Hello everyone this is my first post in the HDDguru forums.

My Western Digital hard drive has failed (click of death) after four years of use, during a power outage in my apartment. Since the loss of my data is not career threatening, but still very important to me, I have decided to repair the unit myself (after extensive research on DIY hard drive repair)

Professional data recovery services are expensive, so when it's me vs. them... they win. Lol.

I'll build a clean room, or may have access to a real one, but I have concluded that I cannot begin this
project without some technical specs, first.

My two questions are as follows:

1) First of all, should I even open the lid of a WD hard drive with the following specs... (it has about 3 platters, but some WD hard drives are known to attach a part of the lid to the alignment of the platters, thereby ruining alignment if you open the lid)

WD2500JS-41SGB0 "WD Caviar SE"
serial number: WCANY2371157
Manufacture date: December 14, 2006
DCM# HSBHCT2AHN
# on PCB board: 2061-701335-100 AB XC 3P05 52DZ 7 0007230 7237
Firmware: unknown

2) Apparently, matching manufacture date as close as possible (by no more than two weeks), the DCM number (4th, 5th, and 6th numbers are the most important?) as well as the first 13 numbers on the PCB board are all the most important things to keep in mind regarding the purchase of my donor drive. If the firmware doesn't match because the mfr. date is off then the repair won't work (so I'm told)

Sadly, I was able to find a donor drive on Ebay, but there is a two month difference in mfr. date as opposed to two weeks.

I would really appreciate it if someone here familiar with Western Digital could help me out with this. I did email WD about getting a PCB board or a donor drive, but since I'm on the consumer's line asking questions, and not the technician's line, I may not get very helpful advice regarding specifications.

Well, I think first of all you really need to diagnose your drive correctly, because you may even don't need any clean room to do that or may be possible that it's not necessary to open up your drive.

Have you bought that donor drive you've found on ebay?

I would suggest to get correct diagnostics and then move on with a solution.
If you are guessing on your problem, you won't resolve it, specially with Western Digital drive.

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www.datarecoveryne.com

Not all clicking in this drive means you have to transplant heads on it. There are other reason behind this one and especially you say this happened after power outage in your apartment. Get a good diagnostics on this one before you go in opening this up and it is not necessary to do so.

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Iorana Haraharaini

Thank you.
I understand, based on my power outage, that it might not be the reader head(s)
But the fact remains they are flipping out. (literally)

That's why i want to simply swap the PCB board first. Later i can try to replace the heads if that didn't work. For now, I can check to see if there is anything burnt out on the underside of the board, which i forgot to do.

I have not bought the ebay donor drive I mentioned yet because I cannot just "try anything" and it will work.

The purpose of this post is.... I'm looking to find out more about what's going on with the specs, (posted above) if I am to purchase a donor drive.
Does anyone here know more about Western Digital DCM numbers, firmware, or what needs to match on the PCB serials?

The repair will never work if I can't get the specs right, first.

You can't replace the PCB on this drive without first transplanting the ROM chip (or its content) to the new PCB. Bear in mind that just because it may not be the heads does not mean that the problem is the PCB - until a full diagnostic is done it could be many things, PCB, SA, ROM, Heads, Platters etc, etc...

... and some damage fry the new pcb, also. Risks of the DIY.

granaryloaf,
are you speaking from experience swapping ROM chips or boards on this model? Or are you saying this because there will be a need for an exact match of something (firmware?). What i've been told is that you need to find a donor PCB/drive that is within range of about two weeks from the manufacture date of the patient drive. Anything outside of that range and you're more or less gambling and probably wont succeed. I don't think i'll find an exact match (i've looked online) unless Western Digital themselves are willing to do some legwork, which they probably won't unless they perform repairs on their own units (since when does a manufacturer do anything like that? LOL)

poehere,
Where can I get a good diagnostic on a 2006 Western Digital PCB board?
Should I just send it to a data recovery service and pay for a diagnostic? Or should i just send it to shop that can only look at the PCB?

BlackST,
I never said I would try to do any soldering myself.

I give you 0% chance of success with anything that involves opening the drive. With the PCB you should be able to read a couple of other threads around here and see what you will need to do. If that doesn't fix your problem then it's game over.

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

I agree. These drives are amongst The most difficult concerning heads transplant. PCB is only diy option.

Dobre

_________________
Murphy was an optimist

Datarecovery in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany
Datarecoverytools http://www.drtools.eu

Agree

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ZeBong
" что случилось в России - останется в России "
" Россия еще раз"

you have ONE VALUABLE PRO MEMBER of this forum right in your town. This is the best advice can give.

There is a WD specialist (raptor_pa) at the following forum. I have always found him to be helpful and courteous. That said, I don't expect that the end result will be any better for you.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardwar ... e-support/

Good luck anyway.

Is Frank actually recommending a professional service instead of DIY?

But personally I would suggest the OP contact someone here instead, someone with good reputation here that can confidently get data back.