Western Digital WD20EARS dead

[sradu]

Hello..

Today my good old WD 2TB HDD died. Before I let it RIP, I need to see if it can breathe for one last time so I can gather some bits from it.

It stopped working all of a sudden, I could see the folder structure in Windows but not access any folders. Then I rebooted, it took a long time in POST and showed "no system disk". The dead HDD is not the OS one, I have 4 disks. I start to swap them around to see what's the issue (hoping for a faulty SATA connection/cable). Nu such luck. As soon as I removed the WD20EARS the system booted fine, all the rest recognised properly and all good.

I mounted the WD in an external USB enclosure and connect it externally. It shows as AS2105 and disk management console in Windows shows up as uninitialised and asks me to choose the partition type (MBR/GPT). I ran Data LifeGuard Diagnostics and that sees it as ASMT 2105 with a SN of 000000000, 0MB capacity and no SMART information. Running a quick test on it and the result is "pass".

Any chance to recover the partition/data? (not very important but probably the drive itself is healthy... no weird noises, it still spins... just a "logical" or MBR issue).

Thanks!

[pcimage]

did you try some recovery software?

E.g. getdataback, r-Studio etc....

[sradu]

Hi,

I tried some but they cannot see the drive connected over USB.

[pcimage]

Then it's more than a "logical issue", almost certainly media and firmware issues as is extremely common in this model.

Sorry to say.

[sradu]

Thanks! Is there a way to update the firmware maybe? Fortunately the data is not very important but I would try to recover it if possible... just trying to estimate if the drive goes to the bin or not just yet...

[data-medics]

No, it's not a matter up needing an update. Firmware issues with these drives often relate to bad sectors developing causing the drives internal software which remaps bad sectors to go crazy. Generally speaking, it requires expensive equipment like PC-3000 to handle these sorts of issues.

[fzabkar]

See what you can do with the demo version of this tool:

https://wdmarvel.com/

A 1 month licence for the full version costs US$15.

There are English language forums here:
https://wdmarvel.com/forum/ru/

[sradu]

I tried WDMarvel but it cannot detect it via USB. If I connect it internally neither BIOS or Windows can see it (nor WDMarvel). Looks like it's really dead.

[sradu]

Ok.. so I can buy a new PCB (part number is 2060-771698-002 REV A) with about 12$, I think it's worth a shot. However, from what I understand I'd need to either swap the BIOS chip from the original PCB or to make sure the new PCB comes from a similar model.

Since I don't have the tools nor experience for soldering these little chips I would prefer the 2nd option. So my question > is the serial number on the PCB's white sticker the one I need? Or that's just unique for this part. It reads: 2061-771698-802 08P XW BEA8 BGX2 3 004210 1214

Or I get the new PCB and find somebody who can do the BIOS move for me...

[jermy]

Or I get the new PCB and find somebody who can do the BIOS move for me...

exactly
or send it to @pcimage

[fzabkar]

Or I get the new PCB and find somebody who can do the BIOS move for me...

You will probably be wasting your money, but the following supplier will include a firmware transfer in the PCB price:

http://store.yahoo.com/yhst-14437584971410/90000010.html