Hi, I am totally new at this hard drive business. My 2TB WD Elements external HD was dropped and is now not being read by my mac. I have been quoted $1250-$3000 for Data Recovery. I have taken it to a local computer place who told me it was the circuit board that had failed and the only possible option beside (DR) is to match every possible number on the existing circuit board with another one and swap it over. After reading a lot of the posts here, that option does not seem so simple, and parts have to be swapped from the old board to the new board...? They did not explain any of that to me which means they are not the people to work with my HDD.

Can anybody help with a repairer in my area - Cairns, or if not anywhere in Queensland or Australia?

I have the drive out of the case so can give numbers of parts if required...
I bought a replacement 2TB WD Element which has the same numbers on the board but the old one says REV P2 and the new one is REV P1. But they also have a different cache amount?

Arghhhh! Please help.
alison

Unfortunately, if the drive was dropped then there's a very high chance that the PCB (circuit board) is not the problem.
The problem is most likely to do with the read/write heads that could be damaged, or the actual platter/s which hold your data, or the spindle motor, or a combination of the above.

What are the symptoms of the drive, does it make a buzzing sound when you try and power it up? Clicking/clunking? Or is it completely dead.

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Data Recovery Cape Town

No, the drive makes a normal sound no buzzing, clunking or whatever, the computer just doesn't see it.

If the drive stopped working after it was dropped, I would think there's a very small chance that the PCB is the problem. Unless, of course, the fall cracked the PCB or damaged a component on it. There are many far more sensitive and fragile elements in hard drive which would normally be damaged in a fall.

In the case where the PCB (and only the PCB) is faulty, then an option is to swap it with an identical board, as well as swapping the 'adaptive' info across to the new board. On WD drives, this is either stored in an 8-pin ROM chip at the U12 location, or it's embedded into the main controller chip, the one with the big 'M' on it. If your PCB has an 8-pin chip at U12 then it can be done as a DIY job, if the PCB is the only problem. If no U12, then you need specialised equipment.

If you power up the drive and connect it to a SATA port on a PC, is it seen in the BIOS? Sorry I can't talk in terms of a Mac as I know zero about them.

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Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

When you say that the drive is "now not being read by my mac", does the Mac know that a USB device is connected?

A common fault with WD's external drives is a physical connection problem at the micro-USB connector. In this case the simplest solution is to connect your patient drive to the USB-SATA bridge board in the donor's enclosure.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

have a look @ my BOLD comments here

my advice is the following:

compare both client hdd with the donor (working) when they both power ON, listen carefully, from the sound you might judge if the problem is Heads or any other

the other thing is the WD Elements (Initio Chip) read about it after solving the first step which is checking.

i do not think that when it falls the PCB is damaged its the media probably from inside

good luck

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Kuwait Data Recovery - UNIX GTC
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. By: Albert Einstein

Being realistic here the HDD was dropped and now it is more important than ever to ensure no further damage is caused, like for instance additional damage to HSA from repeated attempts to start spindle should the heads be parked incorrectly. Or damage to media surface if the HSA stand is in contact with platters after the drop.

Professional diagnostic is really the only real option available if the data is of any importance

Thank you to everyone for your advice. I think this is totally beyond my expertise - the noises from both the damaged and new drive sound the same to my untrained ears. Will have to sell a kidney and send the drive to a DR person.
I appreciate all your help on the matter. Your knowledge blows me away!
Cheers
alison