Doesn't sound like a full calibration noise to me.

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PC Image Data Recovery
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New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

I heard this sound so many times =) Its a Tornado being a Tornado =)

So here are pics of the PCB and foam.. any chance I can fix this myself?

I'm not a DR guy, but one thing you could try is to gently shine up the preamp contacts on the PCB with a soft white pencil eraser. Alternatively, you could use a cotton bud to apply a metal polish such as Brasso.

Materials changes mandated by RoHS have caused oxidation problems in both WD and Seagate drives. Hopefully your problem is as simple as a bad connection.

-Franc

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Does anyone else see oxidized contacts on the picture above?

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

No.

It can't hurt to clean the contacts I do it every time I remove a board just SOP I have been able to obtain access to flaky drives by just doing the contacts regardless of appearance. It happens

Exactly, and that holds true for mainframe boards costing $10K, and having gold, pre-RoHS contacts.

Just because a plated copper pad may appear shiny, this does not mean that the actual contact point is oxide free. I find that this is particularly true of battery contacts which tend to develop black spot oxidation.

The OP has been fortunate in that s/he has been able to receive a proper diagnosis from and experienced and knowledgable forum member. Other, less capable, DR firms may have misquoted several $K for an HDA repair. Perhaps the OP's luck may extend to a simple cleanup.

Good luck, anyway.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Is this a well documented fact or just your opinion?

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

It wasn't the contacts, for me, just a coincidence instead. It happens

So guys, thanks again for the help so far. I have another working WD5000AAKS-00TMA0 drive here. Would I be doing any damage by swapping the working PCB on the non-working drive and giving it a shot to see if it works, or could that damage both drives?

if i am correct in my assumption - u should be fine. Chances of it working are low however.

Just tried it.. the bad hd starts up without the spinning down anymore with the good PCB..but it still doesnt get recogized in windows to see the folder list. Too bad.

What's the next step?

Get a professional diagnose.

Find someone who will transfer the original flash contents to your donor PCB.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Can you be a little more specific with this "someone"? TV repair shop? Professional?

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Never heard of TV repair shops (if they still exist beside ASCs that handle mostly warranty only) with PC3000 in their instruments stock...

On this series of disk (WD5000AAKS-xxTMA0 & WD5000AAKS-xxYGA0) I've seen plenty where there's an issue with the ROM/controller chip. Disk spins up, becomes ready, as soon as any access is required to the drive it spins down then up again. Can access one LBA value at a time like this. The fix is to find a suitable donor PCB & regenerate the adaptive ROM. If you are lucky you might get a straight swap on the PCB and get full access, I have found this on working on matching drives in a RAID array. But more often than not rebuilding the ROM from the SA module is required. If you don't have suitable equipment for this contact a local data recovery company. You cannot do it yourself.

Regards,
John

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CDR - Manchester Data Recovery Services
0161 408 4857
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Usually it would cost the same as recover data AND the problem is elsewhere so this idea WON'T WORK.

If you come here with a file and a blank EEPROM /PROM I program a single chip for a small fee, the more you ask (i.e. use of BGA or special adapters or MCUs) the more the price skyrockets as it is obvious to be (except if you ask me to program a stock of all equal pieces for small production). The same happens in every lab I know, maybe the poorest / less developed parts of this world are an exception, but it is impossible to withstand the taxes/costs of THIS side of the world doing things for 5-10$ taxes paid.

If there is someone on this forum who is willing to provide this service for a nominal fee, now is a good opportunity to offer your services.

I shy away from this type of contracted service . . . often there are bad sectors or other complications.

It's my experience, after working in repairs for more than 20 years, that the cheapest and "most clever" clients require much more support than the folks who are willing to pay full price to get the job done right.

Life is too short . . .

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