I have an old 200GB WD2000 EIDE HDD (WD2000JB-00GVA0, DCM: HSBACTJAA). It stopped working properly a year ago or so and I'm just getting around to try to fix it. On boot it spools up, goes click, click, click, pause and repeats this a few times and then seems to shut itself down. BIOS doesn't recognize it and neither will MHDD.

I'm an embedded systems engineer and probably have the tools and hardware necessary to diagnose the problem, but I don't know how. I'm trying to figure out if it's the heads or the PCB. Is there a low-level way to communicate directly with the PCB to try and discover the issue? I thought I've read about a "PSV mode" and a way to send AT commands or something, but haven't found a good how-to. I have the clip for the ROM chip to read/write the serial flash (like this: read-write-serial-flash-wdc-logic-boards-t7192.html).

If it's the heads then I'm going to build a clean box and try the swap, but I'd rather try to swap the PCB first if that's the problem. The data is not critical, just music mostly, and I'm not willing to pay for professional recovery so I'd like to try the recovery myself. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

PCB - 5%
Heads/ Platter damage - 95%

If there is no critical data on that drive, don't waste your time and money.

You can send your drive to companies which offer free diagnostics and rely on their diagnostics.

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Yeah, I might send it off to a pro to get the diagnostics done, but let's say I don't consider it a waste of time, but rather a learning experice. How do I go about communicating with the PCB to diagnose the problem? Or is it not as simple as connecting a few wires and sending a few AT commands? Thanks.

There is no simple answers to your questions.
You can buy some equipment to get access your PCB/Drive or build one on your own, which will require knowledge of the drive/s structures.

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Theoretically yes, practically no!
There is no quick and simple way to determine if it's heads or pcb. There are a few things you can do such as swapping the pcb as a process of elimination attempt, or you could measure the electronics on the pcb if your electronic skills are up to it. As you are comming from an embedded systems background I can understand the urge to want to communicate directly with the MCU, however as good as this sounds in theory, the practical application of it is a different story. Yes you can send some commands, but most commands that would be of interest are vendor specific, this means they are not accessible in the public domain. You could send some Ninja's over the WD and force them to hand over the commands, or you could spend some months or years on R&D. And even then I am not aware of any command that will tell you if the heads are damaged. If you want to go the DYI route, there are lots of posts in the forum on how to exchange pcb. Maybe you will get lucky. However, If it's not the pcb then your pretty much out of luck.

Ok, well, not what I wanted to hear, but maybe I'll send it out for a free diagnostic. Any recommendations on who to use? Thanks.

you simply plan to get the free diagnostic, then take the drive back and try things on your own or do you plan to possibly consider the price quoted by the lab? Based on your answer, it will determine if people on this forum will recommend a lab they like or a lab they dislike. It might also be useful to know where you are located.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Theres no such thing as free. haha

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I'd certainly consider the price. It will cost me about $100 anyway to get a similar drive for a PCB/head swap. I'm not sure how much these things cost, but anything over a couple hundred isn't worth the data. I'm in southern New England.

PCBs for this series are readily available and cheap. If I were you, I'd swap the PCB and then determine by differential diagnosis that it's either that or a heads or FW issue.

Sending the drive out for a free diagnostic if you have no intention of using a drive company's recovery services isn't playing nice . . . most will give you general info anyway.

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I don't know any reputable data recovery companies that will look at it, knowing that your value is less than $300. Definitely don't bother sending it in for the free assessment and wasting anybody's time.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Ok, thanks for all the info. I'll see if I can acquire a closely matched PCB and do the swap.

Hi,
Very often the pcb is damaged by an also damaged preamp on the headstack. So if you replace the pcb for a good one the new replacement will very likely be damaged as well.
As a starter you could use a meter on the pcb and check for short circuits accross components in the area close to the motor ic. Capacitors that shouldn't read short and the like.
The tricky part would then be to determine if the preamp itself is short/damaged or not.
Now if you isolate the preamp/motor connector from the pcb and then power up what happens then?

Hi,

I have exactly the same problem (but this time with a Western Digital WD1800BB-00DAA0), I posted a movie online: http://telin.ugent.be/~hluong/temp/harddisk.mpg (done in a clean room), I've already tried to swap the PCB with that of a 120Gb-version (WD1200) and the difference is that it doesn't shut down but keeps on clicking... But I also don't know what the problem is... Any help?