There's "a strange noise like a ticking" coming from inside the unit. Additionally, he "can not anymore open my files". Engineers he has previously talked to said the trouble "should due to the actuator arm", so he wants another perspective before deciding if/what needs to be done. He clearly states the drive itself does not matter to him, only what's on it. The prior assessment still stands: the ticking is the actuator swinging the head assembly out across the platter as it tries to locate its reference point, then swinging back in to try again. Generally, the arm is not usually where the failure lies, but what it holds. This makes a difference only when determining which parts are being replaced.
| Media | The hard drive makes a ticking or clicking noise while running and can no longer open the files stored on it. It had previously been suggested by other engineers that the problem with the drive would likely lie within the actuator arm. |
| Reported situation | Portable hard drive · steady ticking noise · files can no longer be opened · other engineers suggested the actuator arm · owner wants a second view · the customer does want their files restored but doesn't need the drive anymore. |
| Fault class | A head failure has occurred. When the heads cannot read and therefore have to try again, they produce the ticking. All data on the platters is at risk of being damaged as long as you continue to apply electrical power to the drive. |
| Equipment used | Once we heard about the ticking we didn't even attempt to run it. We used a current-limited bench supply to measure the time between ticks and visually inspected the actuator arm and head stack. We then opened the unit on our head-swap bench and viewed it through a stereo microscope, installed a matching donor head assembly and aligned it properly. After this we copied the drive to an image using DeepSpar with a PC-3000 UDMA, then used R-Studio to verify the recovered files. |
The actuator is the pivoting arm that moves read heads across platters, driven by a voice coil at the far end. When a drive ticks in regular intervals what you're hearing is the actuator being driven out, the read heads failing to find the servo pattern and know where they are, and the actuator parking itself and starting the sequence over again. Regularity of failure is the clue: a motor fails with a grind or stall, but a head fault ticks like a metronome.
The previous view on this subject was correct in terms of content. However, the wording is somewhat vague. Rarely is it a mechanical failure of the arm (as a mechanical unit) but rather one or both of the read elements carried by the end of the arm. These components are usually replaced together with the arm, and no separation takes place outside of a manufacturer's plant. Calling it an actuator problem or a head problem leads to the same bench work, so there's no argument to have.
Since he does not care about the hard drive itself, the plan has been simplified. The drive will not be restored to operational condition, nor will it be used again. It is opened on the head-swap bench, and once the heads have been swapped for a matched donor head assembly (with proper alignment), the drive will be read once, very carefully. At that point the original drive can be scrapped. All work from this point forward will take place on the copy. That is why keeping the drive powered off before this is so important, as the ticking is not innocuous, and even when heads cannot read they still touch the surface where the files are written.
The unit had not been run. An examination of the tick interval using a current-limited bench power source was conducted to characterise that time period along with an evaluation of the actuator and head stack assembly, both of which supported the previous opinion as opposed to discrediting it. It was subsequently opened on the head-swap bench and inspected under a stereo microscope, then assembled with a matching donor head assembly and aligned. Imaging was run on the DeepSpar, behind a PC-3000 UDMA, in controlled passes. The files were traced and confirmed within R-Studio prior to transferring them to new media.
The head assembly was swapped for a matched donor one at the head-swap bench. We copied an image from the drive onto another device and then sent the files back to the customer on new media. The drive did not go back into use, which is what the owner wanted. The diagnostic cost nothing. The amount after that was a fixed, written price plus VAT. Because the drive had to be opened to extract the files, half of this was payable in advance for the donor assembly and the use of the head-swap bench. The remaining half would only be payable once we could confirm the files had been recovered successfully. The second opinion agreed with the first, so two independent opinions agree on the diagnosis.
The person who thinks the problem is with the actuator has probably identified the issue correctly from the ticking noise coming from the head assembly moving back and forth. This noise usually means that the heads can't find their bearings and are just going round again. In most cases when someone says something like "the arm was damaged", the parts that were damaged (read heads) are at the end of the arm. The entire assembly needs to be swapped out. Whether or not the term used is important is less so than what happens next. Don't turn it on to show people that it ticks; don't run it for any length of time to get quotes. Any drives that have heads that aren't working will be touching the platter which is where all of your files are stored. It makes sense to get another expert's opinion; it would also make sense to get that opinion off an unpowered drive.
Every case file here is written up from a real enquiry handled for households and businesses across Norwich and Norfolk, anonymised so that nobody is identifiable. Each sets out the reasoning behind the diagnosis and the method used on that particular fault, with the equipment named.
The noise is the diagnosis — heads that can no longer read, and every retry costs you surface
He had already worked it out — a clicking drive has no way of announcing itself, so Windows is shown nothing whatever
The shutdown is the drive admitting defeat — it cannot ready its heads, so it stops trying and steps back
Diagnosis costs nothing and takes up to 2 working days from arrival, the quote is fixed in writing, and on logical work you only pay if we recover your data. Start online or ring the freephone.