Author Archives: tabcom

[07 Oct 2016] – Investigation and diagnostics report

Symptoms

Suspect faulty hard disk.  Hard disk content is not accessible on computer.  If possible recover personal files (documents, photos, etc.).

Investigation

Brand: Toshiba
Model: MQ01ABD100 (1TB 5400RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s)
Manufacturing Date: 20 Dec 2014
Serial Number: Z4KVTC9OT
Shock detection circuit: Yes
Platters: 2
Heads: 4
Cylinders: 231312
Logical Block Addressing (LBA) blocks; 1,953,525,168

  • The hard disk powers up properly.
  • The hard disk controller board appears to be properly driving the actuator arm and spindle motor.
  • There does not appear to be a seized spindle / ball bearing.
  • The spindle motor is capable of spinning up the platters to full speed.
  • The hard disk spins continuously and does not spin down / spin up repeatedly.
  • There is no characteristic sound of the read/write head actuator arm reaching the end stop (*tick-tick-tick*).
  • The actuator arm is properly parked in the landing zone.
  • The actuator arm is not stuck.
  • The read/write head has not crashed.

There is however a repetitive noise coming from the hard disk read/write head.  It is too faint to record on a cell phone; you have to place your ear on the drive to hear it.

  • The read/write head appears to be experiencing problems judging from the sounds made by the actuator arm when the hard disk is connected to a SATA power cable briefly.

It is not possible to replace a single read/write head.  It is possible to attempt to swap platters where the stack of platters is transferred to an identical donor hard disk.  This is an operation that requires clean-room facilities and specialized tools.  If the protective cover of the hard disk has been removed, or if the hard disk has been left running connected to a computer, it is likely one or more of the platter surfaces may have been damaged.  The chances of a complete successful recovery are slim – if anything the recovery will be partial and the cost will be significant (dust-free environment, sourcing of an identical donor hard disk, platter swap procedure).

Please indicate whether or not you would like us to return the faulty hard disk via Australia post regular mail in a padded envelope (at no cost).

Tablelands Computers
0497 795 444

 

[07 Oct 2016] – Investigation and diagnostics report was last modified: October 30th, 2016 by tabcom

Error copying large files when extracting Windows ISO to USB memory stick (FAT32)

UEFI BIOS is required for hard disk partitions used as boot volume ([C:]) that are over 2TB in size.    When you enable UEFI BIOS, hard disks will be initialized using GPT partitioning scheme instead of MBR partitioning scheme.  Also, UEFI BIOS will detect any valid bootable operating systems on a FAT32 formatted USB memory stick automatically.  USB memory sticks do not have to be made ‘bootable’; there is no requirement to run ‘bootsect.exe /NT60 <drive letter>’.

Problem

When I format a USB memory stick as FAT32 and attempt to extract a Windows ISO, I receive an error copying one or more (large) files.

Solution

Use disk partitioning utility Rufus released under General Public License (GPL) to format using [GPT for UEFI] partitioning scheme and [Large FAT32] file system.  Browse to the ISO image or extract manually later.

win8x64_uefi

Your computer should now be able to boot from this USB memory stick.  Press F12 for boot menu or boot options.

Error copying large files when extracting Windows ISO to USB memory stick (FAT32) was last modified: October 6th, 2016 by tabcom

Hard disk emergency data recovery (electrical fault)

Symptoms

Hard disk had been connected to a new modular power supply but the old modular power supply’s SATA power cables were reused.

Cause

Modular power supply leads are not standardized unfortunately.  If you buy a Thermaltake modular power supply to replace a Seasonic modular power supply, you have to install the Thermaltake SATA power cables as well, otherwise you risk supplying +7Vdc or +12Vdc to the GND pins of the hard disk, or +12Vdc to the +7Vdc pin of the hard disk.

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Hard disk emergency data recovery (electrical fault) was last modified: November 10th, 2016 by tabcom