{"id":505,"date":"2022-10-17T16:48:49","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T14:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bananahdd.nl\/?p=505"},"modified":"2023-06-22T13:54:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T11:54:37","slug":"nec-d3713-d3746-d3766-120mb-345mb-1994-1995","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bananahdd.nl\/index.php\/2022\/10\/17\/nec-d3713-d3746-d3766-120mb-345mb-1994-1995\/","title":{"rendered":"NEC D3713, D3746 & D3766 120MB-345MB (1994-1995)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NEC D-Series of hard drives spanned from the late 80’s with their MFM\/RLL-capable lineup of drives such as the D3122,<\/span> to end with the HDA design of the D3724<\/a>, being wildly altered compared to the models being demonstrated in this post.<\/p>\n

I’ve had quite a lot of experience with NEC drives from this period, but unfortunately this post isn’t going to shed them in the greatest of lights. These five drives all suffer from the same issue; physical shock based damage. I’m not entirely sure how I ended up with these drives, so I can’t really digress into their backgrounds. How this ended up occuring will remain somewhat of a mystery. It’s quite the shame, regardless. Nonetheless, it provides a good opportunity to look inside and see NEC’s handywork in action!<\/p>\n

Interestingly, all of these drives demonstrate identical failure modes. There’s no drive activity whatsoever, once spun up. It’s not too surprising, based on the state some of these drives are in.<\/p>\n

If you’re interesting in seeing & hearing how one of these sounds when they work as intended, feel free to check out my post covering the D3711’s here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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The lineup.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As each of these drives have slightly different internal designs, this post will be seperated per-model.<\/p>\n

NEC D3713<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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D3713, a two platter variant.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
  Drive Attributes<\/strong><\/em>\r\n  -------------------------------------\r\n  NEC D3713<\/em>\r\n  -------------------------------------\r\n  Capacity      345MB\r\n  Mfc Date      1995-05\r\n  Format        3.5\"\r\n  Interface     PATA\r\n  Platters      2\r\n  Heads         4\r\n  RPM           4090\r\n  CHS           2254\/4\/63 (native)\r\n                670\/16\/63 (translated)\r\n  -------------------------------------<\/pre>\n
There aren’t a lot of differences between these and the D3711, aside from having an extra platter, thus double the capacity. This drive was manufactured in the Philippines, being produced by NEC’s subcontracter Tsukiden Electronics Industries, Inc. (TEII). This D3713 was built rather late in this line of drives production, the DSE line would succeed these just a year later.<\/p>\n
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Subcontracted to the Philippines.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The same, but there’s two platters.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A close-up.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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It’s identical.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The PCB.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
NEC D3746<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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The D3746.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
  Drive Attributes<\/strong><\/em>\r\n  -------------------------------------\r\n  NEC D3746<\/em>\r\n  -------------------------------------\r\n  Capacity      120MB\r\n  Mfc Date      1994-04\r\n  Format        3.5\"\r\n  Interface     PATA\r\n  Platters      1\r\n  Heads         2\r\n  RPM           4090\r\n  -------------------------------------<\/pre>\n
These are a little more obscure, seeing as there’s nothing about this model on the web. Nonetheless, we can figure out everything we need to know from looking inside.<\/p>\n
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Third time’s the charm, of failure.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Similar to the D3711. A different magnet\/bumper assembly.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Pure carnage. This head went flying.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The actuator assembly.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The interface connection.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Once again, the actuator mechanism, internally.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The PCB (the original capacitors were blown, these were replaced with ones I had in stock, initially temporarily).<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
NEC D3766<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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Finishing up with the D3766.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
  Drive Attributes<\/strong><\/em>\r\n  -------------------------------------\r\n  NEC D3766<\/em>\r\n  -------------------------------------\r\n  Capacity      245MB\r\n  Mfc Date      1994-02\r\n  Format        3.5\"\r\n  Interface     PATA\r\n  Platters      2\r\n  Heads         3\r\n  RPM           4090\r\n  -------------------------------------<\/pre>\n
This one refuses to unlock the actuator, but there’s at least two non-functional heads regardless. The top-most surface isn’t used on this model.<\/p>\n
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Nothing different.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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2 platters, 3 heads.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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No head on the top.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The same assembly.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The actuator assembly. Fairly unique looking bumpers!<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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One last look.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The PCB. This one needed some repair work, the parts were substitutes until I found out the drive was toast anyway.
<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
And that’s it. The end. These drives will likely only serve as ornaments, there’s sadly no other use for these anymore.<\/p>\n
If you’re curious as to how these are in action, you can view my video on them running below:<\/p>\n