Hard Drive Not Spinning- Causes, Fixes & Data Recovery

A hard drive not spinning error means there’s an issue with the hard drive’s components such as PCB (Printed Circuit Board), read/write head, or spindle motor. This may happen due to physical damage or simply due to prolonged use. It may become a major concern when there’s a lot of data at stake, so one must tread cautiously.

Multiple ways are available to recover data from a hard drive that won’t spin, but one wrong move and you may end up damaging the hard drive completely. It may jeopardize your chances of data recovery. Fortunately, there are some ways to fix the hard drive not spinning problem and retrieve data from it. However, before jumping to the solutions, let’s discuss the primary causes in detail.

Hard Drive Not Spinning – Causes

Hard drive not spinning is a serious issue that may occur for many reasons, usually due to electrical or mechanical failure. However, the following three reasons may cause your hard drive not to spin.

Failed Printed Circuit Board [Electrical Failure]

A Printed Circuit Board or PCB is the base that mechanically supports and wires the surface-mounted and socketed components. The electricity flows through this board to your hard drive and into the drive’s chassis, which powers the spindle motor and sets the platter in motion. When the PCB fails, your hard drive may stop spinning. The PCB may also fail due to incorrect component placements, overheating, or power failure. The electrical failure affects not only the PCB but also the power unit of your device.

Read/Write Head Stuck on Platter

The read/write head on the hard drive is a physical component that allows reading data from and writing data to the disk. It is a tiny copper coil, which hovers over scant nanometers, covering the hard disk platter. If the read/write head is exposed to the platter or gets stuck on it due to a sudden hard drive failure, electrical surge, or any other reason, the hard drive may crash and stop spinning.

Hard Disk Spindle Motor Seized

The Spindle Motor is a small, highly reliable, high-precision electric motor on which the platter is mounted. It is an integral part of the HDD as its precision determines the capacity and speed of a hard disk. The spindle motor may seize due to the hard drive receiving a knock or jolt while powered on.

Additionally, this motor may burn out or fail at any moment due to physical trauma or old age, disrupting the spinning of the platter. When the motor seizes, the lubricated bearing inside the motor eventually dries and becomes unable to protect the motor from friction.

How to Fix the ‘Hard Drive Not Spinning’ issue?

HDD not spinning is one of the signs that tell you that your hard drive is failing or has already failed. Unfortunately, your system won’t identify the hard drive in such a scenario, putting your data at risk. You’ll be unable to recover your data unless you fix the issue.

Here, we’ve mentioned some recommended ways to fix the hard drive won’t spin problem. However, be careful while following and applying the methods, or you may cause further damage to your hard drive.

Method 1: Check the Power Surge

When your system doesn’t recognize your hard drive, external or internal, start with the baselines and check the power supply voltage. A hard drive is sensitive to the electrical or power surge. If there is too much or too less power supply, it could damage or burn the hard drive components, and you may feel a burning smell. If the voltage is fine, test your hard drive by connecting it to another computer with a power cable and see if it works.

If the hard drive is still not spinning, try the following steps:

• Hold the drive tightly and spin the whole thing along the platter axis.
• Slowly accelerate your wrist until you run out of movement.
• Doing so should let you feel the platter spinning for a few seconds.
• It will further help you figure out the issue with the spindle motor.

Method 2: Troubleshoot Failed PCB

Don’t replace the PCB immediately; try troubleshooting it first. However, measuring several factors, such as signal analysis, the number of layers, types of components, and more, is challenging. But it can be done with the right tools and guidance. Follow the given steps and cautions to troubleshoot the PCB:

Note: Perform this method only if you have prior expertise in operating Hard Drives.

Have the right tools

• Make sure you have the basic required tools. The most important one is a multimeter. Other tools may include an oscilloscope, power supply, LCR meter, and logic analyzer.

Perform Visual Inspection

• Perform visual inspection to identify basic issues, such as burnt components, overheating, missing components, overlapped traces, etc.
• Besides this, smell and bulging components are good indicators of PCB problems.

Perform Physical Inspection

• Once done with the visual inspection, perform a physical inspection with power applied to the circuit. To do so, touch the PCB surface and the components on the board to detect the hot spot.
• If it is hot according to an IR thermometer, there may be a potential failure in the IC or a shortage in the motor. Try to cool the motor with compressed canned air.
• Once done, test the circuit operation with the component at a lower temperature.

Conduct Discrete Component Testing

• Test each component of the PCB, including the diode, transistor, resistor, capacitor, inductor, MOSFET, LED, etc., with a multimeter or LCR meter.
• If the components register value is higher, there might be a problem with the component or the solder joint.

ICs testing

• When testing ICs (Integrated Circuit), you can recognize most of them by the markings, while others can be tested operationally with the help of logic analyzers. You can also refer to the Lifewire page to learn about Troubleshooting PCB.

Method 3: Fix Disk Head & Spindle Motor

The read/write head, spindle motor, and platter help an HDD to rotate and function properly. Moreover, if any of these components get seized, stuck, or damaged, your hard drive won’t spin. In such a scenario, you may repair the spindle motor, fix the disk head, or swap the drive platter. However, all these things need to be done under professional guidance.

Recover Data from Hard Drive that Won’t Spin

Hard drive data recovery is possible even if the hard drive is not spinning. If you want to fix the hard drive first, follow the above methods or take it to the manufacturer. Once repaired, you can use Stellar Data Recovery Professional to recover data from the hard drive. It is a DIY professional data recovery software that can help you retrieve all files, folders, and other data from Windows systems and supported storage media drives. It can even recover data from a dead PC or hard drive.

However, if you want to recover data first, contact Stellar Data Recovery Service professionals to perform secure hard drive recovery. The experts repair hard drives under a standard class 100 clean room environment. They will help you restore data from the hard drive and take further action accordingly.

FAQs

1. Can a hard drive fail suddenly?

Usually, when a hard drive fails, it gives a warning or throws some errors. However, the hard drive may fail without any warning.

2. What are the signs of an HDD failing?

Hard drives may fail due to many possible reasons. However, some common signs tell you that the hard drive is failing, including:

• Strange ticking sounds
• Overheating
• Stuck spindle motor
• Major slowdowns
• Frequent error messages
• System repeatedly crashing
• Blue Screen of Death errors
• Too many bad sectors prevent drive access
• System boot failure

3. Can I prevent a hard drive from aging?

Even if you take all the precautions to keep your hard drive safe, you can’t prevent it from aging. An aging hard drive may throw frequent errors and other issues, putting your data at risk. We recommend using Stellar Data Recovery Professional software in such a scenario to recover data from an old hard drive. The software also comes with a Drive Monitor feature that shows the hard drive’s current health condition, including its temperature, bad sectors (if any), and more. It helps you take timely action to protect your data against drive failure.

4. Why is my external hard drive not powering up?

If you connect an external hard drive to your system and it doesn’t power up, the first thing to check is the USB power cable or port. Next, you can try connecting the external hard drive to another computer to check if your USB power cable or port is working.

5. Can I retrieve a dead hard drive?

If your hard drive is physically damaged and not working, you’d need to take the help of a reliable Data recovery service provider, such as Stellar Data Recovery Services. The experts at Stellar use class100 cleanroom, which holds the environment and temperature in which a Hard Drive is built. The cleanroom is free from humidity, dust, room pressure, and other factors to ensure secure hard drive recovery.

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About The Author

Mansi Verma

Mansi Verma is a Senior Technology Writer at Stellar®. She is a Tech enthusiast, holding over a decade of experience in technical writing. She writes guides, articles, blogs and tips on Data Recovery, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics. She loves providing DIY solutions to solve various Windows system related issues. In her spare time, she likes reading her favorite novels, and writing poetry. She is also an avid traveller.