I'm pretty sure I've got the exact same version.  All the numbers on the
board are the same.

It does spin up.  Not sure if it's the correct RPM, but looks and sounds
about right.  Heads move around freely.

The drive is a Fujitsu MPG3409AT.

Thanks,

Gary

At 02:45 PM 10/30/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> >         Got a HDD that stopped working.  I'd like to get some data off
> it, but
> > want to try and do it myself (it's that tinkering thing).  It spins up.  I
> > do NOT hear the normal scratchy noise like when the heads crash.
>
>Well, thats a promising start.
>
> >         Tried putting it in the fridge for 30 min. and then running it
> (had a
> > couple people say this might work).  No luck.
> >         Tried tapping it on all sides.  No luck.
>
>Tapping is for when the heads stick to the drive platter.
>
> >         So, I bought another drive exactly like it.  First I tried
> swapping the
>                                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>INCLUDING the revision level of the electronics??
>
> > electronic board from the good HDD to the bad HDD.  No luck.
>
>A good start but the HD preamps or servo amp may have been toast. A write
>amp failure would wipe out the servo sectors and render the platter
>unreadable.
>
> >         So, I started to get desperate.  I too apart the drives and
> took the head
> > units out and swapped them.  No luck.  At this point I have swapped
>
>You'd have to get the 'home' position -exactly- correct for the drive
>to initialize properly. Did it try to move the heads across the platter?
>Did it bang them at one end, several times trying to find home track?
>
> > EVERYTHING from the good drive to the bad drive except the platters and
> > motor that makes them spin and still have had no luck.  The PC just doesn't
>
>Did they bad platters spin at the correct rate? If one field (or FET) of the
>drive motor was out, it shouldn't spin, but if it did, it would
>be slow and so the data would not decode properly.
>
> > see the HDD there at all.  I can put a good HDD in there and it works fine
>
>Even with the NEW electronics? Generally a drive will respond to
>a 'drive identify' command even if there are problems with the media.
>What make/model of drive are you trying to resurrect?
>
> > (so it's not the PC itself).
>
>A reasonable presumption, assuming that when you moved the heads over,
>you also moved the matching electronics. Even then, they have
>changed the way they write the tracks and so the firmware
>won't recognize the old platter format (hence the importance of matching
>the revision levels).
>
> >         I moved everything back to the good HDD and it still works.  I
> know the
>
>Wow. You can fix my dead drives anytime. I did the same as you, but the
>Seagate guts simply refused to recognize the platters after the move back.
>(the 1.6GB drive were notorious for failure).
>
> > whole deal about "clean room environment", but hey it still works for now.
>
>As long as you keep the big sticky stuff off the media, you can do ok
>with a final blast of canned air to clean it off.
>
> >         Anyway, does anyone have a clue what to try?  Since I swapped
> everything,
> > I can't figure out what's wrong.  Is there something you have to do to make
> > the new head unit recognize a new set of platters?
>
>I think your problem may be a difference in the media formatting between
>the old and the new. Did you try using the New heads with the OLD
>electronics in case it was a preamp problem (Connor drives were bad
>for servo amp failure).
>
>Do you have a scope that you could use to compare the head signals
>between the two drives? If a head controller failed, it could wipe
>out the servo sectors with the results that you describe above (new
>everything but still no joy). It could also be that you didn't quite
>get the home position correct so try again with new heads/old electronics
>IF you see that sll heads product correct looking signals. You'll need
>at least a 50Mhz BW scope to see the RF envelopes correctly.
>
>Robert
>
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Gary Neal
Research Assistant - Drivetrain Technology Center
Applied Research Laboratory - Penn State University
PO Box 30
Research Building West
North Atherton Street
State College, PA 16801
814-863-5468 (phone)
814-863-6185 (fax)

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