Hello there.

I have a strange one (!) WD1600AAJS-00L7A0 01.03E01 reads up to 50 bad modules. Disk spins up (of course) and sounds fine. I have dumped ROM fine and can access SA fine (hence have all but those 50 or so unreadable modules).

I have attached the entire dump bellow (with ROM and dump log too) of the read modules, Atola shows the unread ones as *.m~ with zero byte size

Questions (pretty please;)

1. So many bad modules? Could it be heads despite a perfect spin up and almost OK SA access? i have dumped SA several times and always the same modules show bad. Could not be HS?
2. Does anyone have this drives modules please?
3. I have not tried SD or PCxxxx modules on Atola yet, but imagine renaming works?
4. How about PCB swap with correct ROM dump to new PCB?

Thanks for you help!

1. Yes it could be head
2. Not sure, I will check for you as soon as I am back from Lunch
3. I am not familiar with the Atola module structure, but I think I remeber reading that Atola is compatible with SD and Ace modules.
4. Possible, but depends on the issue

You should have two sets of modules, primary and secondary. Did you read the secondary modules?

Does Atola allow you to save the tracks?

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

I checked and I have the firmware, pm me your email and I will send it to you.

Quasimodo: big thanks! regarding second copy, not sure, in this case I only obtained copy 0. I will check later on a good similar disk to see if I get the backup too.

DRC: not too sure what you refer too as tracks. In an atola Dump i get: the rom, the modules, and a map of the modules (all is in the attachment in the original post). In what way is the track data useful?

Well, I guess the first question would be, does Atola have an option to ignore read errors on the modules, such that you can at least save the sectors that aren't bad?

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

No DRC, it does not. AFAIK Atola has advanced a lot as an imaging tool, but the firmware functionality seem pretty much as when I bought the pre-release version. I believe the FW part will be improved upon soon. (fingers crossed!)

In that case it may not be suitable for this task, depending on which mods are bad.

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

looking at your log, it appears to me that most modules are not unique and have little to do with data access, however there are a few translator related modules that have to be dealt with. As you should see in the provide FW, you have two copies of the modules one for head 0 and one for head 1. If you can read all modules from the second head this would help. As Drc said tracks would be nice to, but I guess that's not an option.

I am going to try a HSA swap first, drive is acting weird now, still spins up OK and the same modules still shown as bad, but it has started spinning down randomly.

Will report results here. In the meanwhile the points raised here are now listed in the atola support forum:

atola-full-ver-handling-disk-firmware-issues-requests-t16609.html

Thanks for all contributors! Respect.

Well, its not heads. Patient and donor swaped back and forth all was the same. It must be FW.

I am sure I have not done the right process, I have missed some steps, here is what I have done:
1. made FW backup of disk as received, 50 or so bad FW modules
2. found identical donor, written those modules to patient
3. when testing patient FW again all modules still verify fine (ie the original damage has not re-appeared)

BUT STILL HAVE THESE SYMPTOMS:

1. disk still spins up fine and stays spinning
2. disc ID's fine and all FW modules read and verify fine
3. If i try to access any sectors two things happen:
a. the disk spins down and quickly back up again once every few seconds
b. no data is read, just AMNF and UNC errors

SO, i think i was too impatient and copied the modules from donor to patient without any rebuiling or modification.

From what I have tried to learn, the first three modules, in bold, can not just be written back. I don't have PC3000, only atola, but with that I can read/write modules and I also have a nifty hex editor

Any ideas please PM's welcome.

Thanks!

LIST OF ORIGINALLY FAILED MODULES SINCE REPLACED FROM DONOR
mod0003.m'
'mod0004.m'
'mod002E.m'
'mod0038.m'
'mod0041.m'
'mod0042.m'
'mod0043.m'
'mod004A.m'
'mod004E.m'
'mod009C.m'
'mod00A1.m'
'mod00A2.m'
'mod00A6.m'
'mod00BD.m'
'mod00BE.m'
'mod00C1.m'
'mod00C3.m'
'mod00C5.m'
'mod00C7.m'
'mod00CA.m'
'mod00CC.m'
'mod00D1.m'
'mod00D5.m'
'mod00DB.m'
'mod00DC.m'
'mod00DF.m'
'mod00E0.m'
'mod00E6.m'
'mod00EE.m'
'mod00FE.m'
'mod0115.m'
'mod2000.m'
'mod2001.m'
'mod2002.m'
'mod2003.m'
'mod2004.m'
'mod2005.m'
'mod2006.m'
'mod2007.m'
'mod2016.m'
'mod2030.m'
'mod2031.m'
'mod2033.m'
'mod2035.m'
'mod2037.m'
'mod2042.m'
'mod2043.m'
'mod2046.m'
'mod2061.m'
'mod2064.m'
'mod2067.m'
'mod3401.m'
'mod3411.m'

i should maybe add above that I DO have a copy of the ROM data from both patient (before my module replacement and after) and from donor. Thanks.

Some of those modules are drive-specific and should not be replaced from a donor.

Since you have written over the original copies, there is now no chance of piecing the originals back together anymore. Game over, IMO.

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

Thanks for the response DRC. I still have all the original Modules and ROM. I can write those back to the drive and it will be as it was when I received it. As atola does FW changes the old sets are always backed up.

Could you point me to what modules are drive specific please? I guess 0004 and 002E.

Thanks!

I disagree though, since there were modules that were not completely readable. What is Atola's behavior for those? In the bad saved modules does it fill the unreadable sectors with a pattern or something?

For starters, 03 is the zone table.

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

Thanks again for the response DRC. Yes, I see your better point now. Atola reads these corrupt FW modules as 0 byte size files.

Is the any way to rebuild these modules from the info in ROM? This looks like it may make sense (but i don't get it fully):

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... l_rom.html.

That's only for the SA modules which are copies of the ROM modules... these aren't necessary in the SA for the drive to work

At the end of the day if you can't see the good sectors in the bad modules then I don't think you're going to be successful solving this issue with Atola.

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

Thanks DRC.

I am wondering how this case could have been handled better (with other tools). If I had PC3000 could the case have been solved?

The reason I ask is because if the important FW modules are already damaged, and therefore unreadable, how could better tools or procedures help this case?

Thanks again, I have learned a lot from this experience.

Maybe. At the least I think you would have had a better chance.

Sent PM.

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