Hi guys im new here but ive been reading quite a couple of threads and everyone seems helpful and knowledgable here

Basically my external wd hdd failed on me.

I have never dropped the drive

The drive just refuses to spin up. Keep in mind it stops working after 2 days of buying it!!! How terrible of WD what a shit drive (sorry lol)

Anyways, I have reason to believe the PCB is faulty as I don't think its the actual drive itself

Here are some tech specs:

Actual drive inside closure: WD5000BMVW - 11AMCS2
Model of PCB: 2060-771761-001 REV P1

This drive doesn't have a USB to SATA connector, its all integrated therefore it being a native USB HDD

The drive is detected on computer, but not on My Computer
Its detected in Disk Management albeit with a capacity of 0MB (presumably because the drive isn't spinning up)

Can anyone help me?

I've ordered a new PCB and have a friend who can transfer the U12 chip on it.

But the thing is, this PCB has both U12 & U14, so do I need to transfer both of them?

Thanks

Please see to the pictures for a better idea

1) Just rule out PCB issue to ensure that is the problem indeed
2) Transfer U12 first, then test

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Hi, I got several quotes from various companies and people and most of them said its a PCB failure

And I will do U12 first thank you

Also some additional info:

When you plug it in the led light on the front just keeps blinking.

In normal operation, the LED light would stay constantly on and the drive spins up after 2 seconds

Quotes should have to do with price ranges and not the failure. As far as the the issue, the general thumb rule is that " no spin means it is a PCB issue", which I am sure it is what you heard. Sure, yes, this is the case quite often, but the "no spin" part could be wrong, there may be other simpler issues rather than PCB directly. Keep in mind that the failure fault explanations received are not based on an in-lab properly tested procedure.

Anyways.. best wishes.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Additional Information

After looking at all of this I can conclude the following:

PCB is faulty
Hard Drive spindle or whatever that makes it spin is dead

Am I right?

Listen to the drive by pressing your ear against the cover. If you can hear any sound, however slight, then the PCB is probably OK. Instead it could be a stiction fault (heads stuck to platters).

Alternatively, it could be that your USB port may not be able to supply the current during spin-up. In the latter case you could try a USB Y-cable. This will pick up power from two USB ports. This is more of a problem with USB 2.0 ports (500mA current limit), but not with USB 3.0 (900mA).

As for the chips, just transfer U12, if necessary. However, if your friend knows how to measure voltages, we could check the test points on the PCB. If you would like to do this, then upload a detailed photo.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hi thanks for the reply.

Right now, I cannot hear NOTHING absolutely from the drive. No vibration, no nothing.

The drive, when it was working, would vibrate and can hear a sound from far but right now theres no sound.

Also the light on the front of the enclosure is constantly blinking (not normal)

I think its an error code of some sort and I suspect the pcb is faulty. Either way the new pcb is arriving tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.

Its actually my friends dad who will be transferring the chip and i am only going to see him at his shop tomorrow.

Any advice on stuff to check on the pcb prior to replacement?

Thanks

Here is a detailed photo:

Hi solosdk,
Have you changed the PCB in this HD?! I search this article and cannot know what the final result is. Could you please share it?! Thank you!