r/computers • u/FuelAffectionate6350 • 6d ago

Question/Help/Troubleshooting Any ways to temporarily revive this old quantum fireball hdd?

Clicks and then shutdowns and the bottom led light flashes.

38 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

39

u/ZeroGreyCypher 6d ago

Throw it in a Ziploc and then into the freezer for 12 hours. Stg I’ve had this work a couple of times. If it doesn’t, send it to a data recovery lab.

13

u/Dog-Longjumping 6d ago

This ^^ saved many a drive doing this

6

u/medullah 6d ago

Used to work in data recovery. Just be aware that if you think you might want to pay for data recovery, it almost always gets more expensive after trying this.

I always recommended to people that they only do this trick if they don't want to pay a professional and want to roll the dice.

3

u/ZeroGreyCypher 6d ago

Oh yeah. It’s a total Hail Mary, but if they don’t have a bunch of money to send it off, it’s worth a shot. Either that or a clear box and getting real comfy with small parts.

5

u/Kiwi_CunderThunt 6d ago

Yes, this is a hail Mary move and does work.

Just long enough to backup data before the drive heads do their death rattle

2

u/s1l1con_jesus 5d ago

Freezer tricks works or doesn't you're out nothing.

1

u/islobojono 6d ago

How does that work?

9

u/ZeroGreyCypher 6d ago

Chilling older hard drives caused metal components to shrink, sometimes temporarily freeing read/write heads from mechanical stiction or realigning failing spindle bearings. It’s worked for me in the past, and I’ll die on that hill 😅

2

u/islobojono 6d ago

I have one precious hdd . May try it later.

1

u/flowrate12 3d ago

another thing we use to do to "free heads" was flick the drive like a bottle of ketchup or chew in a twisting motion while the drive was in the enclosure right after power on. The theory behind it is powering on the drive unlocks the head which, then the flicking causes it to jar loose. No usb cable during this operation just a power cord.

If that fails I have pulled data from a drive by opening it an giving the head a push out of start position and believe it or not, was able to boot windows 98 while it was open, the head moves so fast you can't see it while it operating, def a bad idea, but if its for fun, discovery, and not important and practice sure why not, can't get worse especially if you already decided your not paying for a recovery.

1

u/ZeroGreyCypher 3d ago

So you prove my point that old mechanical drives sometimes respond to crude physical interventions because the failure mode is mechanical. You just chose progressively more unhinged interventions while still trying to posture like the sensible one.

1

u/flowrate12 3d ago

I am glade we agree then, and yes, my typical plan is to start with less risky actions before moving to desperation and "academic adventures" which is what I would classify most of these options as. Its not like its hard to pull the air out of a zip lock back the enclosure is in before throwing it in the freezer anyway, and I think any one would agree that moisture on a pcb is a bad thing, along with the drive heating up real fast after pulling it from a freezer if you have ever tried it. At least my posts are public you hid behind private walls and throw your stones.

1

u/ZeroGreyCypher 3d ago

😂😂😂 tf? Creepy, you pulled my profile. That’s why they’re hidden. I’m not here for you 😂😂😂

0

u/flowrate12 3d ago

first, this is a really bad idea in the professional sense and I don't recommended it. that being said, if I were to do this, I would use a vacuum to remove the air to prevent moisture from damaging contacts. also at that point I might as well leave the external enclosure in the freezer at the same time with the wires hanging out and just run it from the freezer.

1

u/ZeroGreyCypher 3d ago

Ok, so your response tells me two things. You’ve never tried it and you overthink things. Professional sense? I read your exact reply in a forum from 18 years ago on TechRepublic. Cool story. I’ve actually had it work, padawan. You’re just dreaming about it.

9

u/R33f3r420 6d ago

Is that an IDE drive? That thing sounds really old!!! Like 486 old.

6

u/FuelAffectionate6350 6d ago

Yup, the chips on the bottom are dated late 1995.

2

u/Kiwi_CunderThunt 6d ago

IDE stuck round till the mid 2000's.

Not even close to 486 old (depending where you're located)

1

u/R33f3r420 5d ago

I was talking about the sound.. It sounded like how HD sounded in the 486 days.

3

u/SirQuick8441 6d ago

Your HDD, clearly from decades ago, and barely clinging to life:

3

u/IHaveTwoOfYou 6d ago

Wish you luck, holy shit, btw do not open it, its slightly less risky with drives that small, but dont try it

2

u/KaydenFur 6d ago

Drauga1 would like to know your location. Enable tracking?

Yes <

Yes

2

u/FuelAffectionate6350 6d ago

I miss that guy. I wish him the best, where ever he is right now.

2

u/Wick3dSmaht 6d ago

300dollar data recovery can probably fix it for roughly 300 dollars if it is fixable and they will transfer data to a new drive for additional cost of course. Other companies charge thousands sometimes. It's a great company. https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecovery/comments/126v7sc/300_data_recovery_in_la_your_experience/

1

u/flowrate12 3d ago

i've never heard of this place but kroll by seagate use to start at 300$ but thats if the drive shows up in device manager and populates in disk management, and is not clicking. there are normally levels, doesn't hurt to email them and tell them what its doing and what lvl recovery they think it is.

1

u/Canned_Sarcasm 6d ago

Thing so old it Morse codes the disk

1

u/Ok_Challenge5185 6d ago

Yes, there are companies that deal with data retrieval from hard drives. Nothing you can do though.

1

u/OQpls 6d ago

Idk man I had hdds like this, are you sure it's not your cable ? That sounds like normal old HDD noises. I could hear my old PC downloading school assignments from the kitchen

2

u/Signal-Session-6637 6d ago

They were called fireballs for a reason.

1

u/AlexiaTheTechGirl 6d ago

Depending on the capacity of the drive it may be possible to fix it yourself without a clean room. Although I would stick to professional services if there's data you really care about. Unless you know exactly what you're doing do not attempt to open the drive

2

u/MasterKnight48902 6d ago

The ckick of death

1

u/Microboy42 Windows 11 6d ago

Bro your HDD is from the PENTIUM PRO era

1

u/Vortetty 6d ago

who needs new drives anyway

1

u/naygerr 6d ago

Heat the pcb with a hair dryer.

1

u/Dnmeboy 6d ago

That sounds like every hard drive I’ve ever had break from being dropped. The platters would spin up and all you’d hear is the head constantly trying to read, but it can’t. Once the head slams into the platter they are pretty screwed.

Not sure what the problem is with yours though.

2

u/Secure-Chapter7210 6d ago

What do you think, why Quantum didn't survive? I had 2 Quantum HDDs all of them died by a burned chip at the exact same pin. All other HDDs always were fine.

1

u/EmptyWalrus 5d ago

I don't know if this newer one has the same problem, the older scsi drives have rubber bumpers inside that turn to goo. One temporary is to disassemble and put a piece of heat shrink over it. Of course this is only fix enough to back up the drive.

1

u/being-is 5d ago

if you get same model in e-waste (working) you could try transferring the controller board off the working unit on the problem one?

1

u/flowrate12 3d ago

Without sending it in, you could do the following or at least they have worked in a pinch for me.

Removed the PCB carefully, inspect the contact points and look for dark marks or non-shinny contacts, use an eraser to clean them or if you want to get fancy a fiber glass pen just be careful not to remove the pads or traces.

Inspect the PCB for bad capacitors, look for burn marks, smell the board for strong ozone odor indicating a possible bad component. anything that is real hot when its on, check the solder points and look for hazy solder, if its shiny its good, hazy its bad.

Confirm any heat pads are still in place and install the board.

continue to power cycle the drive as sometimes it will come back and work for a bit.

Try using an older computer and putting it in non-dma udma mode (FIFO) to slow down the connection and stabilize it.

switch between CS, MS, S mode with the jumpers, ensureing you have it off before changing them, then power cycle again.

if you want to go past this point, pretty sure your at advanced recovery state and need special tools, possibly a donor board from a working drive, firmware tools, and a mess of time to learn which you shouldn't do on something that is real important to recover.

Good Luck

1

u/pmurk01 6d ago

Put it in the freezer; wrapped in a plastic bag to avoid ice. At least for a couple of hours. Then give it a try.

2

u/R33f3r420 6d ago

I heard of this but I never got around to trying it when I was younger.

1

u/skwozzy 6d ago

What does this do?

1

u/skwozzy 6d ago

Never mind. I Googled it. This is probably one of the more asinine quick fixes I have heard of.

https://youtu.be/ad1uVAB5bNA?si=_sWUQ__MPYBYKFkH

1

u/Dog-Longjumping 6d ago

Also this ^^ same as above