hi forum,

i'm very new to hd doctor so i'm having a bit of trouble just figuring out what basic steps to take to diagnose problem drives.

so far, since getting the hd doctor suite, i've had two WD ROYL 3.5" sata drives. both exhibit similar problems: most importantly: when connected to hd doctor and powered on they both show "error" and can't "load from hdd" and also in both Hi and Lo speed modes, none of the modules are visible or readable. i can put drive in safe mode and connect to hd doctor, power on, and get "pcb" - but not sure what can be done from there (modules still not available, rom not readable, etc).

at this point, i only have one of the drives left -- WD10EAVS: MDL: WD10EAVS-00D7B0 (PCB: 2060-701537-004 rev a - STICKER: 2061-701537-Q00 AD). The pcb looks brownish in spots where it should be silver. when powered on the drive starts up, spins, then tries to read (the sa?), then makes sounds like it's "seeking" or trying to find something it can't, then the noise gets a bit louder, then it stops seeking.

before getting the hd doctor i would have written this off as bad heads (which I don't replace), but since i have this device now, is there anyway to determine if the problem is indeed heads, or perhaps a bad pcb that is misdirecting the heads - giving the impression of bad heads?

is the first step in these types of cases almost always locating a matching PCB?

thanks for your help and sorry for the newbie questions -- and thanks to all the member of this forum for posting your knowledge, i've learned a lot just from reading posts over the past few months.

brian

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$300 Data Recovery - Los Angeles Data Recovery

Hi ,
what Are You Selecting As Far As Drive Family Is Concerned .

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Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

ROYL Series, both High-Speed and Low-Speed "SA Access Methods."
Thanks!

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$300 Data Recovery - Los Angeles Data Recovery

If you are in safe mode you need to load from file which means that you need a FW donor file to use to load the HDD from this way you can read and access the SA

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Iorana Haraharaini

thanks guys/gals -- i've just ordered a donor... same complete model # and exact same pcb number & 1st half of sticker, and date is only one month prior.

just to double check - i'll hook up the donor drive, backup all firmware modules, backup ROM (?), disconnect donor, hook up bad hd (with it's bad pcb) in safe mode, "load from file" the donor drive info, then check to see if the firmware modules are available and if so, check for bad modules? i guess i'm kinda stuck here -- there shouldn't be bad modules since it's a donor -- so I guess I'm not sure what to do after this...

thanks again!!

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$300 Data Recovery - Los Angeles Data Recovery

You can also request remote assistence on this one. Send a message to the person you purchased this tool from and ask for meeting and get time schedule for you. Then you can have assistence to see what they do on this and good idea to make notes and see what the procedure is so you can learn and move on. We do not see you screen and do not give details on all this to us and so it is hard to determine the next steps for you to take. There is a blog to go to and down load some case studies if you can get past the bad English in these they might help you out on this one. There is a case study on the blog that will point you how to do this job and what to do on it.

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Iorana Haraharaini

thanks, i'm in the process of trying to get something up with justin. have searched all over the sa forum and read all "royl" posts... but didn't see a case study with royls. i do see the black I series pcb replacement case study (http://www.salvationdata.com/forum/topic668.html), are the black I and ROYL series close enough that the steps are the same? that said -- can I use that case study for all WD PCB swaps? thank you very much for your time!!

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$300 Data Recovery - Los Angeles Data Recovery

what is the full model# on the drive you are working on?

Are you in the USA or somewhere else???

Honestly bcometa, I think you are going to get a lot more useful info off of the deepspar forums than then sd forums.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

hddmania: WD10EAVS: MDL: WD10EAVS-00D7B0 (PCB: 2060-701537-004 rev a - STICKER: 2061-701537-Q00 AD), Los Angeles

drc: thanks for the info! didn't even think about searching the deepspar forum since i figured this problem was beyond deepspar's capabilities. will check there now.

...still waiting for replacement PCB to arrive.

thanks for the help!

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$300 Data Recovery - Los Angeles Data Recovery

Well, they have a pc3k subforum too

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

ahh... but not for me, i only own the deepspar and not the pc3k, so they only give me access to deepspar, data extractor (which I don't own), general questions, and faq forums.

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$300 Data Recovery - Los Angeles Data Recovery

Oh, didn't realize they did that.

Buy a pc3k!

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

hahha- yep, it's on my list

so i got the donor drive today...

backed up all fw modules on donor. moved pcb to patient. powered on, load from hdd, and the heads still sounds like they can't find anything. hdd info isn't loaded and no modules are available. i'm quite sure this means the heads are in fact bad (they sounded like that from the beginning, but just wanted to double check).

i also moved patient pcb to donor drive, spun up and was able to see some modules and backup a few, although most couldn't be read (which I assume is normal in this case). so, the pcb works on the donor, at least enough to get it spinning up and somewhat accessible.

can someone confirm this sounds like bad heads so i can give up on this one?

thanks y'all!

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$300 Data Recovery - Los Angeles Data Recovery

Did you clean the contacts on the PCB?


You should try moving ROM from failed drive to donor PCB as well. I believe SD tools allows this.



Regards,

hi russ - thanks for the info -- i actually did remote (teamviewer) support with SD and they weren't able to get it to work either (and they tried a lot more things then I did). so, quite sure this was either bad heads or physically damaged SA. btw, the rom on these drives isn't on the pcb so no luck with trying to move it.

i have received another of these drives (similar model) with a similar problems and pcb donor ordered. hope i have better luck this time!

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$300 Data Recovery - Los Angeles Data Recovery

Sometimes you don't have to physically move the ROM to move it =)

Your SD tools should be able to read out ROM info into a file, and then upload it to another ROM without the need of desoldering (especially in ROYL Case, where there IS no EEPROM)

Because the donor PCB spun up the drive and you where able to reach some readiness, was thinking the original ROM may have helped give it the extra kick start.

Otherwise, you are probably correct that either a head/s are bad or there are physical bads in the SA.

100% ,
Correct Observation ,I Mean Might be The New Rom Is totally Or Partially different From the Patient .

_________________
Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com