Western Digital My Book Drive Crash

[VladTheImpaler]

Hello,

My girlfriend owns a Western Digital My Book Pro (or Premium SE, case is black at least) 1TB edition, which is actually two 500GB hard drives in a mirror Raid configuration.

Reference picture:


A few days ago apparently it fell over on to its side while turned on. After this the My Book would not work, when powered on it would make a weird noise which I at first did not identify as a hard drive failure. The noise sounded more artificial than mechanical.

Anyway, I took the My Book apart and extracted the two hard drives from it and then plugged them into my desktop computer (one by one). But when I tried to boot up the hard drives would make the same noise as before and I was not able to get my computer running with these drives connected, couldn’t even get to the bios. Both drives had the same problem.

Now, this is as far as my knowledge on hard drives extend. The data on these drives are valuable to my girlfriend; there are thousands of pictures that she does not want to loose. What are our options? Does anyone know any techniques or have any tips on what we can attempt further to get the data off these drives? Or are they simply mechanically broken and we’re shit out of luck?

I’m fairly knowledgeable about computers, I’ve built my own from scratch and know the basics. I’m willing to try any suggestions anyone might have.

I would also appreciate it if anyone has any alternate suggestions on how we can get the data of these drives.

If you need more information to answer me I will gladly comply.

Thank you very much for reading, my girlfriend is really in despair over this and any help will be much appreciated.

Best wishes,
Vlad

[CK]

what hard drives were inside the unit? Were they WD 500GB's?

Does the noise sound "musical" or a click?

Do both drives make the same sound?

Are you sure it's a mirror config?

Probably a seized spindle motor in the drive if it fell over while powered on.

[VladTheImpaler]

Hello Sir,

Yes, they are 2xWD 500GB's, I just checked.

Yes, the sound is more "musical" (great way of describing it), there's really no clicking as I've heard from older hard drives in the past.

I'm 98% certain it was running in Raid 1, mirror configuration. There was only 500GB space on the external drive device.

Thank you for your reply.

[CK]

ok, the "musical" sound indicates a spindle motor seizure. Unfortunately, this is a very difficult problem to fix, even for a pro. The good news, is that if it's a mirror (it does sound like it is), then you will only need to have 1 drive recovered.

The hard drive will need to be opened to have the repair attempted, so it's not something I'd advise for a novice.

[VladTheImpaler]

Do you know of any online resource that could assist me in such a task?

Or do you know if there are any professionals that can do this for a reasonable fee?

[CK]

You would require access to a cleanroom (or cleanbench) environment along with some specialized tools. Most importantly, you will need skill and knowledge. This really is not something for a newbie. There are plenty of pro's out there who wouldn't even touch a job like this. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it's a difficult job to fix.

There are pro's from all over the world on this forum who i'm sure can help you for a reasonable price. Where are you?

[VladTheImpaler]

I live in Norway.

[yonkas]

Hi.
I have a WD My Book Pro Edition 500gb. This unit has crashed and is making the clicking noises. About one per second, 6 times, after that it goes to idle. What does this mean? Can i save it by open the unit and connect the hard drive directly to a SATA-cable inside my computer...

Hope someone can help me on this.

/Jonas

[HDD Spaz]

What makes you think the clicking will stop if you remove the HDD. Don't waste your time. Send to a pro and be prepared to pay 1500 - 4000 USD if you want your data.

[BlackST]

Recovery for this issue starts from 1500 $.