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Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Western Digital 1TB WD1001FALS - swap possible?

May 26th, 2019, 3:32

I have here two 1TB drives - one is a 2012 WD10EALX, Tahoa family, and the one I'm trying to fix is a 2010 WD1001FALS, same family.

PCBs however are my concern - the 2010 drive uses a 2060-771640-002 Rev P1 and the EALX uses a 2060-771640-005 Rev A.

Will the PCB swap work? I should mention BOTH drives have the U12 chip present.

Re: Western Digital 1TB WD1001FALS - swap possible?

May 26th, 2019, 14:30

Most likely PCB's are not compatible.
Try to find a fully matched 771640-002 P1

What's the initial problem with the drive you are trying to fix?

Re: Western Digital 1TB WD1001FALS - swap possible?

May 26th, 2019, 14:36

Drive would not power up with its own PCB.

SMOOTH chip does heat up on old PCB but Marvell MCU is cold as a rock (in normal operation it should warm up).

Has not killed any other board I tried (a 2061-701552-000 from a WD1600AVJS with the head contacts isolated and the current 2060-771640-005) and in fact both boards I placed on it have spinned up the drive (just it clicks because of ROM mismatch I guess, I read somewhere here that newer WDs do this) while its original board is dead as a rock it seems.

Re: Western Digital 1TB WD1001FALS - swap possible?

May 26th, 2019, 22:54

TinkerDrive wrote:Drive would not power up with its own PCB.


Buna ziwa,

Most likely the heads are bad with media damage.

Jon

Re: Western Digital 1TB WD1001FALS - swap possible?

May 26th, 2019, 23:28

@TinkerDrive, if you upload hi-res photos of your "dead" PCB, I could help you to verify the voltage test points.

Re: Western Digital 1TB WD1001FALS - swap possible?

May 27th, 2019, 4:56

I tested main voltages on the dead PCB (5 and 12V) as well as D3 and D4. All came up good. I already started removing stuff from the PCB because at this point I'm pretty sure the MCU might be kill (these things run pretty hot even in normal operation , evidenced by my WD1600AVJS)

jon - possible, as the original pad did look quite "crispy" under the Marvell MCU. Not really sure though since spinning it up with the WD10EALX PCB, I didn't hear any scraping sound whatsoever. Just a very faint clicking which is probably due to mismatched FW on board (IIRC the newer WD drives are very specific about the firmware - I could be wrong though.)

And as a final FYI, these are not some client's drives. These are two drives I bought for $2.35 each. I'm just taking a stab at repairing one of them (the WD10EALX had no chances to be fixed, platters were fubar on it)
and possibly use in a spare machine I have.

The dude I bought both drives from has a lot of drives, including the dreaded 3TB DM series Seagates (of DM001 and DM003 variety), as well as a Barracuda XT 2TB model. Unfortunately, some of them are scuffed pretty badly, so not a lot to choose from. Also, most drives are from Macs (at least the WD1001FALS I have and a few others from the collection he has have the Apple logo printed on them)

In any event that I can't eventually get this WD1001FALS fixed, I'll probably take my chances with the Seagate drives as well. He sells them for $2.35/drive, so it's barely any loss. All of the drives are going to be used for learning purposes, mainly to extend my knowledge in fixing PC components (already done the mobo section :) )

Re: Western Digital 1TB WD1001FALS - swap possible?

May 27th, 2019, 5:19

If you want to learn to fix components, then measure the voltages at the inductors. You should find Vcore and Vio, among others.

Re: Western Digital 1TB WD1001FALS - swap possible?

May 27th, 2019, 23:57

If a drive in this family won't spin up with its native ROM, but will with a different ROM, then chances are there is a head crash with media damage.

This family is designed not to pass initialization in that condition. When you alter the algorithm by introducing different FW, you override the protective mechanism that keeps the drive from spinning.

It's probably not a bad electronics issue. But to a hammer, everything is a nail. :-)

Re: Western Digital 1TB WD1001FALS - swap possible?

May 28th, 2019, 2:22

jono-ats wrote:It's probably not a bad electronics issue. But to a hammer, everything is a nail. :-)

A technician with rudimentary skills (not a board jockey) should be able to perform some quick checks in a matter of minutes. We should not assume anything.
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