Computer help forum: Here's A New One (For Me)

So Grif, do you think the heads on the arm dug a groove into the platter? If so are the heads diamond-tipped or lasers or something? because the groove was very deep it was bazar to see such a deep groove on an otherwise perfectly mirrored and flat platter? I was confused to be quite honest, as to how it got there.

Can you please confirm and possibly elaborate just a bit more on your explanation? Much thanks by the way.

Gerry

Hey, thanks for sharing.. those photos were awesome. Though none of the photos showed an exact groove I get the 'picture' as it were. So, things happen in those little hdd boxes eh.. maybe solid state is the way to go after all... lucky us that the prices are coming down some. although they are very expensive in comparison to sata, ide drives etc.. I notice that solid state drives are much smaller in size and yet much more costly than say a sata drive that is 20 times it's size in GB's.

Anyone have any info or knowledge to share about Solid State harddrives?

Again, thank you for such a truly awesome post response!

well then why wouldn't there be some shavings on the rest of the disc? would the spin create an air pocket that would blow the shavings off the platte.. lol because the rest of the platter was immaculately clear of any debri whatsoever. Had I seen some shavings I would have definitely realized right away that this was a grinding situation.. Could the groove be there for some other purpose.. such as it being there to serve a function? Just curious. Any experts out there or just a bunch of guessers like me.. lol state your positions!

gerry

If the data he had was 'crucial' to him in anyway I'm quite sure he would have paid the $800. His asking me to check the drive out was just a 'check it out' sort of thing. Nowadays, people who've downloaded songs pay quite a bit of money over time and that alone creates a desire to salvage files and folders. At the same time, to pay $800 for this sort of defeats the purpose as with that kind of money you can start a new collection with newer music. I would also guess that he had some documents, contacts etc.. The man in question here did get a new harddrive from the laptop manufacturer free through his extended warranty but the warranty didn't cover extensive damage to the hard drive nor the costs of it so the company gave him an even bigger hard drive (from 160 upped it to a 250GB HDD FREE), reinstalled Vista at a higher version as well and sent him his laptop back all free of charge! So after he declined to have the hdd restored he just asked me to look at it. I did find it interesting after posting this occurance of a groove in the platter on various sites include CNet.com and interestingly enough no one else said they saw this before or had a detailed explanation of how this could even happen. The groove was very deep. One would think a harddrive would stop working long before a groove would be accomplished? Strange! I would estimate by looking at that groove and the small head-reader that it must have taken a long time to dig that deep into the platter. But that's just a guess.

If a technician opens a hdd to see the state of the platter why would that put the price up on a data salvage job? The job can either be done or not.. Imagine you go to a mechanic for an engine repair and he says 'did anyone open the hood on this car, if so the cost will be more'. I mean your point makes no sense at all to me anyway. If there is a device that reads data it will either read it or it wont. unless you're not elaborating enough to explain why there's a difference between the case having been opened as opposed to it not being opened. This isn't a warranty issue, the warranty expired so why would a business in business to save data and make big money doing it charge more for the reasons you give?

I told the gentleman who owns the harddrive to write to the hdd company and request a free data retrieval because the man who owned this harddrive says there were absolutely no symptoms and by looking at the drive with its groove there, I would say that the problem under warranty or not was a defective drive to begin with. I have never seen a groove on a platter and I have opened at lease 200 drives for inspection, or just for fun on old drives or for repairs.

I agree that should a prior repair attempt been made and caused damage that yes that would cause a price increase to have then work around any prior further damage.. but in a case where a harddrive lid was merely opened I doubt that would be reason enough to say 'uh it's gonna cost more now' na na na na na you opened the door.. j/k but you know how some places try to find any reason to charge a customer more, I just walk away from a place like that. We are all people, let's just try to help eachother out.. it's not all about money, or at least it shouldn't be all the time! Charge your price but keep your additional fees to a minimum. Please!

Thanks for a great reply.