HDD mechanical problem ?

[flytebass]

I can see I wasted my time coming here, the information I'm trying to recover is of no monetary value and certainly not worth paying to have recovered.
I've opened drives in the past and freed stuck actuators, its not rocket science.
If you look on youtube there are loads of vids about exactly this. OK, I'm not a tech, I'm a Goldsmith, I work with complicated and intricate items, I'm methodical and patient, I opened the drive in a clean enviroment and found out what was happening, I just wanted someone to explain why the actuator locks in place.

If I'd wanted smart arsed comments I would have asked my wife.

 

[Joe C]

If you look on youtube there are loads of vids about exactly this.

We do not open hard drives and work on actuators. What else can I say?
If you didn't open the drive then you could have gotten much more help. and someone here would suggest several different options to recover your data first before contaminating your hard drive

 

[1etherer]

I can see I wasted my time coming here, the information I'm trying to recover is of no monetary value and certainly not worth paying to have recovered.
I've opened drives in the past and freed stuck actuators, its not rocket science.
If you look on youtube there are loads of vids about exactly this. OK, I'm not a tech, I'm a Goldsmith, I work with complicated and intricate items, I'm methodical and patient, I opened the drive in a clean enviroment and found out what was happening, I just wanted someone to explain why the actuator locks in place.

If I'd wanted smart arsed comments I would have asked my wife.

The arm moves from the read/write zone when it is not in use ( no power to it) simple. if you move the arm yourself and the arm comes in to contact with the disk you will destroy or lose data on that disk.

It is very bad to open and try a repair on a HD if you do not specialize in it that field. THAT is why we are making them comments.

 

[flytebass]

ok I give up, I suppose it makes no difference that I've done this twice before "without" destroying the drive.
The drive does the same thing in the old PC as it does in the enclosure, disc spins but actuator stuck in locked position, so when it comes to retrieving data I had nothing to lose, whether the problem is mechanical or electrical, the drive isn't working.
I'll try another forum.

 

[1etherer]

ok I give up, I suppose it makes no difference that I've done this twice before "without" destroying the drive.
The drive does the same thing in the old PC as it does in the enclosure, disc spins but actuator stuck in locked position, so when it comes to retrieving data I had nothing to lose, whether the problem is mechanical or electrical, the drive isn't working.
I'll try another forum.

You just said all you wanted to know is why the arm locks in position, and I explained to you clearly. Your HD is damaged electronically which is why its not responding as it should. why will you go to another forum when I have given you the answer!

PS twice or 10 times, I still wont take your advice and start opening my HDs to try and fix them.

 

[carnageX]

ok I give up, I suppose it makes no difference that I've done this twice before "without" destroying the drive.
The drive does the same thing in the old PC as it does in the enclosure, disc spins but actuator stuck in locked position, so when it comes to retrieving data I had nothing to lose, whether the problem is mechanical or electrical, the drive isn't working.
I'll try another forum.

Yes, it is possible to repair drives and not kill them if you open the cover - though it's generally not advisable since you can still cause irreversible damage.

Either something on the actual read/write arm is bad (usually there's a little chip on it), or possibly a fault with the controller board on the outside of the HDD. Before opening it up, did you try hooking it up directly to the PC instead of through an external USB enclosure? Then you could see if your BIOS properly detects it or not.

It's possible that while moving it, you accidentally bumped it and it locked itself as well as a "failsafe" maybe (or even just damaged), as well.

 

[Joe C]

This is what would have damaged the drive

I unlocked it and moved the actuator to the outside of the disk

The read/write heads float on a cushion of air created by the hi spin of the platters, dragging the heads across your platters is very bad juju, it damages the heads and the platters