WD160JB down but not out

[A745]

Hello

I have a problem with old PATA HDD.

My HDD stopped to boot up, at least until I try it for few times. Right now I am unable to boot it up for few hours. BIOS does not detect it. But when it boots up sometimes and gets detected everything works perfectly fine. CHKDSK/SMART show no problem, there are no error nor bad sectors etc, everything is fully accessible and works well. I was running my OS off it and can run it still - if it boots up for the first time.

When it does not boot up, there are sounds - first one sounds like disk would be powering up and starting to roll(motor?), then I hear few times something like "pam pam pam pam"(like HDD arm would try to touch the platter?) but then there is sound similar to first one, probably powering down(stopping motor?). I can hear it really well thanks to amplification. The "pam pam pam" sound is somehow similar to "click of death" sound posted over internet.

What could be causing it? If disk can't start but once it starts it works well then it's probably powerup problem? HDD's boots up using 12V and work normally on 5V, right? But my PSU does 12V very well, I have tried to boot it up with 3 different PSU's and even two PSU's at once(one with just HDD connected) and problem existed. Perhaps it's caused by controller/connector inside HDD that is fried/corroded/etc? I did not try different motherboard because I dont have any other working motherboard with PATA slot, but I tried few other IDE hard disks with it and they all work perfectly fine.

I've tried dark magic called "freezer" trick but instead of freezing it I've just put my HDD inside fridge for 5 minutes to lower the temperature below room one - had no effect obviously. Also tried to hold HDD with my hand in different positions when booting up but this also had no effect.

Any tips on what to do? And more serious - what has broken and how much could it cost to recover?

Cheers.

[jono-ats]

Let me guess . . . it is a Toshiba laptop drive.

[fzabkar]

Let me guess . . . it is a Toshiba laptop drive.

Obviously it's a 3.5" desktop drive.

"working motherboard with PATA slot"
"But my PSU does 12V very well"

And of course there's the "WD160JB" in the subject ...

[DataWreck]

Could well be a ROM issue giving you head fail symptoms, did one of these literally yesterday with the same symptoms.

Also super important that you don't open this drive even for a 'quick peek' as these drives have the WD head alignment issue.

Should be a fairly cheap (I understand this is a relative term) fix at this stage.

[labtech]

PCB may have sustained corrosion. Can use the search function here in the forum to see what can be done.

[A745]

The computer is old desktop that was used as web browser machine. HDD was bought like eight years ago, new. Never had any problems with it but I suspect few things that could cause it.

As for corrosion I expected exactly the same. Initially plugging much stronger PSU and manipulating voltages in BIOS helped but there is no effect anymore. My guess was that corrosion has caused some undervolting on 12V rail and that caused it to be not able to start. Computer was working in high humidity area with water cooler nearby, but then nothig else ever corroded or failed in such way.

I am researching now on this, would cleaning PCB with eraser be a good start? Also if there are any good links I'd be happy to see them.

[jono-ats]

My bad. I didn't read the title . . .

[labtech]

I am researching now on this, would cleaning PCB with eraser be a good start?.

Sure

[fzabkar]

Oxidisation on Western Digital PCBs:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=649

[pcimage]

I've seen a few older WD desktop drives with what is possibly the same issue.

Every now and then they make a "PRR PRRR PRRR" noise on startup, but next time they work fine.

Not sure what causes it, but PCB change didn't fix it. I didn't look too deeply into it as all I was interested in was recovering the data and retiring the drives!

Also had similar with old IBM/Hitachi PLAT drives that would sometimes make horrible beeping noises on startup but would still work most of the time.

Definitely recommend cloning this one while it's working to a fashion

[A745]

So cleaning PCB with rubber eraser didn't help much in a first place. HDD didn't want to start in original moterboard, but as some point I've decided to try to launch it if from few other mainboards and after numerous tries one mobo/PSU/cable combo finally launched HDD. Of course it reported as 100% working disk with all data intact, quite awesome SMART paramteres and no bad sectors(tested). I am not sure how many times it will be able to boot it this way.

Still wondering what could be causing it, as no program/test reported any error or anything wrong with it. Does it sound like drive would be completely fixable?

[fzabkar]

Are we to understand that you have recovered your data and that you just want to repair your HDD, or locate the fault, for academic reasons?

Initially plugging much stronger PSU and manipulating voltages in BIOS helped but there is no effect anymore.

I can't imagine that any of the voltages that you manipulated would have had any bearing on the HDD. The +12V and +5V rails are controlled by the PSU, not the motherboard.

[A745]

Either fixing or academic. Not all data was restored as I had not enough time but certain important things are there.

As for voltages, certain motherboards have ability to control voltages, this includes north and southbridge.

[fzabkar]

As for voltages, certain motherboards have ability to control voltages, this includes north and southbridge.

Motherboards cannot control the voltages produced by the PSU. Therefore they cannot have any effect on the voltages at the drive's power connector.