@hiace90, it appears that C13, C18, C31 and C33 are the SATA coupling capacitors. You should be able to confirm that by checking for continuity with the SATA Tx/Rx pins using a multimeter.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

In fact you can see the same capacitors near the SATA connector here:
http://www.ledisquedur.com/578-thickbox ... ata-25.jpg

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Ok Great thank you !

Do you have an ideao about the point in red on my picture ? I have nothing but xose_maria seems to have something ?!

Thank you, I will try with removing the capacitors

Your red line is the signal ground. You may be able to get away without using it, but strictly speaking you should connect it to minimise noise.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Ok but I don't know if you can see on the picture but I don't have any point under the point 71. I'm ok to connect it but to what ? I just weld the wire to the green surface (this seems strange) ?!

Thank you

I removed the capacitors, it is still spinning up, the light is working but new I plug the drive on a computer (directly on the motherboard) nothing happen...
I'm afraid that I lose everything !

Same here. It's spinning and light working, but isnt being recognized

Hi
I've screwed E75 and E73, Do you know about any alternate points?
Also, if Elements have no encryption, changing the PCB would work?

Thx
pd. sorry about my poor english

Assuming you've done evrything correctly, then the problem must be internal to the drive. All you have done is to bypass the bridge IC in the slim hope that it was faulty.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hi!

I had the same problems, but removing the capacitors could access the disk contents. Before removing the capacitors, LED blinking all the time.

good luck

Hello.

I have the same problem. I have a WD 500GB Elements, the same model than you, i think. I plug in the usb port, the LED stay turn on, not blink. After one or two minutes, start blink, in Linux sometimes finish mount it and i can access the data but very, very slowly. I can recover some files and then it disconnect.

Can you confirm that is the same model than yours?

Thanks.

Sorry my bad english !!

Hi Xose_maria,

I think that i have the same drive and problem than you. I'm not an expert, so would you sell me your solution?

Thanks

Hello..

How about the WD smartware VCD, is it lost?

Dear all,
I have been trying to recover data from a broken WD hdd.
The pcb board is likely broken and I want to try and replace the pcb.
Fzabkar mentioned in another post that the chip U12 is needed on the good pcb board in order to access the data. I know this a very risky method.
Has any one success done it?
Thanks in advance

The 1st. thing u should be concern about is Encryption (2 copies) then think about the pcb

no DIY for this type in what so ever

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The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. By: Albert Einstein

What are the symptoms?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thank you for the responses.
Encryption (2 copies), do you mean U12 and U14 both?

The first symptoms showed on the hdd was, no recognizing in anyway, hdd spins, with steady LED light.

I have tried to solder it to a SATA connector with the removal of the capacitors. At first, the computer did detect a storage device, but failed to initialize it. (i only have a laptop, so i used a SATA-USB adapter). During the connecting sessions, LED did blink, but the hdd had some clicking sounds during the first 5 seconds, then it stops.
But now it is back to when i started, no recognition, hdd spins fine, and having steady LED light.

I am managing to get another HDD with same model, hoping the new board can at least detect a storage device. I guess I will decide whether proceed or not if it does detect successfully.
I haven't tried on metering the data outputs, will try it when I have time tonight.
Thank you

why WD5000BMVV pc does not recognize the driver.

Hello everyone,


I am having the same problem.... hdd is recognized but with 0 bytes (( I saw pinouts for SATA but my PCB is slightly different. Does anyone have pinouts for this one?

TNX

There are no SATA pins at the 12-pin header. Most of the pins are used to drive LED indicators or to receive input from pushbutton switches, at least on the more expensive models.

However, AIUI there are three pins (GND, Tx, Rx) at the end of the header that are used for serial (TTL RS232) communications. This serial port provides access to the System Area on the platters. A common fault on WD drives is firmware corruption. This is consistent with the "0 bytes" symptom, but there are other possible causes.

If it is indeed just a firmware problem, then the total DIY cost, including data recovery software, should be around US$150, for someone who has the requisite experience. I have yet to try this myself, but I'm convinced that it wouldn't be too difficult.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.