My WD Caviar 307AA 30.7 GB was completely dead. No spinning of platters and the driver board got hot in one area. So I bought an identical drive on ebay and tried swapping the driver board. It did not power up. So I put it back in the original drive...and it did not power up at first. So I broke the seal and looked in the old and new drive--I did not touch anything in the old drive--just looked and then put the cover back on. I tried taking apart the new drive platters and things just to see if it was do-able and realized I can't do it---there are 2 platters. So I put everything back together. And then the driver board worked?!?! BUT....on both the new and old hard drive the read/write arm does the back and forth clicking. SO I bought and SECOND new hard drive..and tried swapping that driver board. My old drive does the clicking, but it does not do it on the new drive when I put it back in. Does the clicking have to do with me removing the seal on the old drive and now there is air circulating in there? What should I do? Thanks.

You tried to swap platters?!?! That's great...



Probably bin the drive, or expect to send it to a pro and pay extra $$$$$, if you need the data.

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I did NOT swap the platters--I just looked inside.

sufficient for doubling a quote...

Uh oh.

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I think this statement is what is most troubling to everyone here: I tried taking apart the new drive platters and things just to see if it was do-able and realized I can't do it. Clearly not a DIY procedure you have to have special tools and have done it quite a few times to get it correct.

The "new" drive is toast now the platters are out of alignment for good! The controller board is probably ok for a donor part. The controller board contains a specific rom chip and other settings that are specific to each hard drive. When you move another controller board over you loose those values and bring the ones from the donor drive. One method is to move the rom chip but you have to have skill's to un-solder and re-solder the chip to the donor board and have the equipment to sort our the SA = system area issues. At this point I think you have the drive spinning correct ? but the drive is just clicking ? It's possible it can be recovered however you may have caused damage too great to the drive to recover it by all the swapping etc you have done. Their is a method that has to be followed otherwise Fail ! At this point if you want it recovered then pack it all up and send it to a Data Recovery Company to get it recovered it its possible at this point. You passed up DIY a while back on this one.

So what would the steps be to DIY then? The drive does spin with the new board in there.

1. Open Trash bin
2. Insert Hard drive

What data recovery company would you suggest networks?