Loose Hard Drive Part

[jojo3dom]

Hello,
I'm not real familiar with hard drives and was hoping somebody could offer some help. I accidentally slammed my notebook shut; it turned off- I tried to restart- immediately the hard drive began clicking and I got a media error message- computer wouldn't start. I took out the hard drive- and it sounded like there was a loose part insice.
So, I created my own clean-room and took the cover off. When I turned the opened hard drive upside down- a long slim metal piece fell out. It's about 1 inch long and sort of hook shaped. I think this is the piece that was making the noise.
Any suggestions on where this piece goes or if it is indeed the problem? The rest of the hard drive looks okay.

Thank you

 

[kestrel1]

Sounds like one of the arms that holds the reading head has come off. You would be very, very lucky to be able to fix this. The head floats just off of the platter, less than a smoke partical away. Any closer will damage the platter as I expect it already has been. You shouldn't open up a hard drive to try & repair it, any sort of dust can damage it beyond repair. A new drive is in order I am affraid.

 

[vacunita]

I agree with kestrel1. The Loose piece is a clear indication that buying a new drive is the only choice. Opening the hard drive was also not a good idea. Data recovery professionals, say its the last thing to do when a drive fails. If as kestrel1 says the broken piece is one of the arms, then the dive has become a shiny new doorstop.


----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.