Spindle Motor Failures, Seized Platters
A common physical failure within certain hard drives is platter seizing.
This is when the platters are unable to spin up, and the drive is
inaccessible. There are a number of possible causes for this type of
failure. The two main drive types where we see spindle motor problems are in
external hard drives and
laptop hard drives.
The typical symptoms of a motor seizure is for the platters not to spin
up, and there will be a quiet buzzing, tapping or beeping noise that will
come from the hard disk drive
In external hard drives, the cause is typically due to the drive being
bumped or jarred in some fashion. This results in the shaft of the spindle
motor either being slightly bent or broken.
Seagate hard drives seem to be especially weak in this area, and very
prone to seized platters.
In laptop hard drives, we commonly see drives where the heads have moved
from the parking ramp and onto the platters. This results in the heads
seizing to the platters and the platters are then unable to spin up. Another
common problem, mainly in
Toshiba laptop drives, is a breakdown of the fluid dynamic bearing. In
these cases the spindle motor is either unable to spin up to the proper
speed, or the speed is erratic. The drive will usually make a loud
"whirring" sound as well. In these cases the lubricant used within the
bearing starts to break down and "gum" up. The thicker it becomes the harder
it is for the drive to attain it's normal operating speed.
There are rare instances where a drive that is stationary within a
desktop environment will also have a spindle motor failure. In some Seagate
drives we have seen where the spindle shaft will actually develop a burr,
and at some random point, the spindle motor will seize up due to the burr.
Hard drives with seized spindle motors are almost always recoverable.
Whether we have to transfer the platters over to another drive casing with a
good spindle motor, or we have to repair the existing one, as long as the
platters are not physically damaged, then the data should be recoverable.
WE CURE WHERE OTHERS START PRAYING BECAUSE WE BELIEVE
IN OURSELVES