Does the plunk plunk mean it's a platter problem or a controller board problem? Can it be diagnosed in this fashion?

It's a friend's hard drive, and of course, he didn't make any backup of his photos...which are located on the drive. Of course, it's a dell...do they use maxtors?

I'll have more info, when he gets the drive/dell to me so that I can find the model of the HD.

Just curious...but how hard would it be to change the controller board? Lots of intense soldering?

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All I ever really needed to know, I learned from watching Star Trek.

Unless the drive is totally silent, it is not a controller board problem. Too bad about your friends photos - they're history.

I disagree... it COULD be a controller problem.

If you can find a drive EXACTLY identical, you can try a controller swap.
No soldering required. Just be VERY careful with all the little bitty connectors!

Worst than can happen is you fail... which is kinda where you're at now...

If it DOESN'T work, ask him if his photo's are worth a trip to Drive Savers (think four digit number...)

Once this is resolved, smack him upside the head and teach him how to back his stuff up.

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

The plunk sound is being made by an arm on which the read/write head resides.

That is *very* bad and won't fix itself. (That would me more of a miracle than the madonna on a grilled cheese.)

Which reminds me-- your friend's pictures are indeed toast.

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I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

Is the drive already inaccessible or is this an intermittent problem? If intermittent, treat the disk as if it may fail at any time. This means the contents should be backed up, and no new data should be added to the drive unless it is also stored elsewhere. An erase and reformat may correct the problem in about 50% of the cases (sometimes these symptoms are due to a seek error from disk corruption rather than a physical failure), but keep a careful eye on the drive and do not use it for critical data storage.

If it has failed and is not accessible, you can try the old freezer trick. That is, remove the drive and place it in the freezer for about an hour. Reinstall and try the drive. If it works, get the important stuff off post haste.

It is inaccessible.

So which step should I try first?

The freezer trick? Does this really work, or am I being put on my TLB???

I suspect the controller board trick will be second.

Thanks for the info.


BTW- couldn't this be a 'stiction' problem? I saved the data off of an Apple 20 MB HD (circa 1989) by removing the cover and spinning the drive a little...then powered on the device. Voila! Got the data off.

P.S. No, it's not worth thousands of dollars for him to get the pictures off....

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All I ever really needed to know, I learned from watching Star Trek.

Told to me by an old IT guy and it worked on an old PC drive for me. Here's another testimonial, but he needed 24 hours freezing to get 20 minutes of run time.
[geeksaresexy.blogspot.com]

Why do people thinks about backing up their files only after the hard drive becomes inaccessible and any hope of recover is nil? Also modern hard drives are a work of modern science; the controller card is micro processor driven and works in tandem with the linear positioner motor and heads. It is mated at assembly time and is calibrate as a unit. It is not like changing an alternator on your car, more like a fine 21 jeweled watch. Not to be tampered with!!

Oh @#$%&. Time to back up my files.
Whenever someone posts up a horror story HD failure, it's a reminder for me to back up. Thanks all.

I've done the freezer trick twice now.
Slaved (wrapped in bubble wrap the whole time) and knew exactly where the <100mb of data was to retrieve.
2 successes, about 20 failures.
Heat up and fail in less than two minutes, though. Gotta be quick.