I know, I know... backup stupid! This WAS my backup drive and it died in the process of trying to restore! There's data in this drive I need. I don't want to do anything to kill it since if all fails, I'll shell out some $$ for recovery.

Dead WD5000AAKS-22TGA0 won't power up. It started with with my system getting a little too hot. The drive would sometimes power down and the BIOS would drop it. I would turn the computer off, wait 20min then power back up. This worked for a couple of days, until I got a bigger fan in my system that drastically lowered the temps. This was too late, however. The drive simply stopped powering up. The computer will turn on with it plugged in, so I assume there's no short. Tester shows D3 = ∞, D4 = ∞, R67 < 0.6Ω, R64 < 0.7Ω. I did find a new drive with the exact same model but as expected switching the boards didn't work. The drive did try to power up but then it stopped. Any suggestions? Is my only option to throw money I don't have at the problem? Any assistance is appreciated.

--j55

Well, you have to diagnose the problem accurately before you can address it.

I'm sure that your problem does not have a DOI solution. There is a chance that -- if it were a PCB issue -- you could transplant the MCU if you had the tools and experience. If not, don't even attempt it.

If it were a heads or software problem, prof. help is needed.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

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You could always try the freezer trick to see if it revives your drive

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Oddly enough, I had a similar issue with my WD5000AAKS. I was resigned to paying the money for recovery, but because it takes time to save that much, I put the drive in an anti-static bag in the drawer. A month later, I booted a rescue cd and was able to use ddrescue to copy an image to another drive less 3kB.

If you don't have the $1000 or more saved for recovery, might as well put it in a drawer for a while to save money for recovery then before bringing/sending it for recovery see if it works. If it does, you just saved $1000, if not you're no further behind.

Can anyone recommend a decent data recovery service provider in the Silicon Valley?