Fried (?) Western Digital HDD

[stasik]

Hello folks!

My first post, I just need some help on how to proceed.

At I have a new (~3mo) Western Digital 320Gb HDD which I connect through a hard drive enclosure no my notebook. The hard drive enclosure gave me good service with a 120GB Seagate drive (still works), so I don’t question it’s ability to do its function. On the previous weekend I was reinstalling my Windows so all my data from the Win partition went on that drive. Pretty much everything I ever had was on that drive. Anyway I think I put in the WD hdd and turned on the enclosure, but some minutes later I figured that it didn’t work. I looked at the back of the enclosure, the ON light wasn’t on, I flipped it a couple of times to no result. Taking out the hdd, I noticed it was extremely hot, with case being around 45C. Seeing as the hdd is only enclosed on the top, and the bottom is somewhat exposed, with some circuit board and what not, unlike Seagate which are completely enclosed. I happened to touch either the circuitry or the motor or what not, and burned my finger (2nd degree burn with blisters an all).

Anyway after some smokey smells I figured the hdd wasn’t working. Measuring the resistance across the 12V/5V and Gnd I measure something close to 0ohms, unlike the working Seagate which gives around 70. So I figure some circuitry or wiring is fused inside.

Unfortunately not only did the hard drive had “private” files (documents, resumes, and probably more sensitive data), but also confidential files from work. Which I am completely devasted to have lost.

The personal documents are what I really would like to recover, although other stuff would be nice too. However the work files should never see the light of day. I still have (unfounded, and weak) hope, that I can maybe get the drive working again? But if not, I’d like to get a replacement, however I am concerned that once the drive leaves my hands, all the data might too?

Some might say that if the data I need was important, I would have backed it up. Well this drive WAS the backup!!!

Any suggestions? Is there a way to maybe fix it, or should I risk getting a replacement, or should I bite the bullet, drill it full of holes, and get a new (Seagate) drive???
Thanks a lot. ANY help/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Regards
Stan

[soybean]

Sounds quite dire, but I think I would try connecting it to a desktop computer as a slave drive and see whether it runs and whether you can retrieve files from it.  Or, get one of these and try it:  BYTECC BT-200 USB2.0 to IDE Cable With Power Adapter - Retail

However, again, the likelihood of success seems quite small, based on your description of the severity of the over-heating.

[stasik]

Thanks, I'll try getting it connected to a desktop PC. Don't have one at home, I guess I'll have to get to my dad's to try it.

Any comments on whether WD can be trusted to either repair my drive without reading/copying my files or sending me a replacement and destroying the original drive physically?

I read a story about a guy who returned a drive to BestBuy and then it ended up on a flea market (fixed, with all his files, personal info still on it)

[soybean]

Well, I doubt very much they will repair the drive; if they agree to cover this under warranty, they'll surely just replace it.  If you want to have a professional try to retreive data from it, you could go that route but it's going to be expensive.  A Google search on data retrieval services yields numerous such companies.

[stasik]

Thanks a lot for your help, soybean. Of course I'll give WD a call, but I think that in the end, I'm just gonna have to drill this hd full of holes, throw it out, and get a new drive
Too bad this ended on a sour note, but thanks again!
Regards
Stan

[stasik]

Question:

If I buy an identical hard drive, disassemble it and replace its platters with the platters of the defective drive, would the new drive read those platters (I mean assuming they are not warped out of shape or otherwise damaged)?  What I'm trying to find out is there some association, like a serial number, where an hdd will read it and say: woop, wrong serial number, I ain't reading this.

Or would there be any other considerations to this approach?

Thanks again!

[soybean]

I truly believe the chances of succeeding at that as a do-it-yourself project is near zero.  Hard drives are manufactured in special environmentally controlled facilities which are ABSOLUTELY dust free and are designed with fine tolerances and assembled with precision.  I've never heard of anyone successfully doing what you'd like to do.  Most likely, the outcome would be two ruined drives instead of one.  

Now, I'd guess that very approach may be how, in some cases, the specialized data retrieval companies do it but they also have special equipment and facilities to do their work.

[GX1_Man]

I believe the chances for that working ARE zero.  

[soybean]

Actually, me too.  

[patio]

Well being that zero is an absolute i would say chances are +1 on a scale of 100...

[stasik]

Well being that zero is an absolute i would say chances are +1 on a scale of 100...

With one being 1st rate chances???

j/k

Thanks guys i give up
~stan

[soybean]

I think patio meant he wouldn't say the chances are absolutely zero, but that he'd give it a chance of 1 out of "100 ...".  Presumably, the ...'s meant add some zeros; he'd didn't how many.  1 out of 10,000, or 100,000, or 1,000,000, or ...?

[rr5678]

Don't destroy that hard drive just yet. There is another way. Get a hard disk that has the same firmware, PCB chips, and close to the same serial number. Take the PCB off the new hard disk, take the damaged PCB off next, and replace the old PCB on the old hard drive with the new hard disk's PCB, screw it back on, and it just might work again.

[patio]

Don't destroy that hard drive just yet. There is another way. Get a hard disk that has the same firmware, PCB chips, and close to the same serial number. Take the PCB off the new hard disk, take the damaged PCB off next, and replace the old PCB on the old hard drive with the new hard disk's PCB, screw it back on, and it just might work again.

See Post # 5 above...it's what we've been discussing...

[stasik]

Don't destroy that hard drive just yet. There is another way. Get a hard disk that has the same firmware, PCB chips, and close to the same serial number. Take the PCB off the new hard disk, take the damaged PCB off next, and replace the old PCB on the old hard drive with the new hard disk's PCB, screw it back on, and it just might work again.

That is exactly what I was thinking, except replacing everything but the platters, since I suspect motor's bust, my only concern was that the new platters wouldn't get 'rejected', ie the new hard drive would simply refuse to read the platter because of some sort of incompatibility. My suspicion is that the motor is somehow screwed up. Working from the fact that there is zero resistance across my 12v and 5v to ground is zero, I am thinking that the insulation on the motor may have gotten screwed, and I suspect that area was extremely hot, seeing as to how there are blisters of paint on the underside of the drive in that region.

However my concern lies in how that happened. One of the explanations I conceive is that the motor operation was physically obstructed by the reading heads, which means the platters would be damaged, especially if this happened at high speeds, then I'd expect to have a pretty big groove on those platters. According to my calculations this would be like crashing into the ground at over 200km/hour.

This could all be settled by opening it, but this would of course void the warranty and of course these drives aren't cheap.

I'm not so much afraid of getting dust in the drive etc, I've seen exposed (ODP frame) motors work for 20 years in really corrosive environments, and drive heads do not contact the platters, so I do not see a little dust being an issue. But I am afraid for those reading heads that lie ever so close to the platters.

rr5678, did you have an experience (with a happy ending maybe?) or perhaps know of such an article? Because I would really like to research this before I waste any more hard drives.

Thank you so much for your input

Stan