screaming hard drive? 2

[laffingravy]

I have a couple of Travelstar DKLA-22160 laptop hard drives that state "Apple Computer Inc. internal HDD firmware" 2 gb. When I put the power to them they actually alarm, just like a car burglar alarm........loud, coming from the hard drive, not the computer system. I'm trying to use these with a PC. Could the Apple firmware be part of the problem or is this some type of security device within the hard drive? Windows will not recognize the drive. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[edfair]

Would suspect that you are hearing the platters rub agains the metal arms that hold the heads.
Screaming drives are not healthy drives.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[wahnula]

Sounds like you got the Mac ant-theft drives:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkAtRfA1UXc

with the IalertU feature:

http://www.slappingturtle.com/home/

I would contact whomever sold you the drives and question their origins. Another tack would be to contact Apple for assistance in disabling the alarm.

Tony

 

[laffingravy]

Thanks,
It is a consistent sound, repeating exactly like a burglar alarm, with the same cadence and exact order of notes each time, not an erratic sound. Actually sounds just like a burglar alarm. I still wonder, will Apple firmware on the drive interfere with formatting and using it as a PC drive? Thanks for your response edfair.

 

[laffingravy]

Thanks Wahnula,
Seems you have hit the nail right on the head. All the symptoms agree with the links. Thanks again!

 

[laffingravy]

Update on screaming hard drive:
Curiousity got the best of me and I did a little exploratory surgery on one of the drives. Seems the siren noise occurs in tandem with movement of the actuator arm moving the heads across the platters. (High note at center of platter, low note at outer area). The actuator arm moves back and forth 19 times in 10 seconds at startup, and something due to that is causing the alarm sound. Perhaps that is the nature of an anti theft alarm? Upon review of edfair's response, my hat is off to you, as your theory may just be right..
Thanks to all,
Laffingravy

 

[bpinning]

Hey,

Tony, that is software that makes all the noise not the hdd itself.

Good Idea though.

Brett

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.eyetstore.com

NSW, Australia
(Unless you want to pay for our trip?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[edfair]

Moving across the platters like that is not normal. Most sit quietly for a period (usually 1024 or 2048 revs) then step out to a midpoint and recalibrate to track 0.
Continuous recals indicate that they can't find track 0 or something on track 0 so they look again until they time out.

I would have expected the frequencies to be reversed, higher at the outer tracks and higher track speed.

My initial impression was head crash but you should have some continuous noise if that were true.


Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[laffingravy]

Thanks for all of your responses. I believe we can all agree that the hard drive is a goner...... well it surely is now...I decided to take it all the way down and discovered that the lower platter had an "X" inscribed on it in indelible ink. Could this be a mark from the builder indicating a bad or questionable part in the first place? I can think of no other reason for it to be marked so.
Thanks
Laffingravy

 

[bpinning]

Hmm,

That is odd,

Canyou upload an image of it somewhere? I would love to have a look....

Brett

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.eyetstore.com

NSW, Australia
(Unless you want to pay for our trip?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[bpinning]

Hey,

I was just talking to a collegue, who said that some companies rename drives that have dead platters as smaller drives.

eg. 40Gb with the second platter dead, mark second platter, remove heads, send out as a reconditioned 20Gb drive.

Very unethical but not a bad idea to make a litle $.....

Brett

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.eyetstore.com

NSW, Australia
(Unless you want to pay for our trip?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[laffingravy]

Sorry I can't upload a picture, the flash reflection destroys the image. I can only say that the mark on the platter is an "x" with a "D" under it, seemingly written with a very fine point pen. The other side of the platter has "01" inscribed with the same marker. These drives evidently came from a liquidator and found their way to Ebay, supposedly as new old stock. Back to my original post, if these were working drives, would the Apple firmware interfere with their being formatted and used on a PC? Thanks again for all responses.
Mike

 

[edfair]

I ran across a Quantum 4.3 SCSI II with similar sounds this week. It was a first for me. Definitely a crashed drive. Now to mix and match to see if I can recover parts of it.
I've used drives marked Apple firmware with no problems but that isn't to say that all would be OK.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.