external WD My Book WD20EARX not working

[datarulestheworld]

Spildit

What about an HRT card? I see you use them. Would these be a good entry level card for me? My PC only has standard PCI slots too which wouldnt work with MRT.

[datarulestheworld]

I ran HDDSuperClone with destination NULL with the bad drive connected via the USB Board and with the drive connected directly to SATA. All the other settings were the default. I have attached both logs. In both instances the cloning failed pretty quickly, less than 30secs. But if I am reading the logs correctly, it seems that the USB connection made it a little further.

Yup, all aborts with no other status bits set, so you have no LBA access. I have read somewhere that on WD drives a bad head(s) can cause the translator not to load properly. You will definitely need a firmware tool to be able to read from the good heads. I am sure @Spildit is pointing you in the right direction.

It is interesting that it made it twice as far with the SCSI passthrough than the ATA passthrough, but that must be something in the program that I should look into. It should have stopped at the same spot for runaway skipping, but it allowed a second run with the SCSI passthrough.

I am happy to report that with MD Marvel I have been able to clear module 32 (RE-LO) which has updated the SMART attributes. Also I ran a head test against SA and it indeed showed a bad head #3.

Code:

2/9/2019 4:43:28 PM: The drive WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0                     Disk size 3907029168 - 2000Gb
2/9/2019 4:44:45 PM: P-list read successfully
2/9/2019 4:45:31 PM: Write tracks on head 0 - Ok
2/9/2019 4:45:36 PM: Read tracks on head 0 - Ok
2/9/2019 4:45:58 PM: Write tracks on head 1 - Ok
2/9/2019 4:46:02 PM: Read tracks on head 1 - Ok
2/9/2019 4:46:24 PM: Write tracks on head 2 - Ok
2/9/2019 4:46:28 PM: Read tracks on head 2 - Ok
2/9/2019 4:47:51 PM: Write tracks on head 3 - errors: 9, success: 0
2/9/2019 4:47:56 PM: The drive WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0                     Disk size 3907029168 - 2000Gb
2/9/2019 4:48:02 PM: P-list read successfully
2/9/2019 4:48:38 PM: Write tracks on head 4 - Ok
2/9/2019 4:48:42 PM: Read tracks on head 4 - Ok
2/9/2019 4:49:03 PM: Write tracks on head 5 - Ok
2/9/2019 4:49:07 PM: Read tracks on head 5 - Ok

So now my plan is to turn off head #3 and image/clone the drive. I would like to get some advise on how this is best done.
I was planning on editing the head map in ID0A by removing the broken head. Then rebooting the machine into HDDSuperClone Live CD and running an image of the drive. If this plans sounds right, then I have some questions on editing the heads:
1. I'm guessing this head map is stored in module 0A in ROM. If so, I should back it up and back up the entire ROM before messing with it. Right?
2. The head test and edit head map screens have different numbering for the heads. head test goes 0 to 5. But the edit head map goes 0,1,2,5,6,7. Am I correct to assume that the head test #3 head equals the edit head map #5 head? If not, how do I know which head to disable?

head test screen.JPG (23.11 KiB) Viewed 11029 times

edit head map screen.JPG (32.69 KiB) Viewed 11029 times

3. Any special options I need to enter into HDDSuperClone since I have disabled a head?

Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks again. The SAGA continues, but I see some light at the end of the tunnel.

[datarulestheworld]

Thanks for your advice once again. I have some amazing news to report. I edited the heads in RAM as shown here.

As you will see I didn't delete the head, but copied an existing head number over to the bad head slot. I then open Victoria and ran a scan and it successfully read LBA's until I stopped the scan.

I do like MD Marvel but I would have liked the cloning to also have the image option and the allow for USB drives. Could I replicate what I did in RAM to ROM and then run HDDSuperClone?

[datarulestheworld]

Spildit,

I see now why depoping the head wont work. Thanks.

I am curious what files are on this drive. Is there a way to read the directory structure after editing the head map in RAM? Just to see what files are on this drive? Would it read the files names from the bad head too?

[datarulestheworld]

Hi Spildit.


Why would my chances be low?

You can wait for WDMarvel 4 to be released. When it is released you can clone all the working heads data to another drive leaving the one that is not working and then you can use something like R-Studio to see if you can get the directory tree ... most likely you will not have a big deal of sucess ....

I guess in the meantime I will start my laminar cabinet project:
https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29602

Without PC-3000 how would I be able to know the microjogs value for my drive so that I can buy an appropriate donor? I can't find it in MD Marvel either.
I've read the donor should be within 300 microjogs.

Also what is a good place to purchase head combs for this drive.