Topic: JB3 Hard Drive recovery

[cyfan]

For anyone with a JB3 who had a hard drive problem and lost a recording I wanted to offer this up.
Back in January 2005 I posted a request here for help with a bad JB3 hard drive. The story:
Taped a show in January and, in a drunken stupor, dropped the JB3. After that, the disc refused to spin.
Took the hard drive out and gave it to some local computer experts who couldn't retrieve the data.
Sent it all back to Creative. No luck, they send it back.
Gave it to a friend who had contacts at a *major* computer engineering company. They gave it back saying the thing was shot.
Months pass before said friend, just being curious, removed all the little screws and opened the hard disk really just to see what was inside (assuming it was shot). There are two magnets inside that hold the arm mechanism over the disk in place. The fall had caused one of the magnets to move out of position and hold the disk in a locked position.
My friend moved the stray magnet back to the original position and the disk started to move again. Put the hard drive back into his JB3 and the recording was there.
I'm ecstatic about it.

While I would only suggest this as a last resort (once other options have been exhausted) this may be of use to someone here.

[Brian Skalinder]

Thanks for the update, cyfan.  Might I suggest you scrap the HD and pick up a new one, just to be on the safe side?

[cyfan]

Oh hell. I bought a brand new hard drive and a second JB3 two days after the spill, and I've been using them ever since.
Don't ever plan to use the broken/repaired drive again. I just wanted the data off it.
And, while the recording played fine on the JB3, it wouldn't transfer via USB or firewire to the PC, so the transfer had to be analog out of the headphone jack to wavelab. So now that the two recordings have been rescued, the disk drive is likely headed to the trash bin.

One other quick note from my friend: Should you attempt to open the hard drive (again: LAST RESORT), remove all the stickers to find the hidden screws and open it gently. Keep it away from any potential static electricity sparks (a wood floor and table, not carpet) and keep your thumbs off the disk itself.

Tim

[BP]

Hey all,
Tim didn't tell me he was gonna post about the recovery so I didn't see this post for a few days, but I'm the one who did it and can provide and little bit more complete description of the procedure for anyone else who wishes to attempt this.  My intention (assuming that the show was un-recoverable) when I started was to see if there was anything "mechanical" in the drive that could be "fixed" to make it work again...and if that failed, to try to remove the disc itself and place it into another drive to see if I could recover the wav files on it that way.  Starting off, I don't work with computers and really don't know much about them or disc drives.  I knew 3 things before I started, that it looked like the thing was just held together with screws, that there was going to be a "disc" of some sort inside that held the information, and that there were 2 neodymium (at least I think they're neodymium, they're strong and light) magnets, shaped like crescents, that I thought held the arm mechanism (which up to now in my correspondence with Tim I'd been calling the "reader/writer thingy" since I didn't know what it was supposed to be called) in place.  Try all of this that I'm about to say at your own risk.

JB3 Hard Drive dissection procedure (sorry I didn't take pictures, I should have, I didn't think at the time that I be describing how to do this again) READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS FIRST, this procedure is mainly meant to free up a non-spinning disc

First:  A little housekeeping.  I don't really know what the correct orientation of a hard drive is as far as top/bottom/back/front so I'm just gonna name it.  I'm calling the "front" the side of the JB3 hard drive with the stickers on it.  The "back" is the other big flat side without the stickers.  Once open, the "top" is the side with the disc, the "bottom" is the side with the pins sticking out (you'll see what I mean when you get there).

Step 1:  Remove the little screws (using a small philips jewelers screwdriver) from the "back" of the hard drive.  I think there were 6 (give or take a few, doesn't really matter, all the screws on the back that you see need to come out).  Set them aside in their own little spot as the screws on the other side are a bit shorter.

Step 2:  Remove the little screws (again with a philips jewelers screwdriver) from the "front" of the hard drive.  I think there were 5 with 4 of them being visible and the last hidden under the 2 ID type stickers on the JB3 drive.  The front surface of the drive isn't smooth, so I just took a little straight jewelers screwdriver and wedged it under the stickers to pull them off (not a big deal as I'm sure this type of procedure will void and and all warranties).  I took off all of the screws on the "front" that I could see and then removed the last screw under the stickers.

Step 3:  At this point with all of the screws removed the hard drive is now in 2 pieces and the "back" can just be pulled away from the "front".  There is nothing attached to the back that you have to worry about, just pull it off and set it aside for when you put the whole thing back together.

Step 4:  Your drive is now apart.  The "front" has all of the working pieces.  Turn it over (so that the part that formerly had the stickers and is now sticky is facing down, sticking to whatever work bench you're using) and you'll see the various "workings".  The disc itself is at the "top" attached in the top half of the casing a bit off-center to the left as I remember...DON'T TOUCH IT (I made this mistake and made a couple of tiny little finger smudgies on the disc and I believe this caused a problem with the complete recovery of one of the shows).  Along the bottom will be a little piece of silver metal (shaped like a shallow W) about 1 inch long and 1/16th of an inch wide that has probably fallen out when you removed the back, it's ok, we'll put it back when we're done.  Just below the disc (toward the "bottom" of the case) are the 2 magnets (one will be facing you like a crescent, the other will be almost out of sight adhered to the inside of the "front" case, we'll only be checking the closest one), with the drive arm held between them.  The drive arm itself emerges (the drive arm looks like a phonograph arm with a little needle on the end, only smaller) and should be swinging freely and toward the upper right corner.  In Tim's drive, the magnet closest to me had been dislodged a tiny bit toward the bottom and right lower corner.  The drive arm was being held fast over the disc and neither the disc nor arm could move it any way.

Step 5:  I took a little flat head jewelers screwdriver and pried the magnet off of the arm assembly and immediately the arm recoiled back into what I assumed was it's correct position just along the bottom and right side of the disc (again looking very much like a record player).  I then touched the disc along the edge, being careful not to touch the disc surface again, and the disc was now able to spin.

Step 6:  I replaced the magnet directly over the other magnet which I could now see.  They should overlie each other precisely, with the base of the arm mechanism between them.

Step 7:  Now we have to replace that little piece of W shaped metal that fell out and the absence of pictures is gonna make this tough.  It's supposed to lie along the "bottom" left of the drive casing, just to the bottom of the magnet/arm assembly.  There's a little hole in the metal piece itself and hooks into a little post on the bottom.  If you've got it in there right it will swing (like a teeter-totter)  about 1/8-1/4 of an inch toward and away from the magnet/arm assembly.  I don't know what it's for.

Step 8:  Now you're done and it's time to grab the "back" and put the screws back in then flip the drive over and put the "front" screws back in.  Once it's back together then put it back into the JB3 and hope for the best.

Problems I encountered:  First problem was the hidden screw under the stickers.  Don't forget about this one, if you just remove the ones that you can see and then try to hamfist the halves apart, you're probably gonna break it.  Second problem was me touching the disc itself.  Once I got it opened up, I didn't resist the temptation to try to "spin" the disc.  I tried this by trying to gently grasp the center hub of the disc itself and accidently touched the disc a tiny bit.  There are a few blips in a Kelly Joe Phelps show because I'm an idiot, I think.  This hub would be the key to completely removing the disc as there was an attachment in the center of it if this were what you were doing.  Before I attempted this, however, you should have your second drive fully prepared with it's disc removed so that you could quickly move one disc to the other drive.  Third problem is this little piece of silver metal.  If you can't get it back in correctly let me know and I'll guide you through it.  I'll see if Tim is willing to send the drive back to me to take apart again so that I can take pictures.

Brandon

[BP]

Dang it.

Sorry folks, this post was supposed to be a reply to cyfan's JB3 Drive recovery post below.  Unfortunately my account timed out while I was typing it and then when I signed back in to resend it I accidentally created a new post rather than a reply.  If the mods can delete this post and merge it with cyfan's JB3 Drive Recovery Update below I'd appreciate it.
Brandon

[BP]

Thanks to the powers that be for moving my posts.
Brandon

[eman]

Thanks- I found this topic with a search. My JB3 wouldn't boot up because of hard drive error, so I figured I had nothing to lose opening the hard drive. I'll emphasize that it is hard to not touch the disk while checking that the arm swings freely, so use something else (I'd say screwdriver but you risk scratching the surface. That's what I used.)
Put it back together and everything seems back to normal.
My JB3 is battered and battle worn but I'm a little short on cash for a new unit right now. I am also missing a 1/4" strip of the display but I can work around it (the record dot does not show but I can look to see that the time counter is changing.)
+T

[H₂O]

Another way to fix a stuck head on a hard disk drive without opening it is:
1.  Get a piece of paper and place it on a hardwood floor or large table that is smooth.
2.  Place the removed drive it on the piece of paper
3.  Spin the drive clockwise a few times and then counter clockwise a few times (if done right the centrifigal force will free the heads) - be very careful not to spin the drive off a table
4.  Reinstall the drive

When I worked at IBM we regularly would fix some bad hard disks this way.

Note only do this if the drive is not rattling, etc when lightly shaken.  Typically you can tell if the heads are stuck on there own if when the drive is powered it makes a clicking sound.

[eman]

I ended up not getting the thing to work. Where before it would just read a bad hard drive error, now it will go through all steps but nothing actually works like playback and file transfer. It sounds like that last tip might have worked for me. I've ordered a 40 gig drive for it, out of the change in my Paypal for selling my AKG's so I am getting an upgrade hopefully and financially pretty painless.
+T for the easy fix.
Also, it seems like your fix could possibly work without even taking apart the JB3- the drive is pretty much in the center of the unit.

Update: got the 40 gig unit for $40 shipped from an Ebay store, which was ridiculously easy to install. Back in action with twice the capacity, minus one relatively important file that I was going to use for a demo.