Head swap on Apple branded hard drive

[sknopp]

Gurus,

I have an Apple branded WD5000AAKS-40V6A0 (Tahoe) hard drive with a failed head stack. Similar Apple hard drives on Ebay are going for around $300, which is much more than I am willing to spend. Normally for Royal WD drives I try and match model, including the XXV6AX portion, along with country, close date and part of the DCM (although I know there is ample evidence to suggest that none of this is absolutely critical or necessary).

My question is whether a non-Apple branded WD drive with a different XXV6AX would be just as good a donor. Obviously head map and adaptives would have to be a match, or close, as well.

Thanks in advance,

Shawn

[lcoughey]

Similar Apple hard drives on Ebay are going for around $300, which is much more than I am willing to spend.

Welcome to the world of data recovery. You may have to just charge more for the recovery.

[sknopp]

Exactly...or get into the drive refurbishing business.

[hhddrec]

Exactly...or get into the drive refurbishing business.

Yes is another way

[fzabkar]

Headstack matching for Western Digital:
http://www.alexsoft.org/viewtopic.php?t ... 4555#p4555

[data-medics]

You don't need apple branded drive. That has more to do with firmware than anything hardware related. Finding one with a close DCM and date is more important.

Try this guide:
http://www.donordrives.com/hard-drive-pcb-donor-match

It's not as exhaustive as what fzabkar posted, but will get you a match 90% of the time.

[jono-ats]

DCM and date code aren't key parameters on this model.

[sknopp]

Thanks guys for the information and suggestions. I had to move fast, so I went ahead and ordered 2 drives for this recovery. Neither matches the XXV6AX parameter, but one is is Apple branded and both match fairly closely on other parameters. Hopefully adaptives are close and we get a hit. I will post back with the results after the swap.

Shawn

[sknopp]

Just wanted to share that the case was a complete success. For the record, here is the relevant information:

Patient:

Apple branded WD5000AAKS-40V6A0
26 Oct 2010
HHNNHTJMGN

Donor:

Apple branded WD5000AAKS-402AA0
13 Mar 2011
HHRNHTJAGN

Maybe this will help someone in the future.