I don't know if anyone can help with this issue but I stumbled across this board by accident trying to research my problem a little bit.

Quite some time ago I had the aforementioned hard drive die on me. As I recall the problem it did work, then simply didn't after a reboot. at one point the computer would detect the drive as a Maxtor falcon 0mb. I had read this was a drive BIOS issue, but wasn't sure if there was anything I could do about it.

Some time shortly after that it simply stopped being detected at all, and just goes "click, click click....." when its connected to the computer. It does this continually when the computer is powered on and does NOT get detected at all by ANY programs.


I have been quoted $1000 for data recovery on this drive and thats if the data can be recovered. There should be nothing wrong with the platters, and the actual data on them should be intact.....just can't read it to save it.

Is there any hope of getting this data off the drive without paying substantially more than I can even consider thinking of paying??

Either FW or heads problem (or media damage)... judging by how it got progressively worse after it stopped working, I would guess media damage. If it is only FW you could probably do better than $1000, but for heads that is on the low end and for media damage it could even be impossible.

Lcoughey on this forum is in your general vicinity, you might ask him to have a look at it.

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

I'm fairly certain there isn't media damage. I did have it looked at by a data recovery place, they had it in a clean room and I believe they said the platters looked fine. I don't recall if he said anything about heads. they still weren't sure if the data was recoverable though, but that wasn't based on any physical damage or problem, just simply not sure if it will be there when the platters are read.

IIRC it was firmware or BIOS thats causing the issue. The drive has basically forgotten what it is. I did look into this before, but can't remember how I managed to find out that it was being detected as a maxtor falcon 0MB. I think it was with one of the dignostic tools or something.

Anyway, who is this lcoughey person and does he do data recovery or something? There is quite a lot of stuff on this drive I would like to get back. some of it personal some of it projects, most of it I can't even remember now.



off topic for a sec, is there anything that can be done for a drive that won't spin up?? fried servo somewhere? (there is a story behind it, but I don't want to clutter up a single thread with two topics)

Just looked at lcougheys profile/website, and it was one of the satellite companies listed on his site that I took my drive to before. it was probably sent off to him anyway

That's usually a board problem, in which case a board swap and ROM transfer should cost around US$40, including postage.

http://www.onepcbsolution.com/maxtor-di ... e-p16.html

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

the one that wont spin up is a WD400...heres what happened.

It was the boot drive of my computer at the time. I was messing with adding a USB header and had to rewire it. after messing around a bunch I finally got the wiring right for the motherboard, but decided that I didn't need to shut the computer off for a 40th time and plugged the header in.

The wiring was in fact correct, but when I plugged it in the computer shut down and that was the end of the drive. Again, I do believe it was diagnostic utilities that gave me a code pointing to a dead servo.

basically I fried a motor or circuit somehow or something. Is there anyway to determine if its the board or if something inside is burned out without spending the money on the board?

If I remove the board there are contacts near the spindle. can any of those be used to test if the motor works?

oh also, I thought the PCBs are specifically made or programmed for the drive they are connected to. would swapping out the board actually work??

This is what I've found I need for the maxtor, but the maxtor is the one thats having the clicking problem and had the firmware issue.

Maxtor 040108000
Specification: 301593100 / 040108000 / L7250E 1.2

It's like $5 apparently from this place
http://www.drivestar.org/product/pcb_mt/040108000.htm


The WD400 that won't spin up I can't seem to find a PCB for, but I don't know what identifying marks I'm looking for on the chips.

What model the hdd exactly is?
Provide some photos would help.

In that case I would have confidence in whatever he told you

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

so $1000. The guy was talking about swapping boards, I don't remember if anything internally was wrong.

It might at least be worth the money to try a swap before taking it off to the lab.

Here is the info on the front label of the WD drive that wont power up (the one that was reported as a dead servo, not the drive relating to this topic)

Parameters
LBA 78165360
SN: WMAAT7337991
MDEL: WD400EB-00CPF0
Date: 05 Jul 2002
DCM: HSCACV2C
WD P/N WD400EB-00CPF0

Numbers listed on the PCB

Biggest chip on the board:
WD80C24
12P9432 BM IBM-1.1
1J11A067LQ

I don't know if your model will work with a straight PCB swap. Ask your supplier.

The following link doesn't mention any requirement for a firmware transfer, so it appears that you may be good to go.

http://www.onepcbsolution.com/maxtor-di ... 6-005.html

The above supplier does offer firmware transfers for $10, if necessary.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

$1K for just a board swap sounds ridiculous. If your board has a parallel EEPROM chip, and if this chip needs to to be transferred to the donor, then it should cost a little more than a straight PCB swap, but not $1000 more. Your board supplier should be able to advise you whether this is the case.

If you have a digital multimeter, then you could take some voltage and resistance measurements of your faulty board while it is removed from the drive. You may not be able to repair anything, but the post mortem may be instructive.

I realise it's not identical, but does your board look similar to this one?
http://obrazki.elektroda.net/69_1268214736.jpg

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Like I said it was a while ago. There was mention of a donor drive(possibly) ut board swapping was going to be a first try and probably something to do with firmware swap etc second. I don't recall any of the finer details of the conversation though.

Yes the board does look like that, and yes I have a multimeter. I was wondering if I could test the board but I wasn't sure what the test points are and what the baseline readings should be.

This photo has a few test points:
download/file.php?id=1202&mode=view

Remove the board from the drive and power it up on its own. Then perform the following measurements.

Test for the presence of +5V and -5V at pins 4 and 2 of the preamp connector (J1). Use power gound as your reference.

Test for 1.8V at the emitter pin of transistor Q4. What voltage do you measure on its metal tab?

Measure the voltages at each of the pins of U6 (Unisem multi-ouput linear regulator).

Be very careful not to short anything with your probes, as you can do major damage.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

alright, if I get some time today I'll check those points out and report back.

I don't have an external PSU from a computer, is it ok to have this board plugged into my computer for testing?

EDIT**

I just realized thats for a maxtor board. This is good to determine if there are board problems on my maxtor, but the one with the fried servo that won't power up is a WD.

I don't so much think the Maxtor has issues with the PCB, if anything the issue is firmware or something inside.


Is there one of those pictures available for a WD board with the specs posted above?