Thread: 100Gb Seagate Dead or not? Repair suggestions

Hi I have a seagate on a 2.5 to ide converter , One of the 5v came out of the molex and must have shorted .

Now when drive is plugged in it will kill the psu like there is some sort of short move from 100 gig to a 1.3 gig harddrive now not very happy I recommend checking these things out carefully, any one know if this can be repaired, It realy hacks me off . But what can I do

Hi - I'm not following the last part of your post, but you said when connected the PSU shuts down? Here are the steps I would try.

1. Remove the IDE cable and power connector from the adapter and make sure your system boots up fine.

2. Next, connect the IDE and power connector to the adapter, leaving the HDD disconnected. If the PSU fails, try removing one of the cables first then the other to isolate. Also try with a different IDE cable.

3. If above is good, disconnect the power connector from the adapter, and leaving the IDE cable connected, carefully attach the HDD and turn on your system. That will help isolate if there is a short.

4. If that still works fine. Reconnect the PSU and see if it fires up, if it doesn't, sounds like something is shorted on the board.

If that is the case, you may get lucky and see a visible component burnt, and with some research and luck, you might be able to repair the board. What model is the HDD? I might have some time to look into this for you a bit more. I do data recovery/hdd repair part time, so have a lot of reference material. BTW is the drive still under warranty? If it is, send it back for an RMA.

Good luck

RRG

Many thanks I have tryed the drive adaptor with another hard drive and works fine. So my thoughts lead to the hard drive. Ill study the board but I have contacted seagate for a RMA. But I think that will take ages who knows if they will even reply!! I have all fingures crossed Ill **** around with the 1.3 gig for a while unfortuantly lastnight it had a currupt file on it now xp wont boot and it was a mission to install windows as it is I wonder if i can use a boot floppy to restore the files!?

" Ill post the number " tonight

Seagate momentus 5400.2

Philhop makes a good call. That is one technique I have used in the past. It should be noted that newer drives store calibration information in the circuit board's firmware, specific to the platters, so there may be some offset etc. If the RMA approach doesn't work, definately try Philhop's approach. Look on the circuit board for any identifying numbers such as revision numbers, firmware versions, lot numbers etc so you can match up the replacement as closley as possible. Last but not least, if you do get a new board and it is working, it would be a good idea to download the data lifeguard diagnostics and run the extended tests to verify drive integrity then write 0's to the drive. http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?swid=1

Good luck

The problem is that I cannot boot with the hard drive in it kills the computer so writing 0's is not a option. Theres no visible damage etheir so the drive has to be rma'd sent back to seagate this will cause a massive downtime

Originally Posted by Tidder

Could always try to find an identical model on ebay for cheap, then just replace circuit boards. I've done this in the past as hard drive "recovery". There are even places that stock dead drives with good boards just for this purpose.

How cheep would you ship to new zealand.

Philhop - I think you misunderstood me. I said IF you get a replacement board and it works, write 0's to it. Obviously the drive is dead now so this can't be done.

Philhop - if time is so critical, you can ask Segate to do a secured cross ship RMA. Basically, you get an RMA number and leave them with a credit card number and they ship you a replacement right away. When they recieve your drive, the RMA is closed off. If there is no visible damage to the drive, they won't deny warranty replacement. I have done this in the past, and my credit card has never been billed. Just make sure once you recieve the replacement unit, you pack your dead drive in the box and ship it out within a day or 2. Use a courier with a tracking number. Note - the Momentus series hard drives come with a 5 year warranty. http://www.seagate.com/products/discfamily/momentus/