Hard Drive Problem. What do I do now?

Question

I had a problem with my computer and I think it is the hard drive.

I opened my hard drive and with a wet cloth I cleaned the disks surface and I used a q-tip to reach and clean in between the disks because for some reason my hard drive has 4 disks in it.


and then I ran it. the head goes to the centre of the disk then just comes back. should the tip of the head actually touch the disk? the head has 2 sides which read the top and bottom. when i was fiddling around with it i accidentally took off a small black square thing on the tip of the head. but there is still another one on the other head. is this a common problem and what can i do to sort it out. it wont read the disk?

Answer 1

Well, sorry to give you the bad news, but there is no way you should have opened the hard drive in the first place, but since you did, I would strongly suggest you contact a technician because as helpful as we all can be, there is just so much we can be sure about. Talk to a technician and he/she will tell you what to do.

Answer 2

As many of the people have stated your "Hard Drive" is gone now.

Even if you very carefully open a hard drive count to 10 then seal it back up carefully it will probably be broken already. a q-tip!!!! Man a q-tip will leave small fibers and everything plus you went in between the platters with it and used a wet cloth. That's like putting your goldfish in gasoline and then lighting the gasoline on fire and then put the fish back in its bowl.

Here is what you did wrong. Each of these things will probably ruin a hard drive.

Open it.
Put any from of moisture on it.
Touch it with any object at all.
Nock of its reading head.
Run it while it is open.
Use a q-tip on it!

The odds of it working now are the same odds as winning the lottery and just as you look at your million dollar ticket an earthquake splits your house in half and 2 lighting bolts hit you at the same time! and FOX comes out with a GOOD SHOW 10 Min's later!!!!!

Anyhow the drive is less worthless then a 1kilobyte drive now.

I don't even call or try to use any warranty because they will laugh at you. Washing a platter with a wet cloth man. lol

Sorry for your loss. Remember no matter what you do unless you know for sure 100% what you are doing check and make sure first. or this will happen.

Answer 3

I hope you are joking.

A speck of dust inside the drive the size of a smoke particle will ruin it, and you used a q-tip on it?

The small black square was one of the actual read/write heads, which do not touch the surface of the disk, but (should) fly a few millionths of an inch above it's surface.

The action you describe is called a recalibrate, and with a head missing, it is never going to find what it is looking for.

BTW, do not operate the disk with the covers off. The disk spins at 5400 RPM, or maybe faster, and if anything touches the surface, small bits will go flying.

Take the disk out of your computer and use it as a paperweight or to explain the innards of disks to other people. Buy a new disk and install that in your computer.

Answer 4

Harddrives (HDs) have moving factors, so as that they do no longer final long a lot, frequently around 5 - 7 yrs, some ought to final 10 yrs (as to mine), and a few would die even formerly than that, relies upon on the form you employ them. besides, your HD has indicated that this is having situation. Whenver you notice that blunders, you would be able to desire to respond speedy, with the aid of backup the datas to a distinctive area, CD, DVD, yet another HD, on line backup, and so on. upkeep ought to truthfully value you extra desirable than procuring a sparkling device. however the actual situation is the thoughts trapped on the no longer easychronic. in case you have photos there, or significant information, they're worth saving. you should do extra harm to the no longer easychronic. rather, i'd turn to a restoration provider. Many centers, which incorporate Ontrack, Iomega and CBL, specialise in getting practise off of grimy, broken or waterlogged no longer situation-free drives. they provide the certainty, centers and expensive techniques that the known guy or woman in simple terms does not have. you will locate many different such centers on line. community pc shops would take care of the interest besides. The undesirable information is that documents restoration centers are costly. you should be observing $one million,000 or extra. which would be a non-situation in case you stand to lose irreplaceable electronic photographs. yet you would be able to would desire to think of two times approximately truthfully replaced or low-value archives and classes. Goodluck, Kim :)

Answer 5

GOOD GRIEF CHARILE BROWN!!!!!!!!!

You actually opened a hard drive???????

That alone most likley destroyed any hope of recovering data!

Hard drives are assembled in "CLEAN ROOMS" meaning not even a speck of dust is in the air!!!

NO! The heads do NOT touch the platters! They float over\under them. *IF* the head touches the platter while spinning.. say goodbye to any data as well as the disk itself.

Wet cloth and Qtip? May as well as used sulfuric acid!

Kiss all data and the drive goodbye...........

Answer 6

unfortunately your HDD is most a brick now. There is data on all of the disks and it sounds like you accidently took off one of the read heads. i know the feeling. I have had HDDs die on me too. always sucks.

Answer 7

Time to buy a new hard drive .Sounds like you didn't know what you were doing.You never use water on electronic parts or anything else that is wet.

Answer 8

OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
I guess I missed something in the care and instructions hand book that came with the HDD that I bought. I think that it would have been easier to take a sledge hammer to the drive to get it working again.

Answer 9

Take it to best buy, and get it fixed
and for future reference, do not clean your hard drive.

Answer 10

You just ****** up your hard drive. Trust me, throw it away. FINITO, BYE BYE, CIAO, HASTA LA VISTA.... sorry for the bad news... What made you do this? You can use it as...let me see..... for nothing... maybe to remind yourself to never ever open a hard drive...