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WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

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Sculan

Post subject: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: December 18th, 2021, 10:48

Joined: December 18th, 2021, 10:41
Posts: 10
Location: Germany

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to revive an old PC HDD drive.

The drive model as on the label is a Western Digital WD150EB-00BHF0 one.

When starting the computer it is identified as WD205EB-00BFH0 and the same is in the device manager of the Windows 2000 Professional SP 4 OS. Drive is set as Primary Slave with a Primary Master drives (which contains the OS).

So I can see the drive in the BIOS, including some data on cyclinders etc., I can see it in the device manager, but it isn't displayed in the Windows 2000 HDD management service.

I tried with diskpart, which is only showing me (correctly) a disk 0 (OS one) and a disk 2 (RAID 0 array of other disks). I can select disk 1 but any further commands runs empty (can't online it or anything else).

I can hear the drive spinning, so I assume it is a logic/software error? I could get my hands on a used and working WD150EB-00BFH0, so maybe I could just swap the electronics from the two drives?

Before anyone is asking: There isn't any critical data on the defect WD150EB, I'm just curious if I could get access to the data on the old drive :lol:

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you in advance!

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Sculan

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: December 21st, 2021, 8:55

Joined: December 18th, 2021, 10:41
Posts: 10
Location: Germany

Some additional information:

In the BIOS the drive is AUTO set to the following values, which are not fitting the drive.

Cylinders 1024
Head 240
Sector 63

CHS Capacity: 7927 MB
Maximum LBA Capacity: 8455 MB => which is wrong, as the drive should have around 15 GB.

PIO Mode ist set to 0 and UDMA is disabled. If I alter those settings manually to PIO 4 and UDMA 5 (or anything below that) the next POST just gives me an error like "Primary slave drive failed".

Additionally the failed drive is now reporting to be a WD205EB-00BFHX and not WD205EB-00BFH0 anymore ...

Further fault finding I have done:

- Fitted the drive to another UDMA capable PC, error is the same.
- Replaced PSU, error is the same.
- Replaced IDE-Cable, error is the same.
- Altering the failed drive to the secondary IDE-Channel as Master without slave present, error is the same.

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fzabkar

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: December 21st, 2021, 14:24

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 14945
Location: Australia

The "WD205EB-00BFHX" text string is present in the ROM on the PCB. Therefore I expect that the drive is having difficulty reading the firmware modules in the System Area on the platters.

In short I think the PCB is probably OK.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

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Sculan

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: December 21st, 2021, 15:43

Joined: December 18th, 2021, 10:41
Posts: 10
Location: Germany

Thank you for your answer!

If I understand you correctly, then the model identifier string in the ROM is not a "single one identifiying the drive" but more a list of models and what is reported to the BIOS is made up in cooperation with the SA modules on the platters?

Is there any chance for me to find out exactly where the error lies? On the PCB or in the SA modules? If the drive is having difficulties reading that SA on the platter could that be related to a failure in the read heads? Or does it mean the platters are damaged and there is no chance (well, without special forensics) to retrieve the data on it?

If the platters and the SA on them is still working, can I swap those to a working HDD of the same type?

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fzabkar

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: December 21st, 2021, 16:02

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 14945
Location: Australia

You would not swap the platters unless the spindle motor is seized.

The actual drive ID (serial number, model number, password, etc) is stored in module 0x42 in the SA.

Here is an example:

Code:

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000000  0B 12 00 70 42 30 31 30 30 3F 00 00 00 00 00 00  ...pB0100?......
00000010  00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 57 44 2D 57 4D 41 36 4B  ........WD-WMA6K  <-- serial number
00000020  32 32 33 31 33 32 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 3F  2231320........?
00000030  03 0A 80 7F 7F 00 AE 0F 06 0F 01 80 61 1F 0A 00  ..€...®....€a...
00000040  78 01 00 40 00 02 00 30 05 03 F8 01 64 32 00 3C  x..@...0..ø.d2.<
00000050  00 19 00 01 FE 01 64 04 32 00 32 68 00 05 19 0B  ....þ.d.2.2h....
00000060  5A 0F 10 0B 00 0A 15 06 15 08 04 06 02 08 01 00  Z...............
00000070  50 00 80 01 03 02 03 02 01 00 01 00 00 00 60 00  P.€...........`.
00000080  00 00 60 6D 04 00 05 00 07 01 00 00 00 00 1B 0B  ..`m............
00000090  00 04 00 00 32 02 20 01 28 00 03 14 10 00 04 00  ....2. .(.......
000000A0  03 00 00 03 01 01 00 05 03 0A 32 0C 01 00 00 14  ..........2.....
000000B0  80 00 20 00 0F 00 10 00 00 0F 88 97 00 00 00 03  €. .......ˆ—....
000000C0  00 00 A0 0E A2 0F B2 0E B2 0E 62 0C D0 D4 C4 C4  .. .¢.².².b.ÐÔÄÄ
000000D0  D4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  Ô...............
000000E0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
000000F0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
00000100  57 44 43 20 57 44 32 30 30 45 42 2D 31 31 42 48  WDC WD200EB-11BH  <-- model number
00000110  46 30 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  F0              
00000120  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00          ........
00000130  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
........
000001B0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
000001C0  57 44 43 57 44 43 57 44 43 57 44 43 57 44 43 57  WDCWDCWDCWDCWDCW  <-- password
000001D0  44 43 57 44 43 57 44 43 57 44 43 57 44 43 57 44  DCWDCWDCWDCWDCWD
000001E0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
000001F0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

This is the relevant section of the ROM:

Code:

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 10 11 12 13

0001E6B8                          D0 D0 D0 FF 43 6F 70 79 72 69 67 68          ÐÐÐÿCopyrigh
0001E6CC  74 20 32 30 30 30 20 57 44 43 31 35 2E 31 37 00 4D 27 57 44  t 2000 WDC15.17.M'WD
0001E6E0  43 20 57 44 31 30 32 45 42 2D 30 30 42 48 46 58 20 20 57 44  C WD102EB-00BHFX  WD
0001E6F4  43 20 57 44 32 30 35 45 42 2D 30 30 42 48 46 58 20 20 57 44  C WD205EB-00BHFX  WD
0001E708  43 20 57 44 58 58 58 58 58 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 57 44  C WDXXXXX         WD
0001E71C  43 20 58 58 58 58 58 58 58 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 57 44  C XXXXXXX         WD
0001E730  43 20 57 44 58 58 58 58 58 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 57 44  C WDXXXXX         WD
0001E744  43 20 57 44 58 58 58 58 58 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 5A FC  C WDXXXXX         Zü
0001E758  C8 F6 AE 52 70 FB 62 FC                                      Èö®Rpûbü

I'm not a data recovery professional, but I'm guessing there is a head fault.

They're in Russian, but maybe these old docs will provide some insight:

https://www.acelab.ru/dep.pc/otherproducts.php

I've written a primer which will hopefully help you understand the inner workings of the firmware.

The hard drive -- a computer-within-a-computer:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2600

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

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Sculan

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: December 21st, 2021, 16:39

Joined: December 18th, 2021, 10:41
Posts: 10
Location: Germany

Thank you for the links! (Nice work, btw).

So my next steps would be (as I got access to an identical drive quite cheap, cheap enough for doing some repair attempts as soon as I receive it):

- Hot Swap (?): Booting the old PC with the working drive, put it to hibernation, swap the old drive in and give it a shot? Well, I assume, I would be lucky, if my WD HDD stores its firmware in the PC RAM after booting... (just read about that option during my lecture)
- Replace PCB, if that is not working then replace the whole HSA?

Is there any possibility for me with a software tool to try to read the SA module from the defect WD drive? Without a PC-3000 device?

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fzabkar

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: December 21st, 2021, 17:00

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 14945
Location: Australia

I suggest you purchase a working drive and experiment by reading its firmware.

Take your time and read the following thread:

http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=1490&start=40

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

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fzabkar

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: December 21st, 2021, 17:25

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 14945
Location: Australia

If you are comfortable with Linux, you could adapt my MHDD/HRT scripts for HDDSuperTool.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

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Sculan

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: December 21st, 2021, 17:53

Joined: December 18th, 2021, 10:41
Posts: 10
Location: Germany

Thank you fzabkar!

Going to read through all the documents and links and will then have a look at the HDDSuperTool!

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Sculan

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: January 7th, 2022, 13:05

Joined: December 18th, 2021, 10:41
Posts: 10
Location: Germany

Short status update:

I received a working replacement drive and saved the firmware (with some help).

As fzabkar assumed, the PCB was not the issue. Switching the headstack allowed me to boot with the defunct drive, partitions were visible but all empty. I could access the drive from the Windows 2000 OS.

Unfortunately after the third boot the drive is not recognized anymore and not accessible, so I assume the drive is finally dead.

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Lardman

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: January 7th, 2022, 13:51

Joined: November 7th, 2020, 5:31
Posts: 928
Location: The_UK

Any visible damage on the platters? if not grab another donor and try again, assuming you were careful with the original swap you should be ok. This time instead of messing with Windows grab a copy of hddsuperclone and go straight to cloning the drive after the HSA swap - sounds like you were so close, you probably had a viable recovery.

_________________
Data Recovery Services in the UK.
https://www.usbrecovery.co.uk/

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Sculan

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: January 7th, 2022, 14:43

Joined: December 18th, 2021, 10:41
Posts: 10
Location: Germany

I did all the work in a clean box with gloves (sorry, don't know the english technical term for that), there is no visible damage on the platters of the first drive or the donor. No dust or anything also - plain clean.

The head stack assembly of the original drive is for sure defect, because independent of the drive you put it in the drive is starting to disco and the HSA is running wild clicking left and right between the maximum angles limited by that plastic device. The other HSA is - as far as I can judge it - working correctly as I you can see it going through the positions where the firmware should be stored, but it seems not to be able to read the firmware again.

What I don't understand is, why the drive stopped working after the third boot? The Victoria 524 tool is now reporting the HDD - if attached to the PC - as an Intenso device, but isn't able to read any data.

When the drive was working at the first boot I used Victoria for some speed and read tests. Those also failed after the drive had multiple "seek timeouts".

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fzabkar

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: January 7th, 2022, 14:50

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 14945
Location: Australia

If you put the donor heads back in the donor drive, does it still work?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

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Lardman

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: January 7th, 2022, 15:34

Joined: November 7th, 2020, 5:31
Posts: 928
Location: The_UK

Sculan wrote:

What I don't understand is, why the drive stopped working after the third boot?

Most likely there's damage to the platters you can't see and it killed the heads. If you can drop them under a scope and do a visual check for damage but as fzabkar suggests putting them back in the donor will confirm if they work or not.

_________________
Data Recovery Services in the UK.
https://www.usbrecovery.co.uk/

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Sculan

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: January 8th, 2022, 6:12

Joined: December 18th, 2021, 10:41
Posts: 10
Location: Germany

If I swap the HSA back to the donor, it still works - also if I swap the PCB of the defective HDD to the donor, the donor is working flawlessly. With only the eye I still can't see a difference between the working and the defective HSA ...

What makes me scratch my head is, why the defective HDD is not even reporting with the wrong ID to the BIOS anymore.

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fzabkar

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: January 8th, 2022, 13:59

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 14945
Location: Australia

If you isolate the HDA pads with a business card, does the patient then ID? If so, then I suspect that the patient may now be reading the SA but hanging up during this process.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

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Sculan

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: January 8th, 2022, 14:14

Joined: December 18th, 2021, 10:41
Posts: 10
Location: Germany

Sorry, you just found the end of my knowledge

I assume with HDA pads you mean those black plastic attachments on the arms of the HSA? Could you show me a picture or explain in more detail what I shall isolate? Thank you in advance!

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fzabkar

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: January 8th, 2022, 14:58

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 14945
Location: Australia

I'm suggesting that you stick a business card between the PCB and the "heads contacts":

https://hddscan.com/doc/images/hdd_main_parts/PCB1.jpg
https://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_from_inside.html

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

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Sculan

Post subject: Re: WD 150EB reported as WD205EB

Posted: January 8th, 2022, 16:17

Joined: December 18th, 2021, 10:41
Posts: 10
Location: Germany

Oh! Then I guessed right, but I did it with insulation tape, but that also not worked.

While exploring the HDD guru website I found the following from an article in 2006:

Quote:

What is to be done about Western Digital EB and BB?

Indeed, those drives are a sort of “evil” stuff. Their head stack axis is fixed by the lid, therefore if heads had been taken out it is impossible to reconstruct the original position of the fixing screw, and such drive hardly ever starts well after head stack replacement. However, there is one fortunate point — the BPI density is quite low for those drives, and this allows copying data from an open drive. Of course, while maintaining a good level of cleanness.

We have the heads swapped, then, with a screwdriver inserted into the axis, we are trying to find such position of the axis when the drive can recalibrate and give access to the data (Figure 25). Next, for some time (can be easily up to one hour) we will have to sit and hold the screwdriver in that position — but the job is worth it!

As my patient is an EB drive made in a comparable time frame (WD150EB vs WD200BB in the article) I suppose I should try the same procedure?

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