WD5000AAKS-22YGA0 Caviar SE16 -- Failure

[ZombieCrab]

Last night one of my internal hard drives began freezing up my computer. At the time I didn't realize what was causing the issue, after an hour or so I figured out what the problem was and am now faced with the decision of trying to fix it or pay someone else to.

Upon starting the computer, everything goes well until the "Windows Starting" screen where the Windows logo forms. Then it freezes up and the hard drive in question will act like it's trying to spin but stop fairly quickly. There are no clicks or clanking or otherwise harsh sounding noises. Just a light spinning sound every few seconds.

From what I've read, it seems the PCB is the most likely issue. However, after examining it (with my well trained eye) I didn't see any scorch marks, burns, cracks, scratches or anything that seemed like damage. Then again, what do I know?

Any help would be appreciated.

[drc]

This is not the system drive?

First step would be to remove it from the machine / stop trying to boot into windows

[ZombieCrab]

No, it's not. I have since removed it and quit trying to boot with it after 6 or 7 attempts. Now it lies on my desk, cold and silent.

[northwind]

Having the drive in question standing cold and silent on your desk, try to boot your machine, using just your system drive.
If successful, then your other drive is most likely experiencing some sort of pcb problem which stalls your entire system (very common).

[drc]

Next suggestion would be using MHDD or similar in DOS, not windows

[ZombieCrab]

I apologize, I didn't add that tidbit in my original post. That's exactly how it went down.

So now comes the fun part of determining what is actually wrong with the pcb I take it?

[drc]

No

If it is a PCB problem other than TVS or such there is no point in trying to fix it... just get a replacement and move the EEPROM. If there isn't one you will need pro data recovery

[ZombieCrab]

Hmm, from the look of things I am nowhere near educated enough in this realm to effectively use MHDD. At least not without a lot of reading and tinkering. If I must go that route, however, I guess I'll suck it up and try to learn something.

On the other hand, how likely is a replacement pcb to fix the issue? I'm not asking for absolutes, just best guess. And how similar to the faulty board does the replacement need to be? For example, the does the serial on the pcb have to match exactly? Or will any pcb from the same model HD work?

Appreciate the help so far, by the way.

[drc]

At this point you have no diagnosis beyond "windows won't start if the drive is connected" so we can't really say what the solution is. With regards to replacement PCB compatibility there are lots of threads on that topic

[fzabkar]

If it's a PCB fault, then here are a few cheap and not so cheap DIY options:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16966#p142635