WD10EZEX-75M2NA0 Preamp Ribbon Cable Burnt INSIDE HDD

[sashok07]

Hello,

Just wanted to share and also see if anyone else has ever seen anything like this.. I have been doing data recovery for over 15 years and I have never seen a failure like this...

Customer brought in WD10EZEX-75M2NA0 from a DELL Server. Claims they got a new PC and their IT person was transferring the data over. The transfer was going good and then out of nowhere (around 20ish% into the transfer) the drive just stopped working.

The drive owner wasn't present when this happen and this is all according to the IT guy (who could be lying).

When the customer brought in the drive, he said the IT guy tried swapping the PCB on the drive but it didn't work (the drive had a dead PCB when I first tested it).

As you can see from the picture (attached) the ribbon cable on the head assembly is BURNT. There is residue (blackish dust) all over the platters and the air filter is dirty. The platters don't look damaged so it must be from the ribbon cable; it must have briefly caught on fire inside the drive!

How the hell does something like this happen!? Only thing I can think of is that the IT guy put on a wrong PCB but even then how would that cause the ribbon cable inside the drive to burn!? it doesnt make any sense to me... any ideas?

Attachments

preamp burnt cable

[fzabkar]

Was D3 shorted and R67 open? Was the SMOOTH chip damaged?

Catastrophic failures in Western Digital PCBs:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=1119

Ask the owner to check for the this:

Warning: do not interchange modular PSU cables:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2545

[digisupport]

Have seen this twice on WD drives.
In both cases fault was a defective PC PSU, that had been in service for many years.

[jono-ats]

Yes, I've seen that a couple of times. Smoke contamination on the platters.

[sashok07]

The PCB was fried, obviously, I haven't really messed around with it and just transferred over the ROM to a new board (which was 100% functional). Thankfully the PCB/ROM was original (I verified the SN via the ROM) as I was worried maybe the IT who swapped it forgot to put back the original or worse misplaced it (happens more than you can imagine even in this day and age).

The platter doesn't appear to be physically damaged but it is dirty (from the smoke residue). It is a single platter drive (thanks god) so I will attempt a head swap, after I clean the platter obviously.

How is this particular model with platter alignment? I never remove the platter obviously, expect in older Toshiba 2.5" drives with motor failure (remember those back in a day?).

Wondering if its safe to remove the platter (for cleaning) or if it will lead to alignment issues!? The drive is already so damaged that it will be difficult to tell if its alignment or something else causing not to work (god knows what else that other IT did with it). I can probably clean without removing it but it's going to be tedious and more difficult to do (but its probably the best way).

Thanks for all the responses!

[pepe]

I think it is not very sensitive, but i always take measures to keep/restore the alignment.
In any case, you can do tests prior the actual job...

pepe

[jono-ats]

I agree with Pepe.

You can rotate the platter manually and check that it is not "warped" before reinstalling the heads.

[Tomset]

Plate alignment, a poorly predictable operation. And the plate can stand with offset and spindle. Many times you can do it successfully, and then on the exact same disk you will suffer or even not do it at all.