WD4000 Mybook hard drive repair.. please help

[drc]

I would pay $500 to have the drive restored, however every site I have been too says "we will tell you how much after the fact" which means my data is held for ransom and the price is TBD. It seems an interesting business that can proceed this way. This is not the first WD4000KS to fail with a slow click, and I think I have a pretty standard problem (thanks to Western Digital), however the price quotes are not fixed.

So you want to call the doctor and say "my knee hurts, I want to know how much it is going to cost to fix it before I come in for a diagnostic appointment"

[msurgeon]

Let me be blunt: you're not going to get your drive recovered for $500 because the time and effort involved in recovering this type of drive with this particular problem is considerable. You're also not going to get anyone to "hold your hand" because no amount of hand holding will achieve success. If you persist in pursuing a DIY approach on this drive you will certainly gain experience but no data. I fear you're going to shop around until you find someone who'll agree to do it for $500; at that point, they will almost certainly fail and screw things up royally so that any future recovery becomes a much bigger deal.

[midnight1111]

Okay I bought another WD4000KS-00MNB0 dated March 2007 (mine is Aug 2006) and swapped out U12, put the drive in the computer and .... same thing, clicking and the BIOS didn't recognize the drive. So does this mean it is bad heads? I would still think the PCB would respond to the BIOS and have the drive.. The motor appears to spin and I don't hear any noises that would indicate a head crash. I assume that for hard drive software tools to work, the drive needs to be recognized by the BIOS..
Thx for pointers.
M-

[midnight1111]

The quotes from the hard drive recovery are in the high range 1500-2000. The maximum on the websites is $2000. So no matter what condition the hard drive is in, I am looking at the maximum or near the maximum.
M-

[drc]

This is all accurate. I would expect any company to charge near their single-drive maximum for a WD4/5000KS.

[pcimage]

Agreed, these are pretty much "worse case scenario" so expect a high quote.

[midnight1111]

Okay got a replacement PCB dated Mar 2007 and replace the U12 chip ... no luck. Next pay the big bucks