Western Digital Raptor 150GB (WD1500ADFD) recovery possible?

[bmcbride1]

So here's what I'm dealing with. Computer was working fine. I shut it down normally and the next day when powering it up it can no longer find the HD to boot from. Looking in the BIOS, I see it's not detecting the HD any more. I put another drive in the computer and it detects and boots up just fine.

So, I hooked the "bad" Western Digital Raptor 150GB drive up via a USB - SATA adapter and it spins up and clicks once, but doesn't show up this way either.

I don't need the drive, but would like to get some of my family pictures off before trashing it.

Any suggestions on what the problem with this drive might be? It powers up but won't communicate. My first thought was that the board might be bad. I was only able to find one other drive on the web that has the same "2060-701384-002 REV P1" etched on the PCB.

I didn't notice anything noticably burnt or damaged. It hasn't been dropped or anything. Should I try just cleaning the PCB surface?

What are the odds that swapping the PCB would fix my problem?

Do I have any other options other than shipping it off to a data recovery company? The data I want is certainly not worth the $1000 - $1500 some of these places are quoting.

Here's a little more detail on the drive:

Western Digital 150GB
MDL :WD1500ADFD-00NLR1
DATE : 28 FEB 2006
DCM : HBCA2AB
LBA : 293046768
PWB : 2060-701384-002 REV P1
Sticker on PCB : 2061-701384-890 AC XW 3A09 YM0K 0 0005331 6335

Thank you for any help you could provide...

[Cleanroom]

99% sure it is not a board issue and it is a head issue. DIY is not an option if this is the case

[bmcbride1]

Ok, I tried it again this morning after cleaning the SATA connection on the drive. Now it's different. It won't spin up if the SATA cable is connected. If I unplug SATA and just plug in power, it spins up and stays spinning...

[Alexii]

all clicking raptors i ever dealt with always came down to heads. However the development about sata off = spin sata on = no spin is kinda strange. Hard to do remote diagnostics.

[bmcbride1]

Well that was through the external adapter. When I plug in into a computer with normal SATA and power, it spins up everytime and stays spinning, but still not detected by the BIOS. It doesn't stop or start over etc.

[jono-ats]

Heads often fail.

We recover quite a few of these. It's not a DIY recovery.

Jon

[bmcbride1]

If that's the case, what would you guys charge for something like this? It has not been tampered with. My next step is going to ship it to a recovery company. I am considering Gillware Inc...

[Cleanroom]

If that's the case, what would you guys charge for something like this? It has not been tampered with. My next step is going to ship it to a recovery company. I am considering Gillware Inc...

I would say expect it to cost between $800 to $1500 for a mechanical recovery

[jono-ats]

If that's the case, what would you guys charge for something like this? It has not been tampered with. My next step is going to ship it to a recovery company. I am considering Gillware Inc...

$649


Jon

[pcimage]

If that's the case, what would you guys charge for something like this? It has not been tampered with. My next step is going to ship it to a recovery company. I am considering Gillware Inc...

$649


Jon

$649 to recover a Raptor with head problems? Absolute bargain! Much cheapness!

[fzabkar]

$649 to recover a Raptor with head problems? Absolute bargain!

For once I agree. Even Scott Moulton's flat US$800 data recovery fee doesn't compare. ;-)

[bmcbride1]

I appreciate everyones help. I'll just have to figure out if I can rebuild most of the data from other sources (backups, e-mails, etc.) It may be a good price, but still above what I can budget at this time.