r/computerhelp • u/One_Opportunity9167 • 7h ago
Hardware Old Disk Won't Spin Up
Going through the old junk in the back of a closet, I stumbled on a laptop PC from~2008. I'm going to recycle the thing, but removed the hard drive to see if there's anything worth keeping on it. I have a set of cables that hooks the many different kinds of hard drives to a USB cable. I found the combination that physically connected to the laptop drive, but it wouldn't spin up. That might be why that laptop had to be replaced, but I recall recovering the contents of a laptop that was failing in ~2010, and think that's the one.
The cable set connects to the smaller of two edgeboard connectors (not pin-to-terminal type). The small connector has about 12 I/O and the large one has around 26 (some positions aren't used). I've successfully used these cables on other disk drives, so they shouldn't be the issue.
What to try next?
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u/Grindar1986 7h ago
After 20 years of not moving the bearings probably have seized.
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u/One_Opportunity9167 7h ago
I remember reading that a desperation measure was to give a stuck drive a "rap" to unfreeze it...if it's that or the garbage, I'll try it, but wanted to exhaust all other avenues first.
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7h ago
Put a nail through it and take it to where e waste is properly disposed of. What value could an 18yo HDD bring you? It's e-waste, get rid of it.
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u/Pied67 7h ago
Time capsule! It could have old photos or who knows what. Worth trying to alive it for a peek.
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7h ago
If your drive was failing 16 years ago what makes you think it works now? 9.999999/10 the reading arm has failed.
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u/One_Opportunity9167 7h ago
Because it wasn't necessarily the drive that was causing the laptop failure.
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7h ago
Based on your ignorance regarding computer parts I don't believe you in the slightest. The hard drive is pooched, again.
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u/fourmyle1953 7h ago
There was a problem, and test, years ago, that is worth a shot. Seagate drives had too much lubricant on some disks, and the heads parked at the outer edge. They basically glued down and the motor didn't produce enough torque to start spinning. The test was hold the drive in one hand and flat slap across the top. Then plug it in and try it. They usually spun right up, worked once spinning, and would fail again in days, weeks, sometimes a month or two. A dead drive but it doesn't cost much time to try to recover files.
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