It comes in external Verbatim USB 2.0 enclosure. It didn't have stable base even on flat surface, as one rubber leg is missing - shake?. How to diagnose these things which sudenly cuts access to all data and doesn't give a reason?

Enclosure voltages correct, now is moved to the older PC (Intel 865 SATA-150).
Slow initialisation (~60s), spins up without obnormal noise, ID in BIOS OK.

Tests in MHDD:

- Slow ID (60s), it doesn't come Ready. MHDD proceeds with Reset -> Recal - Ready in 30s
- EID is even slower, but disk returns Ready.
- In any attempt of reading sectors - immediate Abort
- There is no discrepancy in ID/EID to the data printed on the label
- According to the SMART raport the disk is in pristine condition; despite of fact that it fails on execution of SMART test.

Disk details:
WD10EAVS-00D7B0
Date: 09 OCT 2008, Thailand
DCM: HHRNHT2MBB
FW: 01.01A01 (from MHDD)

PCB: rev. 2060-701537-004 Rev. A
Sticker: 2061-701537-Q00 AD
MPU: Marvell 88i8845C-BHG2, SMOOTH L7251 2.2

PCB inspection reveals nothing except terrible looking corroded contacts. It seems there are silver plated, as oxidation layer is conducting well. Cleaned up anyway, no changes.

PCB is fine usually it's only appearance. The problem is most probably a degraded headstack as it is the common failure on these crap drives, or internal FW failure. With professional equipment it is possible to squeeze out data in safe way until it dies completely AND/OR fix the problem to get data, otherwise your last hope is to pry ot what is important IF and in the little time the drive becomes available.
Last option is to diagnose and fix the problem (physically) and get your data but it's definitely a pro job. Nothing else.

(at least this is a remote diagnose from the few elements given).

Did you mean "pry out" from you? It is some wrong assumption there. I would rather let it die with data on it, there is nothing important anyway, some bunch of movies brought out by friends from my homeland. I tried to address the matter to your heart, so you can give something from yourself. For those who do not understand what love means there is also term Karma. I saw couple Indian guys on the forum who can explain Karma for you. Whatever the motivation is; the true love or some (in my opinion) more selfish approach, we should continue do it, because it helps improving ourselves. You seem understand it well inside yourself - look - when you typed 'pry' you started misspelling.

It sounds spiritual, but in technical terms it works like that: in your profession your life depends on the chain of events: lies in marketing, greed of the management, faults in design, faults in the production process which turns into misfortune of others, so you must be very careful and should protect yourself from destruction force which is behind it and attaches to your heart with any piece of crappy hardware you receive. It is all about your accessing our energy, it is why I say it is a technical matter. If it finds it can play on your selfishness, it will benefit you more. It will be more and more bad families of hard drives on expense of customers. So I suggest to find the balance, give something from yourself. Otherwise you turn yourself into another secret society of monsters, similar to the witchcraft rings, they also depend on secrecy, destructive force and misfortune of others.

I know you had been completely overhealmed with the success of Seagate 7200.11 solution. But it is what you should do. Pick-up the most notorius culprint and publish solution. WD sales boost was strictly based on the competitors collapse and it didn't take long time to degradate quality below unacceptable level. We need solution for ordinary people even if it helps in 20% of cases.

Over to you BST or is silence golden?

If someone needs a ready solution, then develop it yourself over a lengthy time with money spent on resourses equipment and training.

If you want to take it to someone who already has done his, and you should pay for the time and work.

As for a solution to help 'ordinary people in 20% of cases' - this is not given because in my opinion 90% of these 20% of cases are probably diagnosed wrongly. And even if solution is given, secondary solutions are required to maintain stability and successfully and safely recover the data from repaired media.

there is much more involved than simply telling you a solution. This alone will not save your data as for the most part there are other complications.

I think you completely misunderstood BlackST. He was just saying without pro tools or help the best you can do in cases like this is to copy out the most important data in the little amount of time you can get the drive to work.

Nothing to do with secrets or karma or witchcraft or whatever.

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

I meant pry out from the drive not from me. About the rest, did you pay the drive with 1,25 pounds of Karma or with a certain amount in Rand or $ ? Just to know... If I say to my bank accountant or to the tax guys "here is some love for the VAT of the month" probably in a nanosecond I will hear the ambulance coming to get me to the nearest hospital.



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH.... It reminds me a 1982 ( oh yeah, 1982 !!) record : Patrick Cowley featuring Paul Parker (the ones of "right on target", yeah) : READ CAREFULLY.

Your observable performance
Shows a flaw somewhere
And you'd like to get away
From that video stare

Now your schedule slipped
And the budget's dipped
And you can't fall asleep at night
If production drops
If your sector flops

You'll be meeting dr. Terminus

Tech-no logical world
Tech-no-logical world
Mankind splendor spread out far and wide
But the flags of doom unfurled
On tech-no-logical world
On tech-no-logical world

Tech-no-logical world
Tech-no-logical world
Automatic satisfaction guaranteed
But the flags of doom unfurled
On tech-no-logical world
On tech-no-logical world

Now production 's status quo
Shows a breakdown scare
Dr. Terminus will know
Down to the last man

All our needs fulfilled
All our passion killed
Tell me what will become of us
If you show them a sign that you know your own mind

-You'll be meeting dr. Terminus-

Tech-no-logical world
Tech-no-logical world
Automatic satisfaction guaranteed
But the flags of doom unfurled
On tech-no-logical world
On tech-no-logical world

Your observable performance
Shows a flaw somewhere
And you'd like to get away
From that video stare

Now your shedule slipped
And the budget's dipped
And you can't fall asleep at night
If production drops
If your sector flops

-You'll be meeting dr. Terminus-

Tech-no-logical world
Tech-no-logical world
Communication network everywhere
But the flags of doom unfurled
On tech-no-logical world
On tech-no-logical world

Tech-no logical world
Tech-no-logical world
Mankind splendor spread out far and wide
But the flags of doom unfurled
On tech-no-logical world
On tech-no-logical world

ACTUAL, isn't it ?



In fact a lot of people come with their drives with still the terminal adapter attached because they made their drives FUBAR or data was garbled (NO I won't explain why the "solution" fails - and is when it FAILS that pro intervention IS mandatory) "oh I read on the NET, it should have worked" .



Is it an order ?



This is what YOU think : manufacturers prioduce what the market demands, 99% of drives are used as repository for silly stuff, porn and warez. Responsible people and pro users have backup strategies or countermeasures to mitigate the risk, so they TAKE AN ADVANTAGE of the low cost drives, instead (the storage cost per MB/GB decreases and the redundancy limits the risk). If people demand shit, why not ? Even Ferrari and BMW and Porsche make cars , they don't care if people are so silly to crash driving them (analogy : are HDDs meant to be used like a frisbee or used to test in scale bungee jumping from the desktop ? hmmmm.....).



It is called BACKUP and has already been invented , approx. in the same era of the wheel, hot water and methods to have fun and avoid pregnancy at the same time. Surprisingly, it works in 150% of the case (the backup, not condoms).
For the rest, there is another solution that hurts but seems effective, and is called DATA RECOVERY. Oh btw, WE who ?

[Serious mode ON] - I'm sure you will find someone who can help you. Nobody can do everything on his own.

Regards.

I smiled =) Read it and smiled =) Ty all.

Op for what its worth - IMHO BlackST's initial assessment was correct. U have a wonky head(s) most likely and proper diagnostics needed at this point. Non DIY solution for most ppl even if WD publish all there is to know about their drives.
And on another note - there is nothing wrong with asking for knowledge, so you are in ur right. Also there is nothing wrong with denying the request for said knowledge , so BlackST is in HIS right. U are both right. Universe will implode in 10 seconds

dick: Agreed - if someone has nothing to say, don't post. I saw this post.

drc: This is fine. In other words he said that I need pro tools or help??? I am happy with it. I don't have pro tools, but I might receive help. Unless you really meant "without pro tools nor help". This is probably not true at least in some cases, I hope is not mine.

BlackST: I accept that you meant "pry out from the drive". Your posting doesn't help, but at least it makes sense. Sorry for embarrassment, but it is not my fault. I think you should know that your spelling was initially interpreted as "pray to ... so the drive becomes available" - get figure! My comments on witchcraft remain valid. In other situation I wouldn't spell it out, but once it happened face the truth. You had been warned. Finally, I do understand logic not poetry.

Thank you guys for all posts, have fun. I found jura projectas WEB site, extracted scripts. Now I can read ROM and some firmware modules. It had been said on this forum that there were at least three methods to examine firmware of these drives without special tools. So you knew these things, now you say it cannot be done... I found two of three methods. I also read that in contrary to the advertising your expensive tools didn't work with ROYL till July or so; it could even destroy drive when used on ROYL.

I am busy now interpretting results, will post soon. It seems to be focusing on reconstructing ROM from the modules, WEB translators give only rough idea. I need other modules and description of critical modules. Checksum verification, etc. To extract modules I need module number and size. Not much! I don't have size. BTW, could you explain please what is a purpose of writing track -3 with the contents of track -170?