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
December 25th, 2020, 16:47
@maximus When I return to work I will hook those back up and check the noises.
@pcimage and fzabkar I can believe that the problem may be of reading the SA and/or bad heads...but ALL 7 drives may be a stretch? When I return to work I am going to do some board swap tests on the drives with a working board to see if anything changes.
December 26th, 2020, 19:21
@maximus good drive(security_locked=0) just spins up no beeps, security_locked=1 drive does "two fast beeps" and then spins on up.
@fzabkar I have one of these wd4005 that does not spin up, spins up with swapped board(have not tried security_locked=0 board yet). Anyways, if you do not mind...I might need some guidance on what to look for(diodes,etc...) on this one to get it spinning.
Now tests:
I just tried this on one wd4005, because I had a working one(security_locked=0) with HDDSuperTool.....
I moved board only(did not swap rom) from good board/drive to a security_locked=1 drive. Then ran HDDSuperTool on drive and it showed security_locked=1. Moved board back to good board/drive and it shows security_locked=0.
December 26th, 2020, 19:33
Does the drive which doesn't spin up still identify itself? If so, then it could be configured to Power Up In Standby (PUIS).
Otherwise check the TVS diodes and fuses near the SATA power connector.
December 26th, 2020, 20:03
good drive(security_locked=0) just spins up no beeps, security_locked=1 drive does "two fast beeps" and then spins on up.
That is very curious. So to combine the sounds from this thread and the other related thread, I will present this info. Please advise if this is correct or not.
The working drives spin up normally without any odd “beeps” and then some normal head movement can be heard.
The “locked” drives make the 2 “beeps” before (or during) spinning up, and then do not make any head movement noises.
If that is correct, then the “locked” drives know there is something wrong early on before even trying to perform any reads. I thought at first that not being able to read SA would be because of bad heads or media damage, but with this information the drive seems to know something is wrong before it even tries reading anything. It is odd that if it knows something is wrong that is still spins up and stays that way.
In any case, this is beyond me. I was only trying to do some logical deduction to help.
December 26th, 2020, 23:46
@maximus I am going to attach recordings of both drives booting. Security0 = security_locked=0, security1=security_locked=1.
@fzabkar I will check those and get back with you.
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- Sound recordings.rar
- (1.13 MiB) Downloaded 743 times
December 27th, 2020, 0:15
@fzabkar I am attaching 2 pics of the board(I got the pic from ebay). I attached one unaltered for you to use if you need to mark on it to show me anything.
The items circled in yellow...I am not familiar with these. What are they?
http://spritesmods.com/?art=hddhack&page=2 claims they are shock sensors. If so, could they be "tripped" and making the drive "lock?"
The blue squares....are they the TVS diodes that you are talking about?
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December 27th, 2020, 1:46
You have correctly identified the TVS diodes. The fuses are the smaller components immediately to the left.
Can you measure the resistance of each component on the 200 ohms range of your DMM?
As for the shock sensors, I don't know how the drive would behave if one were faulty.
FYI ...
Hard drive shock sensors:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=2637
December 27th, 2020, 2:44
Here is a thread involving similar PCBs:
https://ww.reddit.com/r/datarecovery/comments/kk5ts5/western_digital_14tbs_no_longer_showing_in/You might like to compare the measurements in that thread with your own, both on your good and bad PCBs.
December 27th, 2020, 7:46
The "beep" or "chirp" sounds from the locked drive are coming at the end of spinning up, which means it is probably the sound of the heads trying to read without success. So almost certainly bad heads or media damage.
December 27th, 2020, 14:16
@maximus Thank You for your help
@fzabkar my board is a little different than the one at reddit. I do not care to take the readings if you will mark my board up with the locations.
TVS and resistor test:
bad board
TVS: 133.4 and 133.1
r1(next to end of sata power connector) .1
r2(middle of sata power connector)open
good board
TVS: 125.8 and 127.3
r1(next to end of sata power connector) .1
r2(middle of sata power connector) .4
I am guessing that the r2 above should NOT be open. What worries me is that I am accustomed to when a resistor is open, there is usually a short somewhere.
December 27th, 2020, 15:04
Those are fuses, and yes, it is open.
If you follow that other thread, you may find that bridging the fuse (replacing it would be better) will recover the drive.
I have marked 3 voltage test points.
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- regs.jpg (104.5 KiB) Viewed 19367 times
December 27th, 2020, 15:56
Bad board
V1 132.2 (200 setting)
V2 183.3
V3 166.9
Good Board (I had to go to 2k setting)
V1 953
V2 450
V3 557
December 27th, 2020, 16:16
If the bad board gives similar results on the 2K setting, then I don't see a problem.
BTW, you should get a different result at V1 when you reverse the polarity of the probes. That's because the meter is seeing the resistance of the Schottky diode (LS4) nearby.
December 27th, 2020, 16:50
The board appears to have additional protection in the form of two load switches. I would think that all power would pass through these, so any overvoltage would kill them, or be contained by them.
MP5013EGJ, Monolithic Power, Programmable Current-Limit Switch with Over-Voltage Clamp and Slew Rate Control, 3V - 5.5Vin, 2A, 22V max, marking AWBy, TSOT23-8:
https://www.monolithicpower.com/en/documentview/productdocument/index/version/2/document_type/Datasheet/lang/en/sku/MP5013E/MP5014A ???, Monolithic Power, Programmable Current-Limit Switch with Over-Voltage Clamp and Slew Rate Control, 12V, marking ARPy, TSOT23-8:
https://www.monolithicpower.com/en/documentview/productdocument/index/version/2/document_type/Datasheet/lang/en/sku/MP5014A/Note that the 12V load switch has been incorrectly identified as an MP5014A, but I expect that it should be equivalent to the actual part, whatever it may be.
If either load switch is faulty, then it should be possible to bridge Vin and Vout, for data recovery purposes.
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- load_switches.jpg (70.11 KiB) Viewed 19323 times
December 28th, 2020, 10:02
@fzabkar I bridged the open resistor and the drive is spinning! Thank you for the help.
Would reading the rom chips(it has two I believe) with a CH341 reader/programmer help anyone decode these security_locked problems? It would take someone smarter than me to decipher the hex. I moved a board that was security_locked=1(did not move roms) to a working drive and it still showed security_locked=1. I know that may have been caused by not moving the roms and as a result not being able to access the SA.
December 28th, 2020, 13:33
The security locked drives appear to have internal faults rather than an ATA password.
I have written a tool to parse the ROMs, extract their modules, and compute their checksums. It is available at hddoracle.com.
December 28th, 2020, 14:35
A CH341 programmer operates at 3.3V. The latest flash memories require 1.8V, so you would need to buy an additional 1.8V adaptor.
BTW, most of the firmware is stored in a reserved System Area on the platters. That's where the password, if any, would be located.
HGST_ROM_parsing_tools.7z
http://www.hddoracle.com/download/file.php?id=9297The hard drive -- a computer-within-a-computer:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2600
December 28th, 2020, 16:13
Yes, I have the adapter. I am going to have to wait until I get my "new" Pomona 5250 soic 8 eeprom clip in. I have one of those "made in China" clips, but it is pretty much junk.
So do any of the hardware/software tools work with these drives such as PC-3000, MRT, dolphin, etc..?
December 28th, 2020, 16:24
br5409 wrote:So do any of the hardware/software tools work with these drives such as PC-3000, MRT, dolphin, etc..?
I don't believe so.
If you do mange to dump the ROMs, you might like to read this thread:
(Helium filled HGST) WD80EFZX-68UW8N0 ROM :
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2549
December 28th, 2020, 18:26
I am playing with these dives as a hobby, learning to maybe get into the drive recovery business. What are the drive recovery places doing to recover these drives if the hardware/software tools are not working? I do not have access to the forums of places like ACE, MRT, etc...to see if they work with these drives. I see that Western Digital has it's own drive recovery offering now...interesting way to make sure you use them, lol.
Interesting reading on the WD80EFZX-68UW8N....I just skimmed through it but will read in its entirety later. I have one of the WD80EFAX-68KNBN0 drives but I think it is giving the security_enabled=1 thing...I will test after my test pc is freed up.
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