Hi all,

got my hands on a failed WD passport. Trying to recover data for fun and learning. It was opened for a few seconds to check what the heads are actually doing:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/edHampGX4wiaWKqUA

what would you suggest? I‘ve successfully soldered a SATA connector once to another drive. Could it help? Replacing PCB with Bios swap? I read about possible faulty firmware on the PCB, maybe? Or try Head replacement?
Any suggestion welcome, thank‘s a lot guys!

Hello,

Not a good idea to power the drive without the lid. When the lid is on and drive spins, the air creates a "cushion" for the head to fly on platters.
If you want to recover it, need to change head. can you confirm the full drive model, looks like "charger family" complex drive.

https://www.blizzarddr.com/western-digi ... ly-lookup/

Thanks

Hi suricate.ch,

thank you for the reply! According to the list, its a WD20NMVW-11AV3S2 (Shrek LT – SHREKLT).
I know opening the drive is not the best idea. However from my personal experience I learned that it will not immediately blow up. Also I wanted to know what that noise comes and whether the "click" comes from hitting the inner part / end of the platter, but this seems not the case. It just goes to the middle of the platter, then quickly snaps back. The drive does this infinite times. It does not stop after few tries. So you think this is more likely the heads? Then I would not start replace the PCB for now?

If I could make at least some parts of the drive accessible again (even be it only for a short time), I would like to use ddrescue to make a copy of what is left to another 2TB drive and then recover from there.

Thank you so much!

Yeah, no need to replace PCB, your drive is spinning, must be head.

great, then I will start from there. Thanks!

You have had your learning experience. HDD are assembled in a clean room with micron air filters. The reason is that the heads fly at a height of about 3 NANOmeters. ANY spec of dust on that surface will cause a head crash. Replacing a PCB on a drive is about the only thing you can do outside of a clean room. Now that you have breached that seal, remove the magnet and have fun with it. The drive is toast.

Hi ruggb, thank you for your reply. I am aware of what you said. but. There is no important data on this drive and I have done head replacement before - on my desk - and afterwards got all data off the "repaired drive". Believe it or not, some nano-dust particles will not immediate kill the drive. Of course I would not recommend this to anyone - agree - but my experience shows it is very well possible to read data after replacing heads without a clean room. Just my personal, poor, limited experience. I would not recommend it, of course, if there really is sensitive data on it.