Hi all,
Recently my WD20EARX 2TB drive crashed and i am looking for ways on recovering the data without paying $1000 for pro recovery.

The drive is recognised by the BIOS and spins on startup, but on attempting to boot, no boot manager is found. The bios shows 0 bytes for all available drive info.

I have tried placing the drive in the freezer for a couple of hours (in a zip lock bag) but this did not fix anything. Does this sound like a problem that could be fixed by replacing the circuit board from an identical drive?

Thanks for any help you can give.

If the drive is showing 0 bytes then you most likely have a firmware issue. The firmware is loaded from the platters inside, so this could indicate a problem with the heads.

Firmware issue, bad sectors in the service area, head issues - as far as I'm concerned you need professional help with this drive if any of these are the cause.

Putting your drive in the freezer is doing nothing but harm - bad move

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Does it spin up and stay spinning? Or spin up and make a few quiet "ticks" and spin down again?

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OK, thanks anyway. I've already sent off for a couple of quotes from ISO certified HDD repairers, hopefully it won't hurt too much.

Freezing was worth a shot i guess (well, it was when i thought it was the circuit board). The number of times i've been able to get a computer working again with a little freezing surprises even me sometimes.

-and nope, just keeps on spinning like it normally would. I've had a few hard drives fail like that (with plenty of time to make sure everything was backed up), so i guess i got a little too cocky with this relatively new drive.

IMHO this sounds like a fw issue. But...






Care to kindly explain this in scientific terms? To me, freezing can only cause damage to electronic components.

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Freezing and heating are standard troubleshooting techniques for isolating thermal problems in electronic circuitry.

http://www.electrolube.com/docs/maintenance.asp

"Freezer sprays - for the identification of faulty components by rapidly cooling components to well below -50°C. Freezers are available in standard or minimal charging forms, enabling safe use on static sensitive components."

http://www.electrolube.com/docs/mainten ... asp?id=118
http://www.electrolube.com/docs/mainten ... asp?id=117
http://www.electrolube.com/docs/mainten ... asp?id=212

I suggest you add a can to your kit.

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Franc, I already have 3-4 of these. I use them to clean laptop fans that are stuck from dust.
I would never attempt to apply them to circuit, same way i would never freeze a motherboard to have it work again.
Sorry.

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You are in the minority.

Spray freezer is a standard tool that has been used by real (ie component level) technicians for decades. That's what it was designed for. I have routinely used it on minicomputer equipment costing several hundreds of thousands of dollars during my long career. In skilled hands, spray freezer is a safe and reliable tool that can very quickly isolate an otherwise difficult fault.

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Franc, you are very informative! I appreciate someone who is willing to provide information. You are a great resource to this forum! I hope you will continue to help those who are in need! You are a Robin Hood of sorts!!!

IMHO, "real" techs may use freeze spray, but my cans of R12 sit mostly unused when it comes to data recovery.

Except for ROM swaps, replacing fuses, transient protection devices, the occasional motor IC, etc., about the only time component-level troubleshooting and rework is done in the "real" world of hard drive DR is when subbing a replacement board isn't practical.

Working with USB thumb and solid-state drives is another matter in which component-level troubleshooting has "practical" application and freeze spray can be useful.

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