help, i crushed my HD!

[maiof]

hi all...
ok.. i'm overseas.. got a new battery for my mp3 player because the battyer wasn't holding much charge. when i changed it, i had to remove some of the internal padding, (the new one is a teeny tiny bit bigger). well, i don't remove enough padding and i guess i crushed the HD when i forced the player shut.
now the HD goes "putt, putt, putt, putt.." when i try to boot it..

i was wondering if it's somehow possible to fix it? i just want to get everythign off it because i was also using it to store my work and pics i've been taking here..

thank you,
mai0f

 

[greenmaji]

huh? your MP3 player has a hardrive? And you crushed it with your bare hands on accedent?

are you sure your not talking about a diffent kind of media?

and are you sure its the memory/storage making the noise?

 

[Tyreal]

His MP3 Player is probably a hard drive player. He removed some of the padding to put the new battery in. when he closed the player, the hdd got crushed. HDD as in the hard drive inside his player.

 

[greenmaji]

Id say try to get the info off that drive.
and I wouldnt have too high hopes of the drive itself being fixable.

 

[maiof]

yeah, it tries to boot, but nothing.. i had it opened while booting, and the HDD still doesn't spin up... is there something anyone can suggest i try (like opening and resetting the arm or something?)
i heard about on regular HDD where the arm is in a certain position that it'll not boot right, and moving it back to the "power off" position fixes it. does anyone know if that is true?


thanks,
mai0f

 

[Andor]

The chances of a non-professional fixing a hard drive is slim to none. But if it'd already dead at this point wouldn't hurt much to do whatever to it

 

[EvilT]

is the top of it pushed in?

 

[Dukeman]

I would not try to fix the drive myself if you really want the data off the drive. I would check with a local PC repair shop (one with a lot of experience) and see if they have a CF to ATA adapter that they could use to try to look at the drive on a PC.

 

[MVC]

I would not try to fix the drive myself if you really want the data off the drive. I would check with a local PC repair shop (one with a lot of experience) and see if they have a CF to ATA adapter that they could use to try to look at the drive on a PC.

Yeah, what he said. It doesn't sound like you'll be able to get the data off the drive and the more you mess with it the less likely anyone else will be able to.

 

[d94]

you could always try freezing it

 

[Sjaak]

you could always try freezing it

Yes but thats a very last resort...so far in every example of that being succesful, the drive died completely just after the operation.

What exactly are the drive specs and how does it look? Can you try it in a different player / swap out drive PCB?

 

[JCLW]

You can't get at the PCB unless you open up the drive.

Try it in a CF card reader.

 

[JCLW]

Just so people know what we're talking about:

 

[Sjaak]

Ouch

 

[JCLW]

 

[JCLW]

If it won't work in a CF card reader loosen off the top and try it.

 

[maiof]

i tried a CF reader, but it has different connections.

basicaly what happend was, i was reattaching the back end of the player, but since the battery is a "tad" bigger than the stock one, i had to force it shut.. there's no indication on the drive itself of it being crushed, but i know this is the problem, because it wont even spin up...

what does freezing do?

thanks,
mai0f

 

[N1NJA]

It shrinks the metal a little bit and usually lets it run for a little bit longer, just enough to get some files off of it, before it dies forever. Or so I've heard

 

[maiof]

ok... so i was all gloomy and what not about me crushing my HDD.
i google for a bit and see an advertisment for "data recovery" of bad HDDs.
i give them a call and i got quoted about $1000 an hour (clean room stuff).
i tried frezing it but no luck.
so i'm back in google. cant really find anything on repairing HDDs from the inside.

so i decieded to take it into my own hands. i didn't have the right tool to open the HDD so i made one, then i cleaned my hands REALLY GOOD (i'm overseas in the desert, lots of sand), i got a new zip lock bag out, put the drive in it and took it appart in there. while trying to keep the open end of the bag towards the ground to keep dust out.
i opened it, and noticed that the arm was still on the drive (if i remember right, they "park" when it's shut off) so i moved the arm CAREFULY to the parked position and closed it and booted it.. now i hear spin up and then a loud CLICK CLICK CLICK, which is better than the almost no sound i was getting. so i open it again and see the the arm came too far off the parked position and was stuck, so i unstuck it and closed it and retried.
AGAIN, same thing.
so i ended up crazy glueing a THICK peice of rubber electrical tape behind the "parking spot" to keep from it going too far back.
and leaving it in a zip lock bag with some bottle caps next to it to keep the bag from touching the disk,
then i managed to save about 8-9gb of my 13gb,,
YAY!
i attached a pic, and i have a clip of the HDD reading if anyone wants to see it, it's pretty cool..lol

thanks all for your moral support
-mai0f

 

[Sjaak]

Very cool. +1 tech skill for you.