WD Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS Intermittent Issue

[snpiebh]

Hi all. I'm new on here. Looking for any help/direction on the issue I'm having with this drive.
This drive, more often than not, won't get recognized by the PC it is attached to. I can hear it spin up and make what appears normal operational noise but after about 10 seconds or so it spins down and goes quite and in Windows it shows up as "not initialized" with no volumes/partitions shown. There is no abnormal noise like loud clicking or dragging or scraping when it is spinning. Is this indicative of mechanical or PCB failure?
MDL: WD5000AAKS-00YGA0
DATE: 04 DEC 2007
DCM: DARNHT2CAB

PCB (etched on the board): 2060-701444-004 REV (just says "REV", no letter)
PCB (label): 2061-701444-700 AD XC 4Z08 4YZJ K 0001220 8221

[fzabkar]

Is this indicative of mechanical or PCB failure?

I believe that the PCB on that model was affected by "head mimic" faults, so it could be either.

[snpiebh]

Appreciate the input fzabkar. Can you expand on what "head mimic fault" is? Thanks

[fzabkar]

The MCU (Marvell 88i6745) in that model sometimes exhibits faults which have the same symptoms as head faults.

[snpiebh]

Oh ok, understood. I guess I'll see if I can fetch a cheap identical drive on ebay and swap the PCB.