Re: Problem with a Maxtor Onetouch II 300GB
- From: Odie Ferrous <odie_ferrous@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:55:49 +0000
google@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Hello Melkuth,
>
> We concur with the info and comments from the other contributor -
> overheating !
>
> Aurora IT Systems are one of Europe's foremost Data Recovery and
> Forensic labs and are actually located in Sweden. We see many incoming
> Maxtor HDD's each and every day of the week. LaCie external drives
> have a similar failure rate (any guesses which drive they usually use
> ?)
>
> You requested some advice; here is at least some background to your
> problem:
>
> The failure is almost always due to overheating of the fluid bearing,
> causing either vibration of the platter (the actual disk on which your
> data is recorded) or a complete motor stop. Either case requires most
> advanced data recovery techniques:
>
> IF the platter vibrates, the outer edges of the platter can actually
> touch the read head. The read head should be floating on a microscopic
> cushion of air and should never come in physical contact with data
> stored on modern HDD's (that's Hard Disk Drives) When it happens,
> the energy released causes an equal and opposite movement of the tip of
> the servo arm supporting the read (and write) heads; since the servo
> arm is usually constructed of a thin strip of non-magnetic stainless
> steel, it now functions as an excellent spring . . .
>
> The read head now returns to the media, crashes into the surface again
> and bounces several times, rather like throwing a flat pebble across a
> smooth water surface.
>
> You think that's bad news . . . it gets much worse.
>
> The above mentioned head collision with the highly polished magnetic
> media will almost always caused some particles to be released; these
> particles are referred to as debris. This debris now rotates within
> the, previously surgically clean, hermetic enclosure of your HDD. Since
> the air within the HDD is rotating just slightly slower than the actual
> platter and motor combination, it is a very short time before the
> rotating cloud of debris collides into the read head, in practice about
> 10 milliseconds after the first crash.
>
> If the actual crash occurred near the center of the platters, much of
> the debris will miss the read heads due to the fact that centrifugal
> force within the vortex will move many particles outwards. Note that I
> use the term 'much', not 'all'
>
> Many of the particles that now collide with the head will stick to the
> previously polished surface of the read heads, very much like pollen
> attached to the rear legs of a honey bee.
>
> // some excellent microscopic images of this effect can be seen on our
> very large web site - aurora.se //
>
> Unfortunately these particles are both very hard and also very sharp,
> they instantly escalate the first crash site into more serious
> concentric scratches, which in turn produced more debris etc etc . . .
>
> In many cases much data can be successfully recovered after
> considerable effort, changing read heads and cleaning the entire media
> surface.
>
> (I hope that all this is not too technical).
>
> The other scenario: total motor stop
>
> Even worse; the platters ( just look on the aurora site if you're
> curious ) are assembled using an industrial robot, and at the moment of
> production have no particular positional or angular relation to each
> other. Once the drive is factory formatted, a great deal of technical
> data is stored on specially used zones on the HDD, this area has
> several names; service area and factory zone among others. Access to
> this region of the HDD is paramount to ANY recovery attempt.
>
> >From this moment onwards the position of each platter relative to other
> platters is most critical. We work with microscopes equipped with laser
> markers and nano manipulators to index the current reference of each
> platter before disassembling the drive to its component parts. The
> entire drive is then rebuilt using a donator or drive having almost
> exactly similar characteristics, even the magnet and servo arm must be
> exactly replaced.
>
> Well, that's just a part of the story, to succeed you also will need
> about 20+ years of experience and preferable at least a good degree in
> physics and electronics. You will also require head lifters,
> nano-manipulators, optical microscopes and, in our case, an array of
> Tektronix analysis and test equipment. Lastly you will require
> facilities with air showers, surgically clean lint free protective
> clothing, environmental control and breathing filters and obviously,
> clean working areas with at least class 100 status.
> If you are a student, we would be happy to take a look at your drive
> without charges, but to be very honest with you, the cost of recovery
> in the above scenarios (even taking account of our generous price
> reduction for private persons) is usually prohibitive.
>
> Under NO circumstances whatsoever should you or anyone else open the
> drive, nor should you even attempt to restart the drive unless you are
> prepared to loose your data forever.
>
> Contact us if we can be of any help,
>
> Tony Kvarnstrom
> CTO
> Aurora IT Systems AB
> SWEDEN
Goodness me. Quite a response!
I'll do the task for around £200.
I have a specially optimised recovery system, specifically designed for
Maxtor OneTouch drives, that simply "vacuums" the data off the failed
drive. Of course, Dyson has a part to play in this...
Seriously, though, my success rate with recovering Maxtor OneTouch
drives is 100% to date.
Odie
(And yes - Maxtor Ireland know me very well. I send *plenty* of their
drives back for RMA replacement.)
--
Retrodata
www.retrodata.co.uk
Globally Local Data Recovery Experts
.
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