OMG, you are talking all along about HOT swap, and i don't know why, but i was thinking you are talking about HEAD swap

BIG PROBLEM with people buying and using PC-3000, MRT PRO, etc nowaday is the LACK OF UNDERSTANDING on how the BASIC HARD DRIVEs work.

Best thing is to buy very old tools like PC3K ISA, HRT, etc and learn with very old IDE drives. That way you will get the feeling on how stuff works. Little bit like using DOS computer and then move to windows instead of starting by windows 10 without ever using an old computer.

When you get the basic idea about how very old hard drives used to work you move to modern drives that are way more complex.

On your case i would start by attempting to copy module 31 - P-List from patient to donor and make sure patient doesn't have defects on g-list. If it have copy G-List to donor as well. If it doesn't clear donor G-List.

Be aware that for your specific model of drive further modules might be needed to copy out from damaged drive to hot-swap donor in order for this to work.Better confirm with ACE or with some expert that have more knowledge with that specific WD drive model to see if any aditional modules are required for SMART HOT SWAP.

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Yeah, big problem is, that the original PCB (and ROM) is gone...

Many thx for your useful tips

i'll read everything again a few times when i'm not tired.

is it ?
one of the simplest things to fix especially now that you have a donor drive

Looks like he have done both.

HEAD SWAP and because the drive still didn't work HOT SWAP.

I'm assuming he then used DE to CLONE/IMAGE without VIRTUAL TRANSLATOR taking intro account the original defects of the patient drive, so the defect tables in use are the ones from the drive used for HOT SWAP.

I would start by checking all modules on patient and see if it's possible to fix damaged modules in order for the drive to properly work again without the need of HOT SWAP. If that can't be done then SMART HOT SWAP or some sort of virtual teranslator taking intro account P-List/translator of the original damaged drive is necessary otherwise the clone will indeed have DATA but the sector numbers at Logic Block Adress level (LBA) will not match the place where they should be !!!!

EXAMPLE :

1B2BBB3BB4BB5BB6BB7 - ORIGINAL TRANSLATOR
A.B.....C...D...E...F...G
12BBB3BB4BB56BB7BBB - DONOR TRANSLATOR

When you DO HOT SWAP with donor translator and you request LBA 1 you get A as on original translator. If you request LBA 2 you got defect (.) On LBA 6 you get data (E) instead of (F) as you should on original translation model. On LBA 7 you get F instead of G and so on ... Possibilities are unlimited so .... you are completly screwed unless you either do a SMART HOT SWAP or you somehow manage to use the original translator / defect lists on the DE complex to directly translate that to internal C/H/S and get correct position of the sector.

If data is out of the correct order even MFT will point to wrong data and you will get all currupted data no matter what !!!

This is a waste of time !!!

Can't believe that you got help from ACE and no-one tought about this up untill now after wasting so many time cloning !!!

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Very easy to fix if you have donor PCB and donor drive.

Just read SA on patient drive and re-gen ROM. PC-3000 UDMA WD Marvell tool pdf english manual explains that very well. I also had posted about several diferent drives on how to recover ROM.

You can even do that by hand with cheap WDR or WDMarvell. PC3K does that with one click.

http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=761

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I JUST HOPE that you are not the one dealing with the drive from this un-lucky user ...

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32381

Too many things match ...

The fact that the user was informed that ROM was needed to get data ....

The fact that something was attempted on the drive to get data ....

Interesting

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Also read :

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27673

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no, it's not
the OP here is from austria and talking about a much older drive WD3200JB
over there the OP is from the arkansas USA (DR guy is from atlanta ga USA) and the issue is with WD5000AAKX

Ok !!!

Just "funny" in some ways that this is happening at the same time.

2 cases of data recovery pros claiming that it's a BIG PROBLEM to loose the ROM code on the WD drives like if it was a Seagate F3 or Toshiba ...

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Thx alot again, i've to learn alot on DR, i know.. - but nobody starts with knowing everything.

For each new case i'm asking the ACE support before i start, so i'm a little bit confused, that they did not told me that...

But OK, maybe they think i did such simple things before...

do the patient and donor have the same FW ver . ?

No, did not find an exactly matching drive... but i got so much info for now, i think it's enough - thx

so... if you don't/want more help on this one, the only thing left to say is i wish you good luck, hope you'll get the data recovered soon.

i just mean, that i have to test and read all the other things before

Ok, for your case i would :

1 - Attempt ROM adaptation by REPLACING the PCB with donnor PCB, check to see it it's possible to gain access to SA. If so dump the SA/Platter modules and check for ROM copy on them. I think your drive is older then ROYL so it should be simple to use module/s on SA to re-create your ROM file.

2 - If that it's not possible just do the Hot-Swap as you have done and READ SA on the patient. Now without HOT-SWAP read donor firmware/SA and write module 31 (translator) from patient to donor. No do the HOT SWAP again. For your drive i think writing module 31 should be enough as it's an old drive. Try to clone. You might still have slow downs due to adaptive incompatibility, etc but if you can get the ROM regenerated or if you have damage to critical modules that you can't fix or replace then this might be an alternative as well.

Please let us know if you need further help.

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If you are able to read all of the SA on the patient drive you can as well post here the modules in BIN format (compress it with zip or rar) so we can create the ROM file for you.

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i'll love you for that if it works, i'll test it next days, and buy you a coffee
bitcoin address is actual?

Sure, Bitcoin address is still valid !

Hopefully ROM regeneration will work and will make your life way easier...

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now a read a little bit for rom rebuilding...

and it don't seems that it's possible for this disk...

http://blog.acelaboratory.com/pc-3000-f ... l-rom.html

It's a Caviar SE disk... with such a U12 IC...