Seagate PCB Replacement

Kraegos · May 27, 2008

I have a Seagate 120gb external hard drive that quit working a couple months ago. I can power it on and the disk still spins, but the arms do not move. I had the IT guy at work take a look at it and he couldn't do anything with it. Will replacing the pcb help? Where can I find one?

I wouldn't even bother with this drive, but this was my backup drive. Every game, pic (fam pics of my kids from the time they were born!), video, mp3, doc, etc I own is on that drive. I do still have the install cds for my old games, but have lost my cd keys. :cry:

Cybrnook2002 · May 27, 2008

Kraegos said:
I have a Seagate 120gb external hard drive that quit working a couple months ago. I can power it on and the disk still spins, but the arms do not move. I had the IT guy at work take a look at it and he couldn't do anything with it. Will replacing the pcb help? Where can I find one?

I wouldn't even bother with this drive, but this was my backup drive. Every game, pic (fam pics of my kids from the time they were born!), video, mp3, doc, etc I own is on that drive. I do still have the install cds for my old games, but have lost my cd keys.

Did you try the old HD in a ziplock bag in the freezer for a few hours trick?

Or taking the HD out of the casing and booting it up in the actual pc?

suraswami · May 27, 2008

"Did you try the old HD in a ziplock bag in the freezer for a few hours trick?"

ho what trick is that? I have one too like that.

sneekypeet · May 27, 2008

usually putting a HDD in the freezer will allow you to retreve info from a dying yet still functioning HDD. On the way out they tend to run uber hot and shut down...hence the freezer comes into play to keep the HDD running long enough to extract the info.

As for a HDD that the arms arent moving...thats a tough call....maybe pulling it out of the external case will do some good...could be a bad connection in the case!

Cybrnook2002 · May 27, 2008

suraswami said:
"Did you try the old HD in a ziplock bag in the freezer for a few hours trick?"

ho what trick is that? I have one too like that.

HO??? I kill you :mad:

You put your HD in a ziplock bag to protect it from moisture. Then just put it in the freezer for 2 hours or so. That way it gets reaaallly cold and contracts, putting any moving parts back in line if they have shifted causing something to not work. When you do this its really important to start copying right away after its booted, because when the drive heats back up, its a possibility that it comes out of line again. Then you have to thrust and repeat the process.

PVTCaboose1337 · May 27, 2008

I have run a HD without the case. It ran for 3 minutes. The drive then made blue smoke, and I kinda just turned off the computer. The ziplock bag thing is tricky. If you are a total badass you can buy the exact same drive and take out the platters, transfer them, and put them in another drive... but the silver can easily be scratched.

erocker · May 27, 2008

If the data on the HDD is worth it to you, you may want have a professional retrieve the data for you.

Kraegos · May 27, 2008

sneekypeet said:
As for a HDD that the arms arent moving...thats a tough call....maybe pulling it out of the external case will do some good...could be a bad connection in the case!

Yeah I did that about a month ago. Plugged it into 2 diff computers. No luck.
Prob started when the HDD was powering on and off repeatedly while I was playing a game off of it. Power cord wasnt making a good connection. (Crappy s-video-looking connection) I took the case apart, removed the adapter board, and plugged it in direct to the pc via the ide/molex connections. It recognized a drive was connected, but since the arms don't move you can't open it to view the files.

I was told by the IT guy not to open the HDD up unless I was in a clean-room. I don't know if I'd want to try swapping out the platters. That may be my only hope if the pcb thing doesn't pan out.

sneekypeet · May 27, 2008

I remember there was a post here where a guy made a clean room with a rubermaid tote...he cut it mounted some gloves and put in a plexi top to see through.....He was only changing from metal tops to Plexi tops.

But for the cost, as erocker says...maybe a professional service is needed here.

suraswami · May 27, 2008

Cybrnook2002 said:
HO??? I kill you You put your HD in a ziplock bag to protect it from moisture. Then just put it in the freezer for 2 hours or so. That way it gets reaaallly cold and contracts, putting any moving parts back in line if they have shifted causing something to not work. When you do this its really important to start copying right away after its booted, because when the drive heats back up, its a possibility that it comes out of line again. Then you have to thrust and repeat the process.

I did a stupid thing. The PSU back power socket (where you plug in your power cord) broke when I pulled out the PC to clean the room and pc. So I tried to figure which wire goes to which pin, i finally got the connections from another PSU and tried connecting the pins accordingly. Stupid thing is I kept connected the HDD to one of the molex. When I powered the pc, boom the hd went in smoke. Luckily all the parts were in tact. Then the pc wouldn't boot. So I went and bought another drive to load OS etc. then 2 days later I connected the fried drive and it worked for like 30 minutes. I quickly transferred all the data to the new drive. Just after it finished copying the drive died for sure. When I connect it the heads spin and I can hear the seak noise, the drive will be recognized in the bios but not in windows anymore. PCB damaged?

mullered07 · May 27, 2008

suraswami said:
I did a stupid thing. The PSU back power socket (where you plug in your power cord) broke when I pulled out the PC to clean the room and pc. So I tried to figure which wire goes to which pin, i finally got the connections from another PSU and tried connecting the pins accordingly. Stupid thing is I kept connected the HDD to one of the molex. When I powered the pc, boom the hd went in smoke. Luckily all the parts were in tact. Then the pc wouldn't boot. So I went and bought another drive to load OS etc. then 2 days later I connected the fried drive and it worked for like 30 minutes. I quickly transferred all the data to the new drive. Just after it finished copying the drive died for sure. When I connect it the heads spin and I can hear the seak noise, the drive will be recognized in the bios but not in windows anymore. PCB damaged?

you've transferred all the data u wanted off it, just call it a day and send it to the big junkyard in the sky :laugh:

lemonadesoda · May 28, 2008

If you installed the drive as SECONDARD/SLAVE... and it recognised the drive OK, made the drive visible in windows... but you just couldnt "open" the drive in explorer... then I doubt it's the PCB, but it's a failure of the motor/alignment of the arms.

Does it make a clicking sound. Or just DEAD?

If you want to try swapping the PCB... you must get an identical drive with the exact same model/bios revision. I did this once on a 2.5" drive that got knocked over by my 2 year old. The PCB swap cost a fortune, and resulted in ZILCH. Like you, I had the HDD for a long time... it was my USB backupdrive... but actually wasnt so much a backup as a SINGLE archive drive. Data lost.

1./ Try the freeze technique.
2./ Try the gentle knock of the HDD on a desk. If no change, try a harder knock.
3./ Give up, learn a lesson, and buy yourself a NON-MOVEABLE, physically locked down, archive/backup NAS.

suraswami · May 28, 2008

lemonadesoda said:
1./ Try the freeze technique.
2./ Try the gentle knock of the HDD on a desk. If no change, try a harder knock.
3./ Give up, learn a lesson, and buy yourself a NON-MOVEABLE, physically locked down, archive/backup NAS.

Funny

I did 2. Gentle knock, harder knock and then beat it up.

suraswami · May 28, 2008

mullered07 said:
you've transferred all the data u wanted off it, just call it a day and send it to the big junkyard in the sky

I just don't want to throw away because it also has some sensitive info. So I stored it. May be give it to my 2 yr old son. He will beat the shit out of it and may be it will wake up from 'koma'. :laugh:

lemonadesoda · May 28, 2008

Believe it or not, the "knock" is a highly technical method to unstick a stuck head/arm. The danger is that the knock makes the discs (platters) rotate the wrong way round a fraction, making the head folder under inself rendering it useless and even more stuck.

System Name	The Big Black Box
Processor	Pentium 4 HT 640 3.2Ghz Prescott 2M
Motherboard	Intel D915PGN onboard 5.1 audio & gigabit LAN
Cooling	Air
Memory	2gb OCZ Value ram
Video Card(s)	Powercolor ATI Radeon HD3650 512mb GDDR3
Storage	Boot: WD Raptor 80Gb 10,000rpm 16mb SATA, Storage: WD 500gb 7200rpm 16mb SATA
Display(s)	32" Toshiba LCD, PC input and dual HDMI
Case	Dynex ATX (It's huge) came with 500w psu & led fans
Audio Device(s)	Onboard 5.1
Power Supply	500w ATX included w/case
Software	Vista Home Premium 64-bit

System Name	---
Processor	FX 8350 @ 4.00 Ghz with 1.28v
Motherboard	Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 v4.0, Hacked Bios F4.x
Cooling	Silenx 4 pipe Tower cooler + 2 x Cougar 120mm fan, 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200 mm Red LED fan
Memory	Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866 16GB + Patriot Memory DDR3 1866 16GB
Video Card(s)	Asus R9 290 OC @ GPU - 1050, MEM - 1300
Storage	Inland 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD for OS, WDC Black - 2TB + 1TB Storage, Inland 480GB SSD - Games
Display(s)	3 x 1080P LCDs - Acer 25" + Acer 23" + HP 23"
Case	AeroCool XPredator X3
Audio Device(s)	Built-in Realtek
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000 Modular
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

System Name	EVA-01
Processor	Intel i7 13700K
Motherboard	Asus ROG Maximus Z690 HERO EVA Edition
Cooling	ASUS ROG Ryujin III 360 with Noctua Industrial Fans
Memory	PAtriot Viper Elite RGB 96GB @ 6000MHz.
Video Card(s)	Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3090 24GB OC EVA Edition
Storage	Addlink S95 M.2 PCIe GEN 4x4 2TB
Display(s)	Asus ROG SWIFT OLED PG42UQ
Case	Thermaltake Core P3 TG
Audio Device(s)	Realtek on board > Sony Receiver > Cerwin Vegas
Power Supply	be quiet DARK POWER PRO 12 1500W
Mouse	ROG STRIX Impact Electro Punk
Keyboard	ROG STRIX Scope TKL Electro Punk
Software	Windows 11

System Name	Whim
Processor	Intel Core i5 2500k @ 4.4ghz
Motherboard	Asus P8Z77-V LX
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212+
Memory	2 x 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws @ 1600mhz
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte GTX 670 2gb
Storage	Samsung 840 Pro 256gb, WD 2TB Black
Display(s)	Shimian QH270 (1440p), Asus VE228 (1080p)
Case	Cooler Master 430 Elite
Audio Device(s)	Onboard > PA2V2 Amp > Senn 595's
Power Supply	Corsair 750w
Software	Windows 8.1 (Tweaked)

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASUS TUF x670e
Cooling	EK AIO 360. Phantek T30 fans.
Memory	32GB G.Skill 6000Mhz
Video Card(s)	Asus RTX 4090
Storage	WD m.2
Display(s)	LG C2 Evo OLED 42"
Case	Lian Li PC 011 Dynamic Evo
Audio Device(s)	Topping E70 DAC, SMSL SP200 Headphone Amp.
Power Supply	FSP Hydro Ti PRO 1000W
Mouse	Razer Basilisk V3 Pro
Keyboard	Tester84
Software	Windows 11

Seagate PCB Replacement

Kraegos

New Member

Cybrnook2002

suraswami

sneekypeet

Retired Super Moderator

Cybrnook2002

PVTCaboose1337

Graphical Hacker

erocker

*

Kraegos

New Member

sneekypeet

Retired Super Moderator

suraswami

mullered07

lemonadesoda

suraswami

suraswami

lemonadesoda

System Name	Ma Biatch
Processor	i7 860
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3A
Cooling	Noctua
Memory	8gb (4x2gb) G-Skill
Video Card(s)	GTX 470
Storage	WD5000aaks raid0
Display(s)	Sony Bravia 37" 1080p
Case	CM 690
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair HX520
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate

System Name	ICE-QUAD // ICE-CRUNCH
Processor	Q6600 // 2x Xeon 5472
Memory	2GB DDR // 8GB FB-DIMM
Video Card(s)	HD3850-AGP // FireGL 3400
Display(s)	2 x Samsung 204Ts = 3200x1200
Audio Device(s)	Audigy 2
Software	Windows Server 2003 R2 as a Workstation now migrated to W10 with regrets.