As a semi-newbie looking for a bit of direction, I thought I might try posing this case...

I have an (apparently) ailing WD600 - one of 3 in a RAID-0 - takes a long time to reach ready status, although it gets there eventually. Incidentally the other 2 drives are in fine shape, and imaged well.

Several modules (primary) on the bad drive were determined to read incorrectly - tried rewriting from secondary and was left with 2 bad modules (29 & 44 - using SD DD). Upon scanning those specific modules again - 29 mysteriously was fine, while 44 was still bad. Tried changing 44 to use empty track (that scanned with no errors) and updating from secondary backup - reset and scan after this showed that 44 was STILL bad along with some others that had popped up as bad (14, 21, 25). Tried to format SA and rewrite all from secondary backup, reset and now ALL primary modules show up with read errors - secondary still in perfect shape.

I'm guessing at this point that I either something went wrong with my intended SA rewrite - or that the read head for the primary modules is going (- or both ?).

My next idea was to attempt to use one of the other 2 drives in the RAID (virtually identical to the problem drive although the headmapping appears different) to receive the sick drive's SA (from good secondary backup) and then try a hotswap on ready status. Am I way off-target or would this be a possible approach (even if not the best one)? Also, if trying to do this, would the headmaps need to be identical on the donor and patient?

Any helpful feedback much appreciated

Putting the question another way - which modules would a donor require for a successful hotswap for the best attempt at recovery? And would the donor headmap and rom need to be changed to mirror the configuration of the patient? I know that several people out there have the answer...

Translator is neccessary, if i'm not mistaken these are modules 20, 21 and 25.
Head map should be same also.

Best regards,

Dobre

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Hotswap maybe you need to stop right here if getting the data is important.

Did you record tracks0 and tracks1 before changing anything?

Research with non-important drives - not real case data.

I understood only that other module gets damaged while writing other... am I right ?

Thanks for replying. Yes, I have a backup of modules although not as tracks. In any event, it turns out that head 0 fails read/write test and appears to now be dead - will need a head replacement. Any takers on this? PM me if interested. I'm in NY area.

Attempting to write any primary module from seconday claims to work, but still fails scan and hex reader is showing all 0s.

Thinking about this again, is it possible for head0 to not read at all and the drive still wouldn't click? Would these symptoms indicate that read is working but write is failing? If so, a hotswap with proper translator and headmap 'should' work - is this incorrect?

I re-read all the thread , in my experience and in my opinion seems that at least one head is defective. You can try imaging by head to confirm functionality.
I would have a second opinion using ANOTHER diagnostic tool... and then proceed.

If I had 'another' diagnostic tool, I would certainly use it . As I don't, I will try imaging by head as you suggest. Will DDI recognize such a drive that reaches ready but has no readable SA?

It should if you hot swap it.