Agreed, I've had technically aware people make enquiries who just want me to fix what they see as a 'minor' issue (e.g. firmware fault) and say they will extract the data, and consequently don't want to pay for the full recovery service, regardless of whether there might be secondary issues like bad sectors, let alone checking the integrity of the recovered data to ensure it is OK. Definitely not worth the hassle, as doing half the job will on lead to more hassle.

Many of these 'technically minded' clients appear to know exactly what is wrong and will even explain precisely how to carry out the repair. One can even be taken in by their apparent knowledge as they often sound so convincing. However it will usually transpire they are just making wild guesses and assumptions. Their real knowledge on the subject is likely to be minimal or even nil.

Back to the original post and going back to basics.....he says it appears in the bios but could he confirm he can see the drive model, serial number, firmware version and size correctly in either Victoria or Mhdd?

U can ship the boards to me ill reprogram them for you. Its a matter of curiosity now. Am i correct in my distance diagnostics or not. No charge but ur shipping both ways. However i do suggest asking anyone local to you first ( a data recovery shop ) U might end up paying the price of shipping both ways and save urself time. Also i hope u marked the original PCB and the donor one =)

Today we got in a Tornado WD3200AAJS with a bad PCB. It clicked and spun down.

We replaced and reprogrammed the PCB. (I guess I just used up my 5% for the week)

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

Shots from MHDD:

Well just got the reprogrammed board back from Alexii and happy to report that the drive is working again, no problem at all.

Really big thanks goes out to Alexii, he went out of his way to help out a stranger and deserves to be commended on being a very helpful person.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

Congratulations, and kudos to Alexii. I guess that's another 5%.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Happy that it worked. Backup Backup Backup =)
Cheers.

Hi Alexii,

I have the same exact drive with the same or similar problem. Luckily for me I had an identical drive so I swapped the PCBs and the bad drive worked again. I also tried the putting the bad PCB on the other drive to determine if it truly was the PCB and it was. My intention is not to sidetrack this thread and I already backed up the drive using the working PCB. so my questions are: Is there a way I can reprogram the board myself? I hate to just trash a 500GB drive just because the board needs to be reprogrammed. Also what might have caused the board to go into this state so I can avoid it in the future?

Thanks

Heya m8.
Reprogramming the bad board will not work in ur case , since its not the eeprom that is a culprit of the failure. I can only speculate at this point , but it seems to me that these Tornado boards run a bit too hot and smth happens with the electronics. Feels like the drives does not init itself properly ( translator gets FUBAR? )

In ur case congrats on the fact that u had an identical drive with ROM so close to the original one that it just worked. Its relatively rare occurrence
(however happens a lot with original raided drives , i bet they come out of the factory one after another and get paired with same defects and all =) )

To answer the question in short - No i dont know a DIY way of reprogramming the board , plus it will not help you anyway =))

Well, if you have 10'000 $ spared or so you can make DIY programming....

In a nutshell, without the right tooling (and knowing what to do) it is impossible.

Hi Alexii,

just came accross this board and have the same exact drive/model number along with the same exact problem. I have alot of important data on the drive that is sentimental as i was deployed in iraq and have
tons of pictures. I will pay however much it takes to get this drive back up to par.


Thanks- Josh

Just had a similar problem with mine - took the PCB off, cleaned the contacts, and its has worked!! Good as new (for the time being). Thanks guys!

Heya Josh. Considering that you are in states my suggestion will be to seek out someone closer to you =) I can suggest Jono-Ats as a most capable tech. If it is indeed the same problem - he can have a board reprogramed for you in no time and ill bet he will be resonable about the price.
Gl