www.deadharddrive.com

[TBJ77]

Hello my hard drive has stopped working

I use it in an external enclosure conected via USB2.

The main problem is that it turns on and seems to be spinning but windows can't seem to recognize it - it seems to be trying to read the disk by continually starting and stopping aprox every 2 seconds.

Do you know what this sounds like?

Do think changing the board is the answer? if so I have found a possible replacement

I have a:

Main Controller IC: 040111300(agere Ardent C8-C1) M8FYB

Maxtor DimondMax Plus 9 160GB ATA/133 HDD

Not Sure of the cache memory

CODE: YAR41BWO K,M,C,A

6Y160P0042811



Can I replace it with:



Main Controller IC: 040111300(agere Ardent C8-C1) M8FYB

Tested and Working on the following HDD:-

Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9 160GB ATA/133 HDD

Cache Memory: 8MB

Code: YAR41BW0 K,G,B,A - (Different to my model)

6Y160P0042811



I would be very grateful for your help.

Regards,

M. Aldworth

[hdd]

Yes. However, the fact that it is spinning will make me think it is something other than your PCB. Don't be upset if it does not work, even after you replace with a new PCB


Take it out of the USB box and plug it into your main board (Motherboard) maybe that will help

[TBJ77]

Hi - Thanks for your reply -

I tried that and ran the Maxtor Diagnostics tool PowerMax 4.23 - It eventually came up with an error code and said to contact Maxtor support - after loading up windows a few times it went through the disk trying to correct errors - however even when the drive did appear in my computer it was not accessible and said something about I/O error -

Another symptom is: when I shake the drive gently, on its side, I can hear the disk moving. I presume that this should not be happening and leads me to believe that this may be where the problem lies.
Has anyone had any experience of this?

Is it fixable?

The drive isn't even 2 years old so I am still within the warranty period. However I have about 80GB of data that I do not want to lose.

Are there any other options other than sending it away for recovery?

If not, are they really 100% confidential?

I would really appreciate anyone's advice.

[doug2060]

Please don't do that! Shaking it can cause further damage. It may be normal to hear this noise. Do you know the health of your drive? Download a free program called speedfan. (try download.com) Its an excellent program which can detect your motherboard and hard drive temps and control your fan speeds that connect to your motherboard. Also an excellent feature is that it can detect your hard drives health and even give you a totally free online report. I highly recommend it. If it detects problems you should try to retrieve as much data as possible (T here may be free programs that help you do this, or programs with free trials) and ship it off for repair or replacement before it's too late. Maxtor people are assholes about warranties and if you didn't send off a warranty card within a certain period of time they will only cover it from the time it left the factory. Who knows how long it sat on a shelf my friend

[TBJ77]

OK thanks a lot for your advice I will report back with any news.