Harddisk may be failing

[kaijufondler]

Hi, this morning i turned my computer on and one of the harddisks had disappeared from my computer. I checked disk management and it wasnt there either. Then i checked the bios and it wasnt there eitherer, (thats a real word). I plugged it into a different sata port, plugged a different harddisk into its port and swapped power leads. Other harddisks appear but the suspect one doesnt. I placed the faulty HDD into an external thingy used for swapping lots of data between HDDs, its called an icy box and has two slots where HDDs connect and it connects via usb. when its plugged in to that I can here it spin up and a light comes on showing that something is plugged in but it wont show up anywhere on the computer. Its a 3 TB disk, windows 7 64bit. Is there any hope? Please say yes.

[phillpower2]

Welcome to PCHF kaijufondler,

I placed the faulty HDD into an external thingy used for swapping lots of data between HDDs, its called an icy box and has two slots where HDDs connect and it connects via usb. when its plugged in to that I can here it spin up and a light comes on showing that something is plugged in but it wont show up anywhere on the computer

Have you tried using the USB device on another computer while the drive is in it, this to see if another Windows OS can access the drive.

Long shot but worth a go is seeing if the drive can be mounted using Puppy Linux, let us know your MB brand and model name or number if you will.

[georgeks]

When you connect the HDD, do you hear it spinning? (put your ear next to it). If not, sorry, it’s dead,

[phillpower2]

kaijufondler mentions that the drive can be heard spinning when placed in an external USB HDD enclosure georgeks

[kaijufondler]

i have tried the usb enclosure on another computer and the same thing happens. i can hear the HDD spin up but it wont appear anywhere. Also the light on the usb enclosure comes on indicates something is connected and with the HDD spinning up i think this means it is receiving power so i think its the HDD sata connector thats gone. does that sound likely?

[phillpower2]

If you are 100% certain that you can hear the drive platters spinning and the actuator working then you could be correct in that the SATA port itself or the circuit on the PCB that the SATA port is connected to could have failed, if you only get a power light on the enclosure all that means is that the enclosure has detected the presence of a HDD and not that the drive is actually spinning.

Do you have a brand and model name or number of the 3TB HDD, opening up a HDD normally requires a clean room environment but I have seen folk get away with replacing a PCB from out of a used drive that they have purchased off one of the online auction sites.

[kaijufondler]

Its a Toshiba, i dont know what the model number is, theres: disk drive DT01ACA300 and S/N X35669HKS TZ6. Im assuming that if i replace the pcb it will have to be from an identical drive, same serial number, capacity, etc?

[phillpower2]

Does the above mean that you are not 100% certain that you can hear the drive platters spinning and the actuator working, if unsure, gently touch the HDD with the back of your hand when it is in the external USB HDD enclosure, power on the enclosure, if the platters are spinning you should be able to feel a gentle vibration from the HHD to the back of your hand.

Any replacement PCB needs to come from the same model of drive, look on ebay, craiglist etc for a used drive using just DT01ACA300.

The amount of bad reviews that this particular drive has suggests that you are one of the many unlucky folk that has had this drive fail on them, the amount of DOAs reported at Newegg is quite shocking :cautious:

[phillpower2]

Any update for us?

[kaijufondler]

iv ordered another drive from ebay, same model. should arrive in a few days then ill have a go at fixing it and report back.

[phillpower2]

(y)

[kaijufondler]

ok, so i plugged in the new hdd and it worked then i swapped the pcbs round and neither worked, old hdd new pcb, new hdd old pcb and they both spin up but are not detected. the new hdd worked when i put the new pcb back though. both disks have the same model number and both pcbs have the same model number. i had assumed that i would be able to swap the pcbs but that doesnt seem to be how it works. iv seen some videos of replacing components on the pcb but i need to figure out how to test them first so that will be my next step.

[phillpower2]

i had assumed that i would be able to swap the pcbs but that doesnt seem to be how it works. iv seen some videos of replacing components on the pcb

You can a lot of the time but on occasion there may be the need to swap the BIOS chips over, never done this myself though.

[kaijufondler]

my voltmeter got here and i gave the pcbs a test. im not sure whats what but the thing highlighted in the picture read 1.121 on the new working board and 0.345 on the old board so im thinking i should swap them over. does anyone have any electrical experience and can tell if this is a good idea or not. ill have to buy a soldering iron so i wont get round to it for about a week.[ATTACH type=“full” width=“906px” alt=“4514”]4514[/ATTACH]

[phillpower2]

Sorry but cannot offer you an answer I`m afraid

Not sure how much you have invested in this already but fwiw I found some PCB info here