WD5000YS clicking, no BIOS, uninitialized

[Sweetloaf]

Hello,

I have a WD5000YS drive from an old MyBook that is acting up.

When plugged in, the drive spins up, clicks rhythmically (think reggaeton) for a few seconds, then spins down. It repeats this for a couple minutes while the OS boots (usually only takes a few seconds). Once in Windows 7 the drive does not show up in the Computer or Disk Manager. If I enter BIOS before booting, the drive will show as Empty in BIOS but then show up as uninitialized in Disk Manager. I tried swapping the PCB with a seemingly identical board with no success. Opening the case reveals no immediately apparent platter damage. Could it be firmware or something else I can possibly attempt to diagnose? I don't have recovery money so any suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks,
Sweetloaf

[pcimage]

Nothing DIY, heads are bad. Sorry

[Sweetloaf]

Thanks pcimage. After some research it seems that this specific model was designed very poorly and the head arm kind of floats around its mounting pin and is cinched in place when the cover is torqued down. This causes the alignment to be extremely variable and very hard to redo once out of whack... Or that theory is wrong or doesn't apply to my situation.

I did receive a reply from drHDD saying they could help me but I am not allowed to compose PMs because I'm too new, so if you are still out there drHDD, please PM again with an alternate contact so I can talk to you.

[unknown]

After some research it seems that this specific model was designed very poorly and the head arm kind of floats around its mounting pin and is cinched in place when the cover is torqued down. This causes the alignment to be extremely variable and very hard to redo once out of whack

Agree. Those drive are very complicated even for a professional one.

Good luck