you tried the "old freezer trick"? Put the drive in a freezer for few hours and then immediately attach it while it is still cold and see if you get it to run long enough to clone it. Also, this probably won't make any difference but, have you tried a DOS based utility?

I have just tried the fridge trick, unfortunately, it didnt work, dos utilities wont work because the bios cant see it, thanks though

[manwithnoname]

I assume you have the bios set to AUTO for the drive detection? Can you enter the drive details manually - failing that a sledge hammer and goggles to vent a bit of frustration.

[Yellowbeard]

Sorry, I was not clear. What I meant was can you get it to spin up before even powering on your system using your tilt method above? If you could get it to power on before booting, then boot the system, you may have better luck accessing if the armiture is still functioning at all.

[Clunk]

I see what you mean, getting it to spin up at all is hit and miss now. I think I need another donor drive