WD portable drive can read system area but no sector access

[Taserx]

Ok I've hit it a few snags, when I insulate the heads and attach the SATA board to either drive, and attach the drive to the motherboard via SATA, XP won't boot (so I can't use WDR Demo to read or write the ROM) and Ubuntu gives errors on startup and then doesn't see the drive at all, and so neither will HDDSupertool.

When I put the SATA board on the BMVV and don't insulate the heads, the drive clicks and beeps. Can that be caused just because the rom is not native? When I reattach the USB board, the drive behaves just as it did to begin with.

So the only thing left I could try (if the clicking is caused by the non native rom) is your suggestion Maximus to adjust the HDDSupertool script and try using the USB/SATA bridge to write the rom. Otherwise there must actually be an issue with this SATA board, and I'll have to find a functioning drive with that same board, so that I can use WDR to write the rom.

[maximus]

Try applying power to the drive AFTER booting XP. WDR Demo should still be able to find it. If not, use --direct mode in HDDSuperTool, but you must apply power to the drive AFTER it boots.

[maximus]

So the only thing left I could try (if the clicking is caused by the non native rom) is your suggestion Maximus to adjust the HDDSupertool script and try using the USB/SATA bridge to write the rom.

My suggestion for script modification was to read the ROM through USB. I still say you should write connected via SATA. Modified script or not, writing via USB is dangerous, especially using an external adapter with unknown properties. And before even thinking about writing, you need to get a good verified read from it first.

[Taserx]

Try applying power to the drive AFTER booting XP. WDR Demo should still be able to find it. If not, use --direct mode in HDDSuperTool, but you must apply power to the drive AFTER it boots.

Hmm I've tried that with multiple good drives, with the heads insulated and without, and WDR does not respond any differently to when nothing is connected.

Do I need to set jumpers to have it work with the heads insulated?

[Taserx]

Actually ignore that post above, I got it working.

The read flash operation worked, though it created a few other 1kb files also. I've uploaded the rom below.

http://www.filedropper.com/satarom_1

[maximus]

You should be able to apply power after boot to a known good operational drive and see it become ready in WDR Demo. I just applied power to a good WD drive after boot and it showed in WDR and ROM could be easily read. Is your BIOS set to IDE mode? Spildit is more the expert on WDR Demo.

[maximus]

The ROM read is good, but it is still only 256KB and the USB is 512KB. I would say that is not a compatible board then as ROM is different size.

Code:

SATAROM.bin
Reading the rom file
processing rom
block=0x0 start=0x100 size=0x1898 checksum=0x3e1 calulated=0x3e1 (good)
block=0x1 start=0x199a size=0x1c8c checksum=0xf5 calulated=0xf5 (good)
block=0x2 start=0x3627 size=0x9720 checksum=0x75 calulated=0x75 (good)
block=0x3 start=0xcd48 size=0x4b4 checksum=0xf8 calulated=0xf8 (good)
block=0x4 start=0xd1fd size=0x254 checksum=0xc calulated=0xc (good)
block=0x5 start=0xd452 size=0x208 checksum=0xe9 calulated=0xe9 (good)
block=0x6 start=0xd65b size=0x1b580 checksum=0xce calulated=0xce (good)
block=0x7 start=0x28bdc size=0x11e1c checksum=0xaa calulated=0xaa (good)
finished processing blocks
ROM blocks appear to be good.
Searching for modules.
Directory module 0xb found, processing
0x3ffb2 ModID=0xa size=0x3e checksum=0x22e8bd20 calulated=0x22e8bd20 (good)
0x3fe63 ModID=0xb size=0x14f checksum=0xaacb887b calulated=0xaacb887b (good)
0x3fa63 ModID=0x30 size=0x400 checksum=0x46c8f74a calulated=0x46c8f74a (good)
0x3f5d5 ModID=0x47 size=0x400 checksum=0xa1a45f8e calulated=0xa1a45f8e (good)
0x3f9d5 ModID=0xd size=0x8e checksum=0xbf1ba729 calulated=0xbf1ba729 (good)
0x3f1d5 ModID=0x4f size=0x400 checksum=0x9067c27c calulated=0x9067c27c (good)
ModID=0x0 size=0x0 location=0x0
ModID=0x0 size=0x0 location=0x0
ModID=0x0 size=0x0 location=0x0
SA regions=0x6  region bitmap=0x3f
Region=0x0 Location=0x0 Size=0x40500
Region=0x1 Location=0x55c00 Size=0x40500
Region=0x2 Location=0xab800 Size=0x40500
Region=0x3 Location=0x1013f1 Size=0x40500
Region=0x4 Location=0x156ff1 Size=0x40500
Region=0x5 Location=0x1acbf1 Size=0x40500


[Taserx]

Dammit we were so close! Foiled just before the end (well hopefully). Ok I'll have to try to source a 701692 which should be compatible. Many thanks for your help getting me this far!

[Taserx]

Does this also mean that physically swapping the ROMs would fail too because the boards are not compatible?

[maximus]

I only based my assumption on the fact the the ROM dumps are different sizes. Someone with more knowledge might be able to answer if it could still be swapped with success.

There is also a slight possibility that both chips are 512k, but one is only using 256k. But that is pure speculation, and I would think very unlikely.

If you are daring, you could always try a crazy experiment by trying to write the larger rom to the sata board to see what happens. It should fail, but if it were to succeed you would then need to read it back to see if it was full size, and then to be safe write back original until the rom read could be fully verified. Just remember not to remove power from the board with wrong/bad/failed rom written to it! Write original back right away to keep the board alive. Just be aware that you would be trying this experiment at your own risk of bricking the rom chip currently on the sata board.

[Taserx]

Well the drive with the SATA board has failed heads anyway I'm pretty sure (and no needed data), so this crazy idea is worth a shot! I'll let you know how it goes.

[Taserx]

No such luck, it said Incorrect Flash Size. But I was able to rewrite the original rom back ok.

[fzabkar]

Module 32 appears to be damaged. There are no data after the 0x30 byte header.

Code:

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000000  52 4F 59 4C 01 00 30 00 32 00 20 00 1B 50 F5 4B  ROYL..0.2. ..PõK
00000010  30 30 31 37 30 30 30 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00170000........
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
00000030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
00000040  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

There should be indexes to the various data areas of the module.

For example ...

Code:

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000000  52 4F 59 4C 01 00 30 00 32 00 3C 00 54 1C 14 53  ROYL..0.2.<.T..S
00000010  30 30 31 37 30 30 30 30 08 14 31 00 00 00 00 00  00170000..1.....
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
00000030  A4 00 00 00 80 02 00 00 78 31 00 00 38 3D 00 00  ¤...€...x1..8=..
          ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^
          section #1  section #2  section #3  section #4

00000040  F8 48 00 00 74 60 00 00 F0 77 00 00 FF 06 00 00  øH..t`..ðw..ÿ...
          ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^
          section #5  section #6  section #7

00000050  EB 00 BD 0B 00 00 00 00 E0 05 BE 04 2E 00 F3 00  ë.½.....à.¾...ó.
00000060  2E 00 F3 00 00 00 00 00 DA 4E 8B 1D B8 48 42 E9  ..ó.....ÚN‹.¸HBé
00000070  86 C2 03 00 06 00 00 00 BD 0B 00 00 F6 5E 16 00  †Â......½...ö^..
00000080  67 40 F5 E9 00 00 00 02 C4 00 04 00 00 00 00 00  g@õé....Ä.......
00000090  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
000000A0  00 00 00 00                                      ....
                      ^^^^^
                      first data area at 0x000000A4

[fzabkar]

I extracted 32.rpm from this achive:

http://files.hddguru.com/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=WDC%20WD5000BMVV-11SXZS1-000600A4-WD-WXB1AA0J1543.rar&directory=PC-3000-UDMA%20Support/WDC%20Marvell%20family%20utility/Zephyr%202.5&

Code:

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000000  52 4F 59 4C 01 00 30 00 32 00 20 00 70 12 24 CC  ROYL..0.2. .p.$Ì
00000010  30 30 31 37 30 30 30 30 08 14 31 00 00 00 00 00  00170000..1.....
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
00000030  A4 00 00 00 20 01 00 00 40 1A 00 00 88 20 00 00  ¤... ...@...ˆ ..
00000040  D0 26 00 00 60 33 00 00 F0 3F 00 00 F9 02 00 00  Ð&..`3..ð?..ù...
00000050  3B 00 F9 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ;.ù.............
00000060  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 0D 7A 07 C8 C4 69 3A  ..........z.ÈÄi:
00000070  06 A7 02 00 02 00 00 00 F9 02 00 00 E9 8F 09 00  .§......ù...é...
00000080  0F 44 B6 3A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  .D¶:............
00000090  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
000000A0  00 00 00 00                                      ....

The data sections are clear.

Your ROM info:

WD5000BMVV-11SXZS1
F/W -- 01.01A01
4F version -- 0006002D

Attachments

32.rar

(207 Bytes) Downloaded 565 times

[maximus]

Module 32 appears to be damaged. There are no data after the 0x30 byte header.

I wonder if someone tried some manual version of the slow fix on this drive. Maybe module 02 should be checked as well to see if someone wiped an area of that out too...

[maximus]

Just to be safe, please upload module 02 so it can be checked. If it is found to be okay then there is some other issue such as translator or head problem. But if it was altered then it could be part of the problem.

[Taserx]

Here it is Mod02

http://www.filedropper.com/mod02

[maximus]

Module 02 does not have any visual areas wiped, maybe it had the single byte slow fix applied. Just curious, did you run the slow fix on it?

I think you need to get a compatible SATA board, and then you can get further help by someone such as Spildit with help using tools such as WDR and WD Marvel. Or seek professional recovery.

[maximus]

Does anyone know if this is an SED drive?

With module 02 having the "slow" byte clear, and with module 32 looking like it could have been aggressively cleared, one could speculate that this drive has been worked on before. But that is pure speculation...

Anyway, a SATA board is the next step for sure.

[Taserx]

I'm pretty sure to begin with I tried the slow fix in HDDSupertool but only one of the patched modules would write successfully. I got some advice that physically swapping the ROM chips will work so that's what I'll do next.

Do drives often click when used with a different board and without the ROM changed? There's still a slight chance the SATA board has issues, as its drive has problems of its own. I'm pretty sure they're head related though I can't rule out the board entirely. Though I'll still swap the ROM and let you know how it goes.