I have a WD2500JD that I diagnosed, thanks to this board, as having a burned motor controller. Found a matching donor board, had U12 professionally swapped, and installed the new board on the drive.

Now the drive makes a 'beeping' noise, which is coming from inside the drive. No spin up.

Any ideas? Am I at the end of the line, or should I try another board (I got this one off ebay, a perfect match, from a reputable seller, BUT I bought the board only, so I can't vouch for the drive it came off of as working.

It could have burned because the motor is seized. Upload an audio file.

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seized motor / stiction.

Agreed

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As Alexy and Sean said, Spindle seizure!

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Thanks for the analysis. How does this look for pro recovery? Is there a good chance for recovery with this type of problem, or does seized motor or stiction usually kill the data for good?

Normally, seized motor did't kill the data on the drive, there are fair chances of recovery from the drive, if there is no further damage to the media

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Here's an update:

I recieved another 'doner' drive today. Same model, different revision.

Original Dead Drive: WD2500JS-60NCB1 (Made April 2007) DCM HBBHNT2CHN
New Donor: WD2500JS-22NCB1 (Made January 2007) DCM HSBANT2AAB

Get this, for the heck of it I swapped logic board (but not the U12). NOW the drive spins up, clicks a few times, spins down, and repeats this a couple of times. Put the original replacement board back in (which has the correct U12), and same problem, drive doesn't spin up and makes a 'beeping' noise.

Does this indicate that the original replacement board might have been bad? Should I have the u12 moved onto this new board that is allowing the drive to spin up? Is spin up, click click click, spin down, normal behavior if the board is good but the U12 is wrong?

What should I do? Thanks for all your help and advice.

Yep, it's worth a shot if the new PCB spins up the drive. However if you ruin U12 in the process it'll be a very expensive mistake, so if your soldering skills aren't top-notch then get someone with good soldering skills to do it for you.

It certainly did sound like a seized drive "sight unseen".

After a successfull U12 swap and the drive still clicks, then you probably have bad preamp which is most certainly not DIY'able.

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There could be another problem on the original board. you just ruled out seized spindle so it could be under powered. one thing that you should know is that faults on electronics are caused by other elements malfunctioning causing the destination element to 'blow'.
You should use the new pcb - but it should be a proper match (identical revisions and chip manufaturers as possible)
then you need to know what other smds to transfer to the new pcb
this requires experience and knowledge of the architecture of the drive.
Its a job for the pros.

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I completely understand that troubleshooting sight unseen is difficult, and that certain symptoms can mimic other problems. I'm an experienced troubleshooter from a non HDD field, so I didn't like the fact I couldn't verify that the original donor board was working (even though the seller stated it was working).

Unlike the first board, I was able to verify the drive it came off of was working.

I didn't attempt to move U12 myself the first time, and I won't this time either. I'll have a pro do it Monday.

What I'm wondering now is, is click click click spin down, repeat a few times then spin down for good what would be expected to happen with a working PCB but mismatched U12? To put it another way, if you put a matching PCB from a working drive onto another working drive of the same type, but didn't switch U12's, is this how the drive would behave?

click click click spin down can mean allot of different things. One of them; mismatched chip like in your case.

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another one: original problem was fried pcb - dc section from the motor drive - that fried also the preamp. It gives same symptom.

If I understand correctly, since I didn't switch U12, the drive is doing what it should even if the preamp is good, which gives me a reason for hope.

I was surprised to hear the drive spin up with the second donor board, so at least it's not a frozen motor/sticktion.

I'll report back here after U12 is moved to the board that spins up the drive.

I had the U12 moved to the new donor board, and drive started up, is recognized, and I'm trying to get my files off asap. Now there's another problem though. Some files seem to be missing (maybe they were active during the crash). What software would you recommend to try and recover my files?


Thanks again for all your help. I wouldn't have gotten this far without it.

Well done.
Do you mean recover the files that are missing? You should first image your drive to a reliable one(imaging the empty parts too). Then there are allot of different programs available under the software section to recover any files. Allot of good software needs to be paid for. You can always download hirens boot and use some free tools from there which you could use. From the posts you do your research so you will know which you need.

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I'm trying to image with R-Studio, and getting many bad sectors (over one hour, and not even 1% done). I can read some files, not others, lots of hanging up, slow to respond, etc.

Should I continue trying to image, or should I stop now?

Possible damage on a platter/s.

Over an hour and less then 1% is not good at all.

Choice is your whether to stop or not, but I would recommend to use advanced imaging equipment.

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