Heya and good evening everyone!

Having browsed a million pages seeking for reliable information, I ended up here as this seemed the place to be.

My Western Digital WD5000AAKS-00TMA0 (500GB) harddrive suddenly stopped working. I used to have it as an internal harddrive but I bought an external case for it as I didnt have enough space inside my computer case anymore for a 6th drive. This harddrive is the first drive that came up in my computer. It has been "online" 24/7 from the fall of 2007 until this very sad and unfortunate day. I have never kept my computer "off" due to it being used in hosting an Open-Tibia Server.

To be exact, the drive "failed" about 2-3 hours ago.

Anyways, when I start the external case, the harddrive starts spinning but very slowly. It used to make way more noise but now its very silent, cant be recognized in BIOS or in Windows. Ive booted for about 50 times today and only 2 times did it appear in BIOS. Ive got 6 harddrives and all of them have Windows installed, but being such a lucky fella, this now a "dead" drive had the master boot record so I cant boot to ANY of these Windows operating systems anymore without getting the Windows 7 CD somewhere and fixing the boot options.

THE IMPORTANT PART WITH DETAILS:

When I start the drive, it does the normal "BRRZZZZ" as its going to start spinning and so it does. But it doesnt spin as fast as it used to, it seems to spin very slowly if Im correct. It doesnt make as much noise as it used to. After that I can hear about 5-6 VERY quiet clicks or so, the same type of sound as if something was being written on it. After that, it just keeps on spinning but doesnt appear in BIOS.

I read that these drives have had weird problems but I cant remember seeing anything exactly similar to my problem.

What do you professionals think it could be? Not enough power? Some part jammed inside?

I personally have 0 knowledge of how harddrives work for real, I do understand the very basics that everyone should but anything beyond Im not familiar with.

There were some insanely important files, a huge load of them actually. I was reading that recovering files with a professional service can cost thousands and its something Im not willing to pay as its far too much for my budget.

Anyways, if someone could help me out, give a few tips or even recommend some services that didnt cost thousands then I'd highly appreciate it.

If you got even the smallest tips for recovering the drive somehow, shoot a message and Ill try doing it if its something that I can actually do with my hands.

Thanks in advance!

Try a PCB & ROM swap. This has been discussed often here.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

I agree this one has been talked about and I would do as Jono Ats has suggested on this one.

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Iorana Haraharaini

the problem with PCB swap for this model is the lack of external ROM. If u look at the PCB ull note the position U12 is empty. You will have to get a DR company to reconstruct the ROM from the image of it on the SA of the drive , since that requires equipment. The good news is - the recovery in this case is not thousands but hundreds. And most likely very few of those dead presidents.
Hopefully it IS the case for you , since without hands-on diagnostics we can only speculate. Good luck.

Thanks for the tips guys! Ill be doing some more research on swapping PCB and ROM. Ill also look into professional data recovery services price ranges a bit more when it comes down to fixing my problem.

I read about one thing, though. Freezing the harddrive, is that some mumbojumbo nonsense or could it actually work? I can imagine that some professional must have tried it. I read very mixed reviews about it so I have no idea. I wouldnt wanna risk my drive, though, as it could break up if I froze it or something.

Anyways, time to look up that PCB stuff as its totally new to me.


Thanks once again for the tips!

Don't freeze it!

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www.datarecoveryne.com

DO NOT freeze it, it IS "mumbo jumbo"

Shouldn't be "too" expensive if it's "only" a PCB issue.

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Haha yeah, I thought it would be mumbo jumbo. Im glad I didnt try it since another thing happened.....

But a miracle that I never ever thought was possible has just happened. I tried plugging it inside the computer, tried booting about 170 times by my counts. Nothing helped.

I plugged it to the external case for one last time. I thought since I have so much important stuff there that I'd try restarting the external case a thousand times. No joke, I did it for god damn 846 times and all of a sudden it appeared on the harddrives list. It felt better than winning the lottery, not that Ive ever won the lottery but still you guys get the point. I started transferring files, I had around 150GB worth of important stuff there and so I began my work. After about 10 minutes the drive disappeared from the list and I expected the worst but this god damn soldier rose up from the ashes and came back to the harddrive list after 5 seconds from disappearing. Let the transferring continue. It disappeared about 10 more times in a 3 hour time that I was transferring the files but gladly I got all the files through. Now its all good. Even if the drive is completely dead and will probably never again work. It was worth restarting the device for over 1100 times in total to get these things back...I really wonder how it was even possible that it came back alive.

Now it is back in its grave, sleeping forever. Been a long ride that has come to an end. It took its last huge breath, starter spinning and gave me its everything. After that it was gone, gone forever in the heaven of harddrives. I feel like framing this piece of greatness on the wall for letting me take all my important files off of it.

Gotta love it, I never expected it to start once again but so it did. Sometimes miracles do happen.

I wish the best of luck for those who suffered similar sudden deaths of harddrives. Theres nothing better than your harddrive suddenly rising back from the dead, nothing better than that.

Now the harddrive will rest forever, never shall its spirit be disturbed again. It has deserved a forever resting place in my external case.

Thanks guys for the tips even if I got lucky and didnt have to use a DR service or replace PCB/ROM.