Wanted: WD Drive

[xzbit]

Hi All,

I'm after a drive to be used as a surrogate for the following drive:

Western Digital - WD 7500KMVV - 11BG7SO
R/N: 701675
DATE: 25 Sep 2010
DCM: HHBV2BBN
DCX: DB08G9R78
S/N: WX71A90D8584

Must have same Firm Ware.

Must Be with-in a couple of days of manufacture date. (the same day will be better)

I'm located in Australia

Thanks in advance!

[poehere]

What is original problem with your HDD. If you are planning head swap on this one beware this is head alignment issues. It is not a DIY job on this one. Might want to tell us your original problems and we can help you a little bit better on this one.

[xzbit]

What is original problem with your HDD. If you are planning head swap on this one beware this is head alignment issues. It is not a DIY job on this one. Might want to tell us your original problems and we can help you a little bit better on this one.

Hi,

Not 100% sure what is wrong with the HDD, a mate of mine is looking at it for me and he said that he suspects the "chipboard" might have been fried/ or something along those lines and said that I should get an identical HDD to use as a surrogate.

Do you know where I can source another identical HDD?

Thanks in advance.

[Vulcan]

Not 100% sure what is wrong with the HDD

Even though you don't know what is wrong with it, you have a chance of getting useful help, if you explain what symptoms the drive has e.g.: Does it spin-up or not? Is it from an external enclosure or not? If so, was the enclosure dropped or suffer any impact - or was an incorrect power-supply attached to it? If it's an internal disk drive, is the drive recognised correctly by the BIOS? Do you get disk-related errors in your OS (Windows or whatever) and, if so, what are they? What happened just before the "problem" started? That sort of information.

Depending on your answers, then you might not need a replacement donor disk drive.

[xzbit]

Even though you don't know what is wrong with it, you have a chance of getting useful help, if you explain what symptoms the drive has e.g.: Does it spin-up or not? Is it from an external enclosure or not? If so, was the enclosure dropped or suffer any impact - or was an incorrect power-supply attached to it? If it's an internal disk drive, is the drive recognised correctly by the BIOS? Do you get disk-related errors in your OS (Windows or whatever) and, if so, what are they? What happened just before the "problem" started? That sort of information.

Depending on your answers, then you might not need a replacement donor disk drive.

Hey Vulcan,

I'm not very technical, all I can determine is that the drive plugs in, it receives power and is recognised, but you can't access any of the data on the drive. Not sure if it can spin-up or not (how would I determine this?) Its in a factory WD enclosure, I don't believe the drive has been dropped or suffered any impact and only the supplied power cords were used. Its an external drive. No disc related errors from the OS. The last thing I can recall doing (can't be 100% sure of the events) but it was defragmented not long before it stopped working (i.e. I couldn't access the data on the drive).

Cheers,
Xzbit

[pclab]

Hi

If the disk is recognized, probably your problem is logical.
Is it still connected with the enclosure, or directly to the PC?

Not sure if it can spin-up or not (how would I determine this?)

It is recognized, right? Can't you ear it working?

[Vulcan]

Thanks to pclab for those suggestions/questions to the OP.

I'm not very technical

No worries, I understand - therefore perhaps your technical friend, who is working on your disk drive, could / should be answering these questions?

all I can determine is that the drive plugs in, it receives power and is recognised

Much depends on exactly what you mean by "recognised". Do you mean that the drive letter(s) for this external drive, are seen in "My Computer"? Or do you mean that you hear the USB double-beep recognition sound, but no drive letter(s) from this external drive appear in "My Computer"? Or do you mean something else?

For example, if the drive letter(s) from this external drive correctly appear under "My Computer" then a replacement drive PCB is unlikely to help you, as that would mean Windows is able to read the partition table.

There are other checks that could be made (e.g. looking to see if the physical drive is correctly listed, with the correct capacity, in "Computer Management" even if the drive letters are not listed in "My Computer"), but let's see what you can explain to the question above first.

but you can't access any of the data on the drive.
[...]
No disc related errors from the OS.

These 2 statements appear contradictory. If you are not able to access data on the drive, then you must be getting some kind of error message when you try to do that - surely?

Not sure if it can spin-up or not (how would I determine this?)

As pclab said, you need to listen to it, to hear whether the motor starts to spin and then spins at a constant speed. Most USB enclosures that I see will spin-up when they have input DC power and are attached to a running PC (i.e. after USB enumeration) - in other words, at the point when you say that the drive is "recognised" (see question above), then the drive should be spinning. Does it sound like it has always sounded in the past, or does it sound different and if so, in what way?

Its in a factory WD enclosure

Depending on the exact enclosure, that might complicate some recovery options.

I don't believe the drive has been dropped or suffered any impact
[...]
Its an external drive.
[...]
The last thing I can recall doing (can't be 100% sure of the events) but it was defragmented not long before it stopped working (i.e. I couldn't access the data on the drive).

Knowing the sequence of events leading up to a problem, can be very helpful for efficient troubleshooting - however just doing defragmentation shouldn't cause any problem.

and only the supplied power cords were used.

Good - although that reduces the chances of a specific type of easy fix.

a mate of mine is looking at it for me and he said that he suspects the "chipboard" might have been fried/ or something along those lines

Is there a specific reason for that diagnosis - for example, is there an obviously burned component?

[xzbit]

Thanks to pclab for those suggestions/questions to the OP.

I'm not very technical

No worries, I understand - therefore perhaps your technical friend, who is working on your disk drive, could / should be answering these questions?

all I can determine is that the drive plugs in, it receives power and is recognised

Much depends on exactly what you mean by "recognised". Do you mean that the drive letter(s) for this external drive, are seen in "My Computer"? Or do you mean that you hear the USB double-beep recognition sound, but no drive letter(s) from this external drive appear in "My Computer"? Or do you mean something else?

For example, if the drive letter(s) from this external drive correctly appear under "My Computer" then a replacement drive PCB is unlikely to help you, as that would mean Windows is able to read the partition table.

There are other checks that could be made (e.g. looking to see if the physical drive is correctly listed, with the correct capacity, in "Computer Management" even if the drive letters are not listed in "My Computer"), but let's see what you can explain to the question above first.

but you can't access any of the data on the drive.
[...]
No disc related errors from the OS.

These 2 statements appear contradictory. If you are not able to access data on the drive, then you must be getting some kind of error message when you try to do that - surely?

Not sure if it can spin-up or not (how would I determine this?)

As pclab said, you need to listen to it, to hear whether the motor starts to spin and then spins at a constant speed. Most USB enclosures that I see will spin-up when they have input DC power and are attached to a running PC (i.e. after USB enumeration) - in other words, at the point when you say that the drive is "recognised" (see question above), then the drive should be spinning. Does it sound like it has always sounded in the past, or does it sound different and if so, in what way?

Its in a factory WD enclosure

Depending on the exact enclosure, that might complicate some recovery options.

I don't believe the drive has been dropped or suffered any impact
[...]
Its an external drive.
[...]
The last thing I can recall doing (can't be 100% sure of the events) but it was defragmented not long before it stopped working (i.e. I couldn't access the data on the drive).

Knowing the sequence of events leading up to a problem, can be very helpful for efficient troubleshooting - however just doing defragmentation shouldn't cause any problem.

and only the supplied power cords were used.

Good - although that reduces the chances of a specific type of easy fix.

a mate of mine is looking at it for me and he said that he suspects the "chipboard" might have been fried/ or something along those lines

Is there a specific reason for that diagnosis - for example, is there an obviously burned component?

Thanks guys for your assistance.

My understanding is that he's has already tested for the issues you have mentioned. He has asked me to try and source a surrogate drive, as he's pretty busy. This is the first time I've had to look for a specific drive and thought someone on here might be able to point me in the right direction as to sourcing one. I've phoned WD and they're no help whatsoever.

I don't have that much contact with him and he currently has my drive, so a lot of these answers are coming from memory.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Xzbit

[Vulcan]

a lot of these answers are coming from memory.

Unfortunately I didn't see any answers to my latest questions, in your recent reply. However it seems that you aren't considering anything other than sourcing a very specific drive (which you are unlikely to be successful at doing), so I'll step-back from any further participation in this thread and let you carry on.

You might want to reconsider using the services of a pro, depending on the value of the data to you.