WD passport WD20NMVW problem: tools to diagnose?

[jermy]

Already answered above by: lcoughey

It is not uncommon for these drives to have failing heads, which could be causing media damage.

And by digisupport:

+1 - if your drive has one or more broken heads, every minute its connected you risk to damage data.

And you even agreed

Thanks Luke. That's what I've been seeing in my research over the last few weeks (ungodly amount of videos, data recovery websites, forums, etc..) but it's good to hear from people that know more about this than I do.

Then you heard it again from pcimage:

Is the same drive from your other thread that you put a "P.S." that's it's clicking?

If so, then stop playing with it as you will cause more damage by letting it click.

Please seek pro assistance, it's not something you can do yourself. These beasts are tricky ones, even for a lot of data recovery places.

And from labtech:

If the drive clicks, that means the drive's mechanical component failed, therefore cannot read the firmware and so on. So, SMART cannot be read.

Need clean room type of service provided by a company specializing in data recovery.

And its still not enough ?
So, if IUIC everything said above is not what you wanna hear ?!
Then I'll give you what you wanna hear, and there you have it:
Everything said above is BS, you can connect the donor,a nd play around with the drive, until all your DATA will be grind to dust.
Happy now ?!

[digisupport]

This case developing like many, many others.

Data was not lost as the drive failed or when it was dropped.

Data was destroyed in 5 minutes by the user and / or well meaning tech people trying to help getting data back.

[npgraphicdesign]

And its still not enough ?
So, if IUIC everything said above is not what you wanna hear ?!
Then I'll give you what you wanna hear, and there you have it:
Everything said above is BS, you can connect the donor,a nd play around with the drive, until all your DATA will be grind to dust.
Happy now ?!

I'm simply asking questions so I can learn something, in addition to my own research. Don't be a jerk.

Last edited by npgraphicdesign on August 9th, 2016, 9:18, edited 1 time in total.

[npgraphicdesign]

If you are going to spend money on a replacement PCB, then purchase an equivalent SATA PCB and transfer the chip at U12 from patient to donor (assuming this chip exists). A straight PCB swap will most likely not work, even between two working drives. That's because each PCB contains unique, drive specific calibration data.

Contact hdd-parts.com and ask if they can help you. The cost will probably be US$50.

BTW, I believe that your drive's encryption is handled by the drive itself, not by the bridge IC. A photo of the PCB (component side) would help to verify this.

Thanks Fzabkar! I appreciate it.

[npgraphicdesign]

This case developing like many, many others.

Data was not lost as the drive failed or when it was dropped.

Data was destroyed in 5 minutes by the user and / or well meaning tech people trying to help getting data back.

Hah! Sounds like deja vu all over again. And again. And again.

Well, considering it is my drive, I can tell you with certainty that a. it hasn't left the desk where it sits in a long time, and that I personally haven't dropped throughout that time. Before that, I honestly don't remember. Do you think that dropping it a year or so ago could potentially cause the problem I'm having now so far down the road?

And right now, I'm reading, researching, and thinking of my options. I haven't decided to mess around with it, or open it up without a clean room, or stick it in a freezer and hope it starts working, etc etc etc. Simply trying to figure out my options, and which ones are worth it to pursue.

[drHDD]

Do you think that dropping it a year or so ago could potentially cause the problem I'm having now so far down the road?

I think it could. Drive could get slight media damage in unused area and it turns to the problem when drive started use this area or if it found problem in this area and started to try to remap bad sectors.

[npgraphicdesign]

Do you think that dropping it a year or so ago could potentially cause the problem I'm having now so far down the road?

I think it could. Drive could get slight media damage in unused area and it turns to the problem when drive started use this area or if it found problem in this area and started to try to remap bad sectors.

Makes sense...thanks drHDD!

[drHDD]

More likely something happened recently (you moved drive while it was working or something like this).

[npgraphicdesign]

More likely something happened recently (you moved drive while it was working or something like this).

Possibly. But every single time I clean my table, first thing I do is disconnect my hard drives and place them on another table away from the cleaning area. And I don't that too frequently so I definitely remember not dropping the drive. But...who knows???

[digisupport]

This case developing like many, many others.

Data was not lost as the drive failed or when it was dropped.

Data was destroyed in 5 minutes by the user and / or well meaning tech people trying to help getting data back.

Hah! Sounds like deja vu all over again. And again. And again.

Well, considering it is my drive, I can tell you with certainty that a. it hasn't left the desk where it sits in a long time, and that I personally haven't dropped throughout that time. Before that, I honestly don't remember. Do you think that dropping it a year or so ago could potentially cause the problem I'm having now so far down the road?

And right now, I'm reading, researching, and thinking of my options. I haven't decided to mess around with it, or open it up without a clean room, or stick it in a freezer and hope it starts working, etc etc etc. Simply trying to figure out my options, and which ones are worth it to pursue.

As you said, its your drive and also your decision what to do, np. My advise: Find a pro in your area, get your drive analyzed and you will know what's wrong.
Then you can still decide what to do. You are the only one who can validate if data is important or not.

[npgraphicdesign]

As you said, its your drive and also your decision what to do, np. My advise: Find a pro in your area, get your drive analyzed and you will know what's wrong.
Then you can still decide what to do. You are the only one who can validate if data is important or not.

Thanks digisupport. I appreciate it!

[npgraphicdesign]

So, I finally took the enclosure apart and snapped the photo of the PCB. Does something not look right, or is it just me?

Attachments

[labtech]

Looks normal.
Worried about the bit of oxidation you see on there? It is more or less common.

[npgraphicdesign]

Looks normal.
Worried about the bit of oxidation you see on there? It is more or less common.

Yeah, that's quite a bit of oxidation. But nothing looks burnt or damaged otherwise...

Attachments

[fzabkar]

BTW, I believe that your drive's encryption is handled by the drive itself, not by the bridge IC. A photo of the PCB (component side) would help to verify this.

The bridge IC is a JMS538S, so it appears that the bridge handles the encryption. Anyway, that's a moot point since your drive is clicking.

[pcimage]

Do you think that dropping it a year or so ago could potentially cause the problem I'm having now so far down the road?

I think it could. Drive could get slight media damage in unused area and it turns to the problem when drive started use this area or if it found problem in this area and started to try to remap bad sectors.

I agree with this, we have had several instances where we have asked the client if the drive had been dropped.

Of course they immediately say no, but when pressed they often admit that it "may" have been dropped sometime ago, but didn't think it would be relevant as it still worked afterwards.

[npgraphicdesign]

pcimage, how can you tell the ROM chip in the board above that I posed? Thanks!

[drHDD]

Probably you will laugh but it's U12.

[npgraphicdesign]

Probably you will laugh but it's U12.

No...I actually didn't laugh. My days of building prototype circuit boards made sure I didn't laugh.

So, if my PCB is bad indeed, then I should swap the ROM chip from my old drive onto the donor drive, eh? Reason why I ask is that years ago when I lost two identical hard drives, I found a third one with the same PCB. I swapped the PCB and it actually worked! I was able to salvage the data off the hard drives. But from what I've read, I got lucky, because just swapping PCBs from identical drives won't work most of the time.

[pcimage]

I am 99.99% certain that a PCB swap will be a fruitless waste of time and money.