drive possibly failing to find initialization data

[ulao]

I have a drive that I originally though was a physical issue that may be having troubles reading its initialization. Its not a normal click like a stuck head, its like it tries to read and resets the head and tries again. Sometimes it gives up ofter 5 tries, and others it just keeps trying. I was going to try a platter swap but figure it would be better to look at a donor drive first. This drive (WD black 500gig) has patter guards in it, making it impossible to swap. Though, as I mentioned, I dont think I need to. If I'm right and it's just that it can not read the data in order to initialize, is that fixable with mhdd or like?

[drc]

No

[BlackST]

Absolutely no.

[pcimage]

And thrice nay

[ulao]

I figure as much, ok have to ask this as-well. In this case the drive can not report to bios its info, is it possible via linux, or some boot dics to enter this info in manually, in so trying to recover the data ( raw read )?

[Vulcan]

No - and even if you could, it wouldn't help you. The lack of disk recognition by the BIOS is the symptom of a deeper problem with the disk. That problem (not the symptom that you have mentioned) is what needs to be diagnosed & fixed, using the necessary DR equipment & procedures (which you don't have)

[pcimage]

Vulcan is correct.

You almost certainly have a head related issue.

Needs to go to a pro, and not just any old "pro"... One that has specific experience with this drive and it's specific problems and therefore specific solutions.