How to open and fix portable disk on an example Maxtor M3.

It’s not professional way of fixing disks. The way how to repair disk allow to access to data. After bringing disk to live all data must be copied immediately from old disk to new one. Fixing is only for copying data, not for further disk usage.

My disk fell on the floor and then did not want to run. When I tried to start the disk, I only heard the beeping noise. Probably the motor is trying to start the platters and it can’t because the head stuck on a platter. So we have to move head to the park position.

To open the disk I used Torx T6 and five-pointed star 1.2 screwdrivers.

Opening the enclosure is not so easy. The case is tightly assembled. It was hard for me. It took much longer than I showed on the video. I used a thin flat screwdriver. I tried to stick between the tiles many times. As a result, the enclosure is very scratched.

Alternative way: Get a sharp pin (or something with a sharp end), then with a knife put it in the small space that the pin has made and rotate the knife slightly so you can break a bit of the enclosure, then get a big screw driver and get in the space and open it.

Disk inside is normal mobile Seagate ST2000LM007 (7mm width) hard disk. It can be used as HDD in PC or laptop or PS4.

The screws are located under the silver plate – this is an anti-static sticker, and the lack of it can cause problems with electricity

Disk is connected with USB cable by “sata to usb 3.0 adapter”. This adapter You can buy with whole enclosure. It’s cheap, around 5$.

We can see that the head is stuck on a platter. We have to move it to the park position.

Best way to do this is to turn the platter and pull on the head into the park position.

Other problems with disks wich can appear:

Disk keep spinning and connects to the Windows, but is never read and files are inaccessible and after a while it disconnects.

Solution:

• If disk is visible in Windows manager try to connect directly from disk sata to mainboard sata port (without any adapters).
• If disk doesn’t appear in Windows: run “diskmgmt.msc” and check if disk is visible, and is it online. If is offline than swith to online.
• If disk doesn’t appear in “Disk Manager”: run CMD. Enter the commands: “set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1”, “devmgmt.msc”. “Device Manager” window will be opened. Now in the device manager, click on “View” –> Select “Show hidden devices”. Expand all the nodes by clicking on “+” symbol. If you find any greyed or UNKNOWN entries –> Right click on it –> Select “Uninstall”. Restart your PC –> Now try connecting your external drive.
• In a worst case scenario, the head may simply be dead.