Folks,

I have a Western Digital WD5000AAKS sata hard drive that is no longer recognized by the bios. I don't think at this point that it's worth my shelling out $1k to a data recovery place to get it repaired, but i might end up doing that. In the mean time i'd love some ideas about what more i can do to possibly recover the data on it.

Specs:

s/n: WCAS84302301
WD5000AAKS WD Caviar SE 16
MDL: WD5000AAKS-00YGA0
Date: 23 DEC 2007
DCM: DHNNHT2AAN
label on pcb: 2061-701477-900 AD

I'm running it in a linux pc (Gentoo linux 2.6.33.3-rt19 #2 SMP PREEMPT RT). This drive is my audio drive with about 14k lossless tracks on it. It is not a bootable drive.

A few days ago the bios recognized the drive but it took a few seconds more than it should have for it to be mounted during the mounting portion of the linux boot-up process. I wish i had cleared off another drive to back it up at that point, but i'm sure these halls echo with that sentiment all day.

When the computer starts up, the drive spins for about 30 seconds then stops spinning. While it's spinning it does not make any strange noises. The bios never recognizes the drives existence. It is not listed in /dev.

I have tried alternate power supplies, alternate cables, and alternate sata ports. I have hooked it up to a windows machine and i get the same behavior, and it's not found under My Computer. I have tried turning the drive to different positions and rebooting in case it was a physical problem inside the drive. No avail.

What else can i try?

I've read about finding a replacement PCB, but half pages i read on it, seem to indicate that it won't work with modern drives.

If i do try that, is it more important to match the entire drive model number or the entire PCB number on that label?

Any pointers on PCB replacement? I'm willing to throw a few hundred bucks at it just to save me the time of rearranging, tagging etc all this music that i've ripped over the years, never mind the money i would have to shell out to get some of my vinyl professionally mastered again. *sigh*

If i can just access the drive *once* i should be ok. I don't need to boot from it, i don't care if the system doesn't report the correct make/model for it (i've read that's a problem with a pcb swap), i just need to mount it for about 30 minutes and then it can burst into flames once i'm done with it.

Thanks for the help folks. Anything you can tell me will be appreciated at this point.

Bearcat

I would have liked to use a BMW series 7 for 1 year *once* , "strangely" I had no option than buying or renting

Forget replacement PCB because the symptoms lead to internal malfunction (80-90% head/s or service area, PCB possibility is 5% or less but I don't think so). It's not a DIY solution unless you want to study how WD drive work and buy all the gear to do it on your own (with 10'000 $ or so expense).

Hi Bearcat,

There is something wrong with your drive - something wrong.

If the drive could talk it would say : "Please take me to an expert, Please".

You could choose to listen, you could do anything, but if the drive could talk
it would say - "Please don't do that, Please don't do anything".
(Some drives might be less polite)

You could listen, then you might get your data.

I am not a guru, but from reading some of the posts from them, you will probably be able to hear faint clicks from your drive. This is the drive trying to read the Service Area of the drive; the "negative" sectors.

If it is doing this, it is 90/95/99% not the PCB. (depending on which post I go by)

Some of the things you can do yourself:

1. Remove the PCB with a T8 and clean the oxidation off of the contacts with a rubber eraser
2. Check the diodes and fuses with a multimeter.
3. For some reason I have had drives not be detected in the computer, but leaving them "rest" for a few days will bring them back to life for a brief time. Whether the time is long enough, depends on how much data you want to get off.

BTW, from what I've read, that drive is probably going to be more expensive than most in order to recover your data if you do go pro. Apparently the head stack is aligned with a screw through the lid of the drive. As soon as you open the lid, the heads are no longer aligned with the platter. (Although I'm sure with the number of WD failures, those that do this for a living have got a method. Still more of a PITA than other drives, tho'')

Based on the manufacture dates, and that the 65YGA0 is a 3x166 GB platter drive, you have a 3 platter drive.

If one of your heads is dead, and not the preamp or something else, the majority of the data could be read off prior to opening the drive.

Few ideas and confused....

As do all drives on startup



Not nessecarilly true.



1. This will not help with this problem
2. If diodes were bad HDD would usually not power
3. This may be true for certain PCB faults where chips do not work well when hot, but again not for this case.



This depends on the amount of DIY attempted and if top cover has been removed.



there are methods, but is still not an easy case to solve in comparison with other failures




this is partially true. with specialist hardware there is possibility to acces surfaces accessed with undamaged heads, but because of the method in which data is written, this is not always practical and often does not allow recovery of all important data.

@bearcatsandor - you need professional assistance with this one if data is important.

1. I was pointing out that if you can hear it seek, it is trying to read. If it is silent, the heads may not be moving at all.
2. The DIY items were things that aren't likely to fix it, but also aren't likely to break the drive (freezer, opening). If your car is continually popping out of gear, and you check the air filter, it isn't likely going to fix your problem, but you'd feel dumb if you brought it to the shop and that did.
3. Ref difficulty of WD: wd5000ys-clicks-three-times-and-spins-down-t15606.html#p103096

I agree that he most likely needs to go to a specialist and was trying to condense what had been said about other WD drives. (Typically heads, could be SA damage/firmware corruption or heads jammed on the ramp)

Without the physical drive we're all guessing...even if I did have the drive, I'd just be guessing

By break, if you mean worsen the condition of the disk then opening or placing in freezer does have the potential of causing more damage.

Any attempts at DIY repair, no matter how trivial, without the correct tools, or knowledge, has the potential of causing more damage.

@hddguy agree with 3 answer for Brainbug. it's very clear.


@BlackST. just few letters expression everything perfect
in case it's FW even head problem. please contact me by email or MSN if need help on it.

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data recovery service[/b]

I still wonder why people come here saying I want to DIM (do it myself) even on things that are PITA for us who see it everyday and expect applause.... and when applause doesn't come, they are also disappointed....

P.S. what about the epilogue : publicly or PM "I did what I found on the internet and my drive is bricked / I saw smoke... WHY ?!?" ?

I think people are too proud to admit they were wrong

I guess it's a matter of knowing the limits of your own ability and trying to do what you can then coming to grips with the fact that you're going to have to pay someone who can get it done. No one wants to pay for something when they think they can still do it themselves, especially geeks when it comes to their computer.

But it's either that or try something that is outside the limits of your own ability and killing the drive...I've done that one...It's how I learned to keep backups

I got a drive yesterday where the customer had attempted a "youtube solution" (his words) and took a difficult but recoverable case to completely destroyed.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Were you sorry ?

I understand that you don't want to spend $1000 on this recovery. The odds of you being able to do anything on your own with this drive is unlikely. You are more likely to take a common Western Digital drive issue that typically costs $500-$1000 (for my company, anyway) and make it a $1000-$2500, if recoverable at all.

As I've said before, most labs offer a free assessment. Get the assessment BEFORE you try DIY techniques. If the price it too high, get a second opinion, then try it yourself.

Luke

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Nope, we told him upfront it would be a $200 evaluation fee because he had messed with it and he agreed to that.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.