Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Drive Gets VERY BUSY by DONOR PCB

May 20th, 2014, 13:35

WD5000AAKS, the drive came with complete mess on PCB. The ROM was found dead as well as the PCB.

Tried to Regen ROM from SA, but whenever LOADER (ATA Mod from the same donor of the PCB) is loaded then drive gets VERY BUSY.

So, there is no way that I can access SA, even tried HOT SWAP but after MOTOR STARTS, drive gets VERY BUSY. So, any idea how to generate ROM on this one?

Re: Drive Gets VERY BUSY by DONOR PCB

May 20th, 2014, 14:53

More info according to customer:

1. The drive would be detected on BIOS, but no access to data area.
2. He gave the drive to someone who tried a ROM Swap to DONOR PCB (his understanding was PCB had issue), but during ROM Swap the tech guy burnt the ROM. Then the drive brough to me and customer explained details.

3. I found the PCB is in complete mess. Original ROM is dead.
4. Used a DONOR PCB, spins fine, no abnormal noise, drive comes READY. LOAD FROM HDD under LOW LEVEL ACCESS produces Error. With Loader drives goes to VERY BUSY Status. Even while HOT-SWAP on the go, the drive goes to VERY BUSY status immediately while SPIN UP command is used. Finally NO ACCESS to SA.

This would be a HEAD ISSUE. but this was not the first ISSUE according to customer explanation. That's why my first way is to REBUILD the ROM.

On the other hand, I am thinking to re-write several ROM versions and checking on this one by one.

Full HDD Model: WD5000AAKX-001CA0
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