IBM Deskstar 120GB IDE Drive hardware (electronics) swapout?

[fotoobscura]

Hi,

I'm in a bit of trouble.

I had (have?) a two disk stripe of which I troubleshot for months and
finally realised that it wasn't working because one of the hard drives
stopped powering up. As you know this means my stripe is a goner
without the second drive.

I am almost convinced that if I get the power working again on the
second HD I can get my stripe back and copy the stuff off of these
drives.

The question is: How?

I've swapped out the circuit boards before on drives (to my success)
but I am unsure if this will do it. I can buy another 120GB Deskstar
and unscrew the circuit board on the back and swap it out but am unsure
how to troubleshoot whether or not this will fix it or do I need to get
"deeper" into the drive to determine where the fault lies...

I don't know electronics well enough to test it thoroughly but am
competent enough with a multitester to probably do *something*. I see
four traces on the back of the drive directly connected to the power
plug on the HD- would it be worth testing the traces for voltage to
narrow down where the drive isn't getting power?

I'm posting an image with some markup on alt.binaries.test under the
subject "120GB Deskstar" with some thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rod Speed]

I'm in a bit of trouble.

You are indeed. Backups are used for a reason.

I had (have?) a two disk stripe of which I troubleshot for months and
finally realised that it wasn't working because one of the hard drives
stopped powering up. As you know this means my stripe is a goner
without the second drive.

I am almost convinced that if I get the power working again on the second
HD I can get my stripe back and copy the stuff off of these drives.

Yes, if you can get the drive going again, that should be possible.

The question is: How?

I've swapped out the circuit boards before on drives (to my success)
but I am unsure if this will do it. I can buy another 120GB Deskstar
and unscrew the circuit board on the back and swap it out but am
unsure how to troubleshoot whether or not this will fix it

Just a matter of trying it. Dont know that anyone has succeeded with those drives tho.

or do I need to get "deeper" into the drive to determine where the fault lies...

I don't know electronics well enough to test it thoroughly but am
competent enough with a multitester to probably do *something*.
I see four traces on the back of the drive directly connected to
the power plug on the HD- would it be worth testing the traces
for voltage to narrow down where the drive isn't getting power?

Nope, if that is the problem a quicker test is to use one of the power
connectors off one of the optical drives. Those connectors do have metal
tunnels which can open up over time and no longer make good contact,
so that is worth trying, mainly because it costs nothing but time to try.

I'm posting an image with some markup on alt.binaries.test
under the subject "120GB Deskstar" with some thoughts.

Thats a test newsgroup, testing in the sense of testing your
usenet service, not testing hard drives or anything else.

And I cant find it there anyway.

 

[Rod Speed]

What you are looking for has always been, and
always will be, completely and utterly irrelevant.

I am clear on what backups do.

But are clearly to stupid to use them.

Sometimes people don't mirror their entire systems or backup 240gb on a daily basis.

Only the fools dont backup what they care about losing.

In spades with striped configs.

And almost no one needs to backup 240G on a daily basis.

Well, obviously

Pathetic, really.

Its the same thing for all IDE drives-
Nope.

there is a disk and a micro-controller board embedded on the back of the drive. These are
removable on all IDE HD's.

Yes, but you cant necessarily swap the logic card between
even two identical brand new copys of the same drive and
see the drive work fine, essentially because of where the
defect map etc is stored on the drive.

I've used four different PC connectors including an external (USB)
connector (external IDE connector). The drive doesn't spin up.

Then you wont achieve a damned thing by measuring the four traces on the back
of the drive directly connected to the power plug on the HD with a multitester.

Oh is that where they got that name from? You really think I'm an idiot don't you?

I know you are, actually.

Well thanks. A.B.T has historically been used for posting binaries to prevent from text groups
from getting spammed by binaries.

Wrong again, thats what other binary groups are for.

Read the Usenet Wiki.

Doesnt say anything like that.

Get a better news provider Its on Giganews.

Makes a lot more sense to post it on your web site.

Maybe not in this instance- but at least you wrote something so i'll give you a C+

Great way to get answers to your questions, child.

 

[fotoobscura]

Well, "Rod" (suspicious smirk), congrats!

Another troll on Usenet!

A+!

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi,

I'm in a bit of trouble.

I had (have?) a two disk stripe of which I troubleshot for months and
finally realised that it wasn't working because one of the hard drives
stopped powering up. As you know this means my stripe is a goner
without the second drive.

I am almost convinced that if I get the power working again on the
second HD I can get my stripe back and copy the stuff off of these
drives.

The question is: How?

I've swapped out the circuit boards before on drives (to my success)
but I am unsure if this will do it. I can buy another 120GB Deskstar
and unscrew the circuit board on the back and swap it out but am unsure
how to troubleshoot whether or not this will fix it or do I need to get
"deeper" into the drive to determine where the fault lies...

I don't know electronics well enough to test it thoroughly but am
competent enough with a multitester to probably do *something*. I see
four traces on the back of the drive directly connected to the power
plug on the HD- would it be worth testing the traces for voltage to
narrow down where the drive isn't getting power?

I'm posting an image with some markup on alt.binaries.test under the
subject "120GB Deskstar" with some thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

Failure to power up is usually a failed HDD self-diagnistics.
Part of this diagnostics is also checking the viltage levels.
If you are lucky, the +5V or +12V are out of spec or
noisy. Before doing and surgery on the disks, you may want to
test them with a different PSU.

If that does not work, then I would suggest going for professional
data recovery. Everything else has a good chance of doing more damage.

Arno

 

[fotoobscura]

Hi Arno,

Thanks for the info. I will check to see what the voltage reports back
with. I've tried different power supplies so my guess is the board.
What is your guess?

Thanks!

 

[Rod Speed]

Never ever could bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.

No surprise that its actually so stupid that it doesnt
bother to backup what is on a striped array.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi Arno,

Thanks for the info. I will check to see what the voltage reports back
with. I've tried different power supplies so my guess is the board.
What is your guess?

If the disk starts, then it starts its motor. A failed self
diganostic will lead to either it not starting its motor
or it shutting down pretty fast again. You can detect that
listening to the disk or by touch.

If it starts and then stops again, it likely is a mechanical
problem. If it does not start at all, it can board or mechnical
failure, e.g. a defect spindle motor.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

If the disk starts, then it starts its motor.

No! Really?

A failed self diganostic will lead to either it not starting its motor
or it shutting down pretty fast again.
You can detect that listening to the disk or by touch.

If it starts and then stops again, it likely is a mechanical problem.

Or it is an electronics problem.
There is only so much that a selftest can/will check without actually using the functions that it checks

If it does not start at all, it can board or mechnical failure, e.g. a
defect spindle motor.

Utter useless nonsense, as always, from babblebot.

 

[fotoobscura]

Hi Arno,

The drive doesn't spin up at all. At all. Not even an effort. I'll
test the voltage tonight.

Thanks

 

[fotoobscura]

Hi Folkert,

My guess if the drive doesn't attempt to spin up at all is that its
probably more likely a micro-controller/electronic/power issue. What
say you?

I think i'm going to swap out the board.


Thanks

 

[Rod Speed]

My guess if the drive doesn't attempt to spin up at all is that its
probably more likely a micro-controller/electronic/power issue.

There arent really that many other possibilitys.

What say you?

I think i'm going to swap out the board.

Doesnt necessarily work even with two brand new identical hard drives.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Hi Folkert,

My guess if the drive doesn't attempt to spin up at all is that its
probably more likely a

micro-controller/electronic

Right. Unless it is still recognized by BIOS in some form or other,
that is the most likely cause.

/power issue.

Not as likely. Usually this situation arises as the disk tries to
spinup and the voltage drops, meaning it tries first, then fails.

 

[fotoobscura]

I got the new drive and swapped out the microcontroller.

All is back to normal.

Thamks.