Hi All,
I have a small collection of WD5000KS drives and am wanting to do some head swapping. I understand most of the details necessary to swap the heads but am wondering about drive command control. I know that the Seagate 7200.11 and other drives have a serial port to control the drive at a very low level. Does WD have anything like this on their WD Caviar SE-16 type drives. It would appear that some of the details required to function are kept on the 8 pin SOIC E PROM. I do not know all the theory involved but it would seem that a sector by sector / head by head data recovery should be possibly even if the drive does not have good alignment head to head ( i.e. When one track sees good signals the others may not.) I am not up on the track spacing or many other details. I do have very good electronic test equipment and a good working knowledge of electronics. So the big question is "Who knows all the details?" Anyway any help would be appreciated.

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HWHacker
Smiles

Not going to happen, sorry

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Hum,
Ok, what is not going to happen? I am looking for info, please. Marvell IC 88I6545-TFJ1? Detail, details, anyone know any details?

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HWHacker
Smiles

Hey, these model drives are a pain even if you have the right equipment and knowledge. If you can figure out how to successfully swap heads and recover all of the data, you get my vote for guru / hacker extraordinaire.

You are not going to find the "how to" you are seeking on this forum. There is way too much to impart. So don't be disappointed.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

1) If in your "very good electronic test equipment" you have a DDA i.e. Agilent, LeCroy or similar w/differential probe capable of handling signals in the GHz range, you can do some testing.
2) Nobody can GIVE neither SELL you details on what you want because at least of NDAs that could give in return VERY BIG troubles (and is not worth it).
3) In ROM code, assuming you can CORRECTLY (ehm...ehm...) decode it, there's a small part of the firmware. The rest is scattered elsewhere.
4) We discovered on our own how to interact with drive, why can't you ?
5) It's not possible to set up a business for free.

Many people here know all the details you want but you won't get and they can't give you any help - the most you can get is useless - in your case - ATA commands specifications and some very basic publicly available info, nothing else. But you have another way to do what you want : invest approx. 10'000$ + support fee in HDD diag equipment and you'll get "some" documentation, then you can access part of the firmware and give an answer to your questions.
This won't give you hardware or very internal details, these are trade secrets. Live with it or discover it or buy it.

Thank you BlackST! I will post my progress.

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HWHacker
Smiles

I wonder if u started yet.... What are the odds of this... I need 2 drives WD5000KS-00MNB0 Apr and Oct of 2006... want to sell me some ? =)