Hitachi Travelstar User manual

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Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The Hitachi Travelstar
Laptops are quickly overtaking desktops as the computer of choice. The heart of any
laptop, meanwhile, is its hard drive. Explore this image gallery to see how one of the
world's most popular mobile hard disks (the Hitachi Travelstar) is put together to power
countless laptops. You'll gain a new perspective on the main component powering all
those notebooks you see the next time you frequent the local coffeehouse.
The Hitachi Travelstar mobile hard disk. This model sported a 5400rpm motor, ATA
interface and 40GB of data storage.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
Removing the hard drive cage

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This particular Hitachi Travelstar was removed from a Dell Inspiron laptop.
Several Philips screws (one of which is shown here at the top left corner) must be
removed to free the Hitachi hard disk from the silver hard disk assembly used to hold the
hard drive securely within the Dell Inspiron's hard disk bay.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The hard disk cage

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This silver cage, perforated to encourage cooling airflow, holds the hard disk securely
within the Dell's hard disk bay.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
Hard disk cage removed

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Once the hard disk cage's screws are removed, the assembly falls free from the Hitachi
hard drive. The Hitachi's circuit board, shown here on the right, is then revealed.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
Disassembling the Hitachi Travelstar

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To continue disassembling the Hitachi Travelstar, next several small Torx screws must be
removed. So, too, must the drive's label.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
Disassembling the Hitachi Travelstar

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The hard disk's label must be removed to reveal a seventh hidden Torx screw. Once this
last Torx screw is eliminated, the cover freely opens.
It should be noted, of course, that removing the label (even if the screw behind the label
remains) voids the manufacturer's warranty.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
Inside the Hitachi Travelstar

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Once the seven Torx screws are removed, the drive's front cover (now shown on the left)
easily slips away.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
Inside the Hitachi Travelstar Hard Disk

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Removing the cover reveals the actual Hitachi hard disk platter (the large silver mirror-
like disk), actuator arm (whose arm begins at approximately the 7 o'clock position in this
image) and spindle motor (the silver circle in the center). Meanwhile, the actuator arm
mechanism, which is responsible for controlling and moving the actuator arm, is the
silver metallic assembly in the bottom left corner.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The Hitachi hard drive cover

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Here's a close up of the underside of the Hitachi hard drive's front cover.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The actuator arm

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Here you can see the Hitachi Travelstar actuator arm, controller assembly and circuit
board. The actual hard disk head, which is responsible for reading and writing data, sits at
the very tip of the actuator arm.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The Travelstar read/write head
In this closeup of the Travelstar's actuator arm, you can see the read/write head that sits at
the arm's tip. The head, of course, is responsible for reading and writing data to the
Travelstar's hard disk platter.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The Hitachi Travelstar, minus actuator

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Here's the Hitachi Travelstar hard disk with the actuator arm, assembly and circuit board
removed. All that remains, essentially, is the Travelstar hard disk platter and the spindle
motor hub.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The Hitachi Travelstar platter

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The actual Hitachi Travelstar hard disk is smaller than a mini CD. Here you can see it
pictured next to a small screwdriver.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The spindle cover

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The Travelstar's spindle (and spacer) are tiny. Engineered to perform at precise
tolerances, the actual spindle cover and spacer are quite small; they must be to
accommodate the smaller mobile two-and-a-half inch hard disks.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The Travelstar circuit board

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Removing several additional Torx screws from the drive's bottom enables slipping the
Travelstar's circuit board away from the hard disk cover.
This specific board features Samsung-manufactured circuits. The board also contains the
pin assembly (positioned here on the board's left edge) used to connect the drive to a PC
or IDE cable.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
Hitachi Travelstar circuit board

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The backside of the Hitachi Travelstar Circuit Board reveals the component was
manufactured in Malaysia.
Here you can also see another view of the same pin assembly shown in the last image
(positioned here along the board's right edge).
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The Disassembled Laptop Hard Drive Parts

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Here are all the components that powered this Hitachi Travelstar mobile drive through its
three-year lifecycle.
How to Replace the Pins on a Laptop Hard Drive

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The laptop hard drive, mostly a reduced version of a standard hard drive, has data cable
connector pins that may break off. Replacing these pins is a straightforward process that
will require moderate computer hardware skills.
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
Damaged laptop hard drive
Replacement controller board
Small screwdrivers (Phillips and TORX)
Step 1
Unscrew the damaged hard drive's TORX screws that are holding the controller circuit
board in place. The controller cards contain all of the data pins, which cannot be easily
re-soldered.
Step 2
Carefully remove the controller board from the hard drive. There is a small ribbon cable
on the back or bottom of the card that will tear if not handled properly. Tugging on it
very gently will dislodge it. If the ribbon cable comes from the hard drive and plugs into
the controller card, then it must be removed, not cut.
Step 3

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Replace the controller board with one from a similar make and model, and plug in the
ribbon cable. Some manufacturers will use the same controller cards for several models
over a product's lifespan. Since the pins are very small and very close together, it is not
possible to repair them once they break off. They must be replaced with the controller
board.
Step 4
Replace the TORX screws that hold the board to the hard drive. Be careful to not over-
tighten them. The drive should now be installed into the laptop, and tested.
Laptop Hard Drive Circuit Board Repair

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Questions to ask Before attempting any form of self data recovery or hard drive repair
What is the problem?
Does the hard drive spin?
If so does it click?
Does the armature kick out?
Do the hard drives heads vibrate to initiate?

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Is there an odd smell to the drive?
If it doesn't spin do you here a slight or faint ticking sound?
Does the BIOS see the hard drive?
Does the BIOS see the hard drive as the correct model?
Are there funny characters showing on boot?
Does the operating system blue screen?
Important things you should be aware of before you do anything to a suspected failed
hard drive
Static discharge will kill a hard drive when handling... especially the internal components
Dust will destroy your data... DO NOT OPEN! In my experience I see so many hard
drives destroyed by helpful neighbors when the problem was not situated internal of the
hard drive assembly. Just because it clicks doesn't always represent an internal failure.
Swapping the electronics runs the risk of further damage, especially if the revision
number of the PCB is different. You will have a greater success of data recovery with
less risk if the original electronics is repaired.
The Printed Circuit Board controls many functions to operate the hard disk drive, There
are 5 main features of a the electronics that can be unique to each drive that is likely to
fail, the first being:
POWER INPUT
The most problems we see here are mostly human era... forcing the power plug
in the wrong way
Unfortunately apart from a few notebook PCB's there is no protection fuse to
prevent PCB Damage
There is also risk of power surges making it through to the electronics as well
FIRMWARE
Firmware is unique to the PCB this controls calibration and track information so it
is very rare to be able to interchange the same model PCB with one that has
another firmware revision... so what this means, if your board shorts out the
firmware unique to the drive, you will be in trouble. Of course a good main
stream data recovery company will be able to replace this and manually
reprogram this chip
SPINDLE IC
This controls the speed and rotation of the spindle rotating the platters internal
to the hard drive assembly or HDA
These intend to get very hot at times and can often short out… The most famous
of models to this was the good old quantum LCT, particularly the TDA5247HT