Question: So, I have a hard drive, what happens is as follows: the arm begins to move when the drive spins up. It moves around for a couple seconds and then repeatedly slams into the center piece (the spindle). After doing that a few times, the drive slows down and stops spinning.
My guess is the drive was looking for something, couldn’t find it, thus it shut itself down? However, that wouldn’t explain why it was knocking into the spindle.
I’m wondering what people think the issue would be: the PCB, the arm itself, or the spindle’s motor.
I’m currently at a loss.
I only need it to work for one boot considering I have many terabytes now to image this really old drive to.
inb4 dead, inb4 data recovery center. Although I’d hate to lose the drive, I’ve already opened it to see why it was clicking, so I’m already in “no man’s land”. I might as well go for broke. So, if I need to replace the PCB/arm/etc. I will do so myself.
Answer:The heads and preamp are located on the headstack.
HDDs from the inside articles:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=16
http://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_from_inside.html
You would need a head replacement tool. Not really a first time DIY proposition …
https://apextoollab.com/search/?search=ST31000524AS
https://hddsurgery.com/data-recovery-tools/hdds-sea-7200-12-11-10-p1-set
These drives have a serial terminal port which outputs diagnostic information. You would need a USB-TTL adapter (approx. US$5).
There is plenty of info at hddoracle.com and hddguru.com.
In short, I think your chances are extremely slim.