After a lot of research and reading/learning, I am coming to you with a dead WD5000KS, which it seems has also caused much heartache for a lot of other people. I have some data on the drive that isn't terribly critical, but it did represent a lot of time and effort (my wife digitized our entire CD collection 2 summers ago and we have since gotten rid of all of the CDs) plus a decent movie collection... So not a huge deal, but it would be nice to have it all back so I am soliciting price quotes for data recovery via this post.

At this point, I have contacted WD and have obtained an advance replacement (which is now in my possession) through the warranty and I was wondering if you'd be able to recover the bad drive, copy all the data to the replacement and do so within a couple weeks, in time for me to send the failed drive back to WD.

The status is as follows when connecting a molex power cable: the drive spins up, clicks 3 times, then spins down. Same when connecting a SATA USB housing and same as has been noted by many other owners of this model drive. I have provided all of the relevant #s below in the hopes you have a donor PCB to do a U12 swap on (if that might resolve the issue) or donor head, etc. I do know that this is something only a specialist (hopefully one reading this post) should do, but I'm also hopeful that if the necessary recovery resolution is something you're very facile with at this stage with so many issues being reported with this model drive, that it might help put the cost of recovery at a lower end of the spectrum. As such, please let me know what you might charge for such a recovery. I'm in NYC, will pay shipping both ways and could send everything out to you on Monday.

Drive/PCB details:
WD5000KS
WD Caviar SE16
Product of Thailand
MDL: WD5000KS-00MNB0
WWN: 50014EE2AAB23477
DATE: 27 OCT 2006
DCM: HCACAJAAB
PCB BARCODE STICKER: 2061-701383-E00 AH XS 3H19 08PF 5 0004130 7134
PCB imprint: 2060-701383-001 REV A
PCB manufacturer: FoxConn
PCB copyright statement: WDC (c) 2005 (3706 imprinted above it)

For whatever it's worth, when I remove the PCB, the black foam in places is completely stuck to the PCB...but there is no heat felt being given off by the PCB when plugged into power and no immediately visible signs of a fried anything.

On a related sidenote, I have seen a very large number of these drives made in Thailand, especially with the same model suffix that have failed. I'm wondering how many you have experienced problems with and/or have resurrected with this same symptom (or a similar symptom). It seems to me that this particular model suffix may have been subject to extremely high defect rates at WD's manufacturing facility and therefore may have been due to improper quality assurance or manufacturing process. A lot of people are throwing around talk of a class action suit against WD for these drives and so I guess I'd just like to know from your standpoint (to satisfy my own curiosity) if you think there may have been something untoward in the manufacturing or QA process related to these drives (notwithstanding the understood complexity of drive manufacturing processes for these types of drives)...?

Thanks very much in advance for your prompt and thorough replies and availability/pricing of recovery services.

Cheers,
Adam

click 3 times and power down is usually head problems, common on these

Unfortunately, very difficult to fix, if at all possible.

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...and the cost is on the HIGH side of the spectrum, regardless of what kind/data is inside. Forget class action, usually the cause is misuse - shock, poor power supply, overheating from external case or bad installation, etc. These drives, with proper use, are ok, but require to be handled like eggs as every precision device. And the smart and internal error logs tells everything about how the drive was used!

Find some one to disable heads 6, 7, you will get back most of your data.

You have a head problem, These are very EASY to fix. (for the right DR company) and you will get back ALL your data.

I like your confidence. You know something the rest of us dont??

these disks are very difficult to repair and recover, you can find more detiailed information regarding this in this forum at other posts. As for the quality of the disks, they perform well, but fail frequently. A lot of the perception you will find here is based on ease or difficulty to recover.

Best advice you will get here is to send to a professional.

This is your only shot at getting back your data. Any attempts to recover yourself will surely fail, and your files will be lost forever.