Recommendations for HDD Repair Services

[orbsplateau]

Repair Service for
WD15EARS-00Z5B1 1.5TB SATA HDD

It seems that my HDD has a corrupt firmware or other PCB related issue (drive spins up and sounds normal, but despite a lengthy delay, it's not detected or recognized by the BIOS).

Based on that diagnosis, can you guys suggest a good but affordable hard drive repair service?
I live in Canada, so a North American service would be preferable.

I can handle the "data recovery" part, I've used tools like:
R-Studio
TestDisk (linux)
Acronis Disk Director
Ontrack EasyRecovery Pro
SpinRite (for older drives)

As long as I can get the motherboard to recognize the drive, I can take my time to recover any lost data.

[fzabkar]

If it's a PCB fault (doubtful, based on the replies to your other thread), then, as long there is a chip at U12, the following PCB suppliers include a chip transfer service:

http://www.onepcbsolution.com/
http://www.hdd-parts.com/

It shouldn't cost you more than US$50. ISTM that you'd be wasting your money, though.

[orbsplateau]

If it's a PCB fault (doubtful, based on the replies to your other thread), then, as long there is a chip at U12, the following PCB suppliers include a chip transfer service:

http://www.onepcbsolution.com/
http://www.hdd-parts.com/

It shouldn't cost you more than US$50. ISTM that you'd be wasting your money, though.

why do you think that it would be a waste of money? what do you propose for an HDD that may have a corrupt firmware or a PCB related issue?

[thatdellguy]

The last couple of these we saw had firmware issues where the drive sounds normal but only reports BSY. Circuit board may be a waste of time but worth checking.

R-Studio - Best
TestDisk (linux) -Good
Acronis Disk Director - Poor
Ontrack EasyRecovery Pro - poor
SpinRite (for older drives) - Extremely poor

[lcoughey]

There are too many cans of worms with what you are asking for. Should you decide you would like an affordable Canadian data recovery lab, I'd be happy to help.

[orbsplateau]

There are too many cans of worms with what you are asking for. Should you decide you would like an affordable Canadian data recovery lab, I'd be happy to help.

I want to thank you guys for responding and offering your advice. I appreciate it.

I have some questions though. Why am i opening a can of worms by sending the drive for repair (re: corrupt firmware and/or PCB replacement).

and why would it be a waste of money? is the success rate low?

As long as it makes the drive accessible again, I can produce an image and then take my time to recover any lost data. I'll probably never use the drive after that, but at least i'll have my files back.

[lcoughey]

You want the drive repaired:
- what happens if your diagnosis is wrong?
- who pays for the parts?
- who pays for the lab time?
- what happens if the drive is not "repairable"?
- what happens if the drive fails again, after you get it back? Will you keep paying to have it "repaired"?
- what happens if you are unable to recover the data?

[orbsplateau]

You want the drive repaired:
- what happens if your diagnosis is wrong?
- who pays for the parts?
- who pays for the lab time?
- what happens if the drive is not "repairable"?
- what happens if the drive fails again, after you get it back? Will you keep paying to have it "repaired"?
- what happens if you are unable to recover the data?

what happens if your diagnosis is wrong?
I'm not making a diagnosis. But since the drive spins up and sounds OK, i'm hoping that the problem is limited to the electrical or non-moving parts.

who pays for the parts?
who pays for the lab time?
I guess the service / repair company will replace the parts that need to be replaced and charge me for the work?

what happens if the drive fails again, after you get it back? Will you keep paying to have it repaired?
well no. I'll try to produce an image and work off that to recover the files i need. I'll probably never use the drive after that.

what happens if the drive is not "repairable"?
what happens if you are unable to recover the data?
I don't know. i guess if the drive can't be fixed and no data can be read from it, i'm stuck. I'll have to see if it's worth it to send the HDD to a data recovery lab, or if I can live without those files?

but honestly, in the past 25 years. that has never happened to me.
I was a kid when I got my first PC. It was a 386 with 2mb of RAM and a 20 or 40MB HDD.

Although I've always had a backup of my most important data, I wouldn't necessarily backup everything, so there were times when I've had to use data recovery tools to rescue my data (but I guess I mostly did it for fun and to learn). And sometimes because I was trying to make it easier to recover from a crash.

Anyway, I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting. Are you saying that it's not worth trying to recover any data from the drive?