16 Aug
2005
16 Aug
'05
8:27 a.m.
I have a disk drive - a (relatively) modern sealed unit - which appears
to have mechanical trouble. The noise it makes spinning up says to my
ear "bearing friction".
I'm considering taking it apart and lubing the bearing. Of course,
this would at best be a temporary fix, since it is on its way out at
this point; this is more to gain experience on a throwaway device than
to actually recover the drive. (All the bits from it are safe; live
mirroring is great for that.)
Any tips from the collective wisdom? Obviously, I want to do this in
as close to a cleanroom as I can reasonably find, and have the platter
assembly open as short a time as I can. But I don't, for example, have
any idea what would be a suitable lubricant to use - assuming the
bearing isn't a totally sealed assembly itself....
ObOTness thread: the disk itself may be formally on-topic; it's
certainly close to - it is stamped "MAR 31 1996".
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16 Aug
16 Aug
9:03 a.m.
der Mouse wrote:
I have a disk drive - a (relatively) modern sealed
unit - which appears
to have mechanical trouble. The noise it makes spinning up says to my
ear "bearing friction".
I'm considering taking it apart and lubing the bearing. Of course,
this would at best be a temporary fix, since it is on its way out at
this point; this is more to gain experience on a throwaway device than
to actually recover the drive. (All the bits from it are safe; live
mirroring is great for that.)
Any tips from the collective wisdom? Obviously, I want to do this in
as close to a cleanroom as I can reasonably find, and have the platter
assembly open as short a time as I can. But I don't, for example, have
any idea what would be a suitable lubricant to use - assuming the
bearing isn't a totally sealed assembly itself....
ObOTness thread: the disk itself may be formally on-topic; it's
certainly close to - it is stamped "MAR 31 1996".
I've done it before, but I find it's not usually worth it, unless you
can't access data on the drive, and you really need that data. I'd say
if that drive is still working, find an identical drive and dd the data
over.
The drive is nowhere near as valuable as the data, at least for newish
drives.
Peace... Sridhar
9:06 a.m.
I have a disk
drive [with problems].
I'm considering taking it apart and lubing the bearing.
I've done it
before, but I find it's not usually worth it, unless you
can't access data on the drive, and you really need that data. I'd
say if that drive is still working, find an identical drive and dd
the data over. > (All the bits from it are safe; live mirroring is
great for that.)
but rather for the doing of it. As I wrote, it's
> more to gain experience on a throwaway device than
to actually
> recover the drive.
So that when (if) I really need to, I'll have some idea what I'm doing.
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9:29 a.m.
der Mouse wrote:
I see. Most of the time, when I need to recover the data from the drive
and it's a bearing problem, I don't bother doing it myself. Maybe
someone else has more experience with physical issues.
When I end up fixing a drive myself, the reason is usually blown
electronics, and the fix is usually fairly simple: I get my hands on
another identical drive (preferably one with lots of bad sectors, or
that has a seized bearing... I get them for free a lot of the time) and
I swap the drive electronics out.
Peace... Sridhar
>more to
gain experience on a throwaway device than to actually
>recover the drive.
So that when (if) I really need to, I'll have some idea what I'm doing. 
4:08 p.m.
On Tue, 16 Aug 2005, Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
Peace... Sridhar
Hey, good to see you re-surface again.
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16 Aug
16 Aug
4:45 p.m.
I have a disk drive - a (relatively) modern sealed unit - which appears
to have mechanical trouble. The noise it makes spinning up says to my
ear "bearing friction".
Maybe, maybe not... Does it still work reliably (in other words, could it
be a headcrash?)
I'm considering taking it apart and lubing the bearing. Of course,
I've never done this, but I can possibly give you some problems you'll
have to work arounds
1) You will probably have to remove the platters and heads. Apart from
the obvious problem of contamination, you also need to keep the alignment
precise. This is something that's not necessary when the drive is first
assmebled, it's assembled, and _then_ it's low-level formatted. But you
need to be able to read the existing data on the drive, right?
2) Dismanting the motor to get to the bearings is going to be
non-trivial, if it's even possible. I would assume it's assembled on a
press, it may not be possible to get the parts to separate again without
damage.
3) A few weeks back we had a thread where somebody stated that the
lubricant in hard disk bearings was critical, as it must not creep over
the platters (most lubricants do).
-tony
17 Aug
17 Aug
2:55 a.m.
On Wed, 2005-08-17 at 00:45 +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
1) You will probably have to remove the platters and
heads. Apart from
the obvious problem of contamination, you also need to keep the alignment
precise. This is something that's not necessary when the drive is first
assmebled, it's assembled, and _then_ it's low-level formatted. But you
need to be able to read the existing data on the drive, right?
And even if you don't want the data and just want the drive working
again, as it's a modern unit you'll have to find the right LLF utility
for that specific drive - which may be easier said than done!
It'd be interesting to know what data recovery companies do when they
get a drive with ruined bearings (or spindle motor) and need to get the
data off. Maybe that's the point where it gets *really* tricky and they
have to sample data from each surface seperately and assemble by hand /
in software...
cheers
Jules
10:55 a.m.
And even if you don't want the data and just want
the drive working
again, as it's a modern unit you'll have to find the right LLF
utility for that specific drive - which may be easier said than done!
Sending a FORMAT UNIT command isn't enough?
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11:10 a.m.
On Wed, 2005-08-17 at 13:55 -0400, der Mouse wrote:
Hmm, I was assuming this was an IDE disk - I admit to only coming into
this halfway through though! :-)
And even if
you don't want the data and just want the drive working
again, as it's a modern unit you'll have to find the right LLF
utility for that specific drive - which may be easier said than done!
Sending a FORMAT UNIT command isn't enough?
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
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mouse＠Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA -
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